Witch Challenge - Cards
Crafting Divination: Designing and Displaying a Personal Card Deck
The Magician (Tarot) AI generated
Things to ask, think about, and do
Why do this? I do it because it is fun and I connect almost automatically to each deck I make (with one exception). To date, I have 13 decks: 4 Tarot; 6 Lenormand; 1 Rune; 1 Ogham; 1 Farce deck that I donât connect to but laugh at. Example of a Farce card:
AI generated and modified
Isnât i t hard? Depends on how far you want to take it and whether you make the images yourself, adapt other images (AI helps that), want to have them printed or want to select them electronically. It is not hard although getting the first deck started⌠and finished⌠is challenging. It took me the better of three weeks. Smaller decks (like Lenormand) now only take a day or so.
Isnât easier to just buy a deck? Sure, do that too! In fact, I have lots of decks I have purchased but I only connect to a very few. Those few (actually, just two) I digitized since I really like using the computer instead of digging out the cards, making space, shuffling and drawing. Examining and understanding of each card is a by-product of making the card⌠that makes connecting to it almost a sure thing.
What about the images? Iâm not an artist! Neither am I although I can get my OCD working and come up with good stuff (occasionally). There are free images for just about any deck idea. Whole decks can be made just by bugging an AI until you get a picture you want. You just need to have the ability to download and do basic edits with a paint program.
Can you change this image: (AI)
To this one? (AI modified)
If you can do that, buckle up and make yourself a digital deck! If you canât, there are still options! (read on and see end of post)
What do I do first? Decide which type of deck you want to do. Tarot, Lenormand, Rune, or whatever. Then decide how you want to portray it. For Tarot, do you want RWS (classical or classical slightly modified, or ???). Then, as with any project, focus on the first part of the deck and then on the first card. Make sure you establish a theme â Dark? â Fantasy? â Traditional? â Ultra simple? â Mythological? â Pop Culture? - Cats? - You want the theme to be consistent as possible but not get in the way. I have purchased decks that claimed to be themed but, after getting the deck, found the âThemeâ was ignored for all but the Major Arcana or was so heavily done that it overrode the purpose of each card (skeletons on every card in threatening poses destroys connection to anything positive)
I need inspiration! How do I decide on theme, card style, preferences in general? Dreams (nope for me⌠my dreams would scare people). Rituals â did you do something in your practice that gave you an AHA! moment? Mythology â there is so much in this! The AIs will gladly produce mythology characters in different situations. Personal experiences â my favorite area for inspiration. Need to Improve - I designed my first deck because I wanted to improve on card recognition â so I made cards that were more identifiable to me (see picture just below). In any case, this will be a personal deck so make it for yourself â not for the masses⌠or make it for the masses⌠I guess it depends on what you are shooting for!
AI generated image of Child in Lenormand. I like her
Creation Process
What are some design and display issues?
We have to decide on how we want to illustrate the cards. By hand? Digitally? (which is my preferred method) Collage or mixed media? (Iâm seriously thinking of doing a mixed media â so many opportunities there â not as useful for online, though).
If we are going to print them commercially or try printing ourselves. Iâve done both and commercially is the way to go for me. The cost is no more than for some decks. I paid $36 for commercial printing of a Lenormand deck and it was very satisfactory â came with a velvet bag which was an option. I tried doing it all myself - I paid $10 for blank cards and $18 for a pack of card size labels, printed using my printer (lost a few sheets because of registration issues), carefully peeled the labels and stuck them on the blank cards (had to throw 1/3 away and reprint them).
Digital representation is interesting. Sticking to a traditional card size is not needed, although the card sizes should be the same size. With larger or wider cards, more room can be made for information/detail on the cards, it is portable and easy to draw from with a simple program.
For simplicity, I always name my cards with integers from 1 to whatever the length of the deck is. For instance the first card would be 1.jpg (or 1.png depending on the file type you work with). That lets you use any random number generator to select the cards.
You can ask the AI to make a JavaScript or Python or other program to display the cards. It does require having a geek friend set it up for you if you donât do programming. Once made, it can be used for multiple decks. It only has to be done once.
However, you can have your browser spit out appropriate random numbers and then just go to your card directory and select those card numbers. (example browser line: âselect a random integer between 1 and 72 inclusiveâ â your browser will take you to a site that does random numbers â say you got 41 â go to the 41st card in your card directory and bring it up â publish it online or use it for the dayâs draw). You can also use an AI for this and it will select multiple numbers. In CoPilot I did this:
Tarot uses reversed cards as an option. You can generate a second random number to decide if it is reversed. If you make a Python or Javascript or other program, just tell the AI what you want and it will all be done behind the scenes.
Robin Wood deck
Authorship
If you use otherâs decks or an AI to make the cards, you must say so if posting on Spells8 or anywhere. Fair use doctrines or other copyright information should be noted.
This seems complicated
The first time, yes. After that, not really. I created an Ogham deck by grabbing tree pictures from seed companies. It only took a few hours to create a beautiful deck. It took a while to get the credit into the pictures and the Ogham marks oriented but it was pretty easy overall.
Picture credit:
ar.inspiredpencil
Other examples
DC Comics Theme Lenormand (AI)
Movie Poster Lenormand (various locations)
Rune Deck (by me)
I choose to fit what Iâm doing into previous challenges Iâve missed rather than do something to fit the challenges.
Itâs hard to best granola for something that sticks to your ribs and isnât junk food. 
The Divine Feminine - Divinely Feminine
! I hope that you had a wonderful Sabbat!
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