"Pimp my Rider!"

[nisaba]

The desire to pimp the Tarot Sutra has subsided now that the deck is trimmed. The Adam Fronteras deck may be the next candidate. Before I start that though, I think I want to do some actual study with tarot....

<laughter> Gosh, what an idea!

 

[irmata]

Ohhh, Eilan. You've got me looking at my Secret Tarot and thinking very. bad. thoughts indeed > I love how subtle you've kept the glittering; it's *very* effective and striking.

 

[Kissa]

Blue box Rider

I pimped a blue box Rider. The fact is, I like very much the feeling of older RWS, the ones that are not so laminated. I didn't want to pimp my super precious AG Mueller Rider, my first deck ever, a gift from a very special person.

I took my Pamela Colman Smith Centennial Deck out and started to put some tea-dye ink to the sides. As I was doing that, I realized I like the crisp and the thin lines of standard RWS better than the blurry Centennial BUT I like old fainted colors better. So, my blue box Rider got all tea-dyed: the sides and the pictures! Also the backs got some ink, as I rubbed my fingers on them and piled up the wet cards on top of each other (deliberately).

I now have a nice veeery old looking Rider

K

 

[nisaba]

Sounds beautiful.

Good to see you around here again, by the way.


__________
The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and therefore should be treated with caution. (J.K. Rowling)

 

[Scibility]

Seeing everyone's creativity is sooooooo inspiring! This is such a long thread and I have so many questions... Not sure if everyone is still active on the forum, but I hope noone minds me resurrecting this. If you've done this to your deck(s), basically i'm trying to figure out the best tips (Do's and DON'Ts). Please feel free to share. Thanks a million.

I used a variety of glitter and flake nail polishes and glitter glue. Some are plain colours, others are colour-change; there are even a few opalescents in there. From being a deck I couldn't stand to look at, it is now a maghnificent, glowing splendour. Pictures of the full deck are in my Flickr stream here, and I blogged about it too (link in profile).

I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone who hasn't taken the plunge yet. I'm only sad now because I don't have any other decks that are ugly enough to subject to the pimping process Maybe I'll hire my services out as a professional blinger-of-decks!

Goodness gracious... you and many others on this thread are talented!

I'm using sharpie and plan to use a fixative at the end, I am not diluting the glitter glue, I am applying it and rubbing it on with the cap, and then using a paintbrush to smooth it out. I did another layer, here's a picture. The sharpie works well, but needs 2 coats.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/BelovedK/DSC04102.jpg

if that link doesn't work, try this
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/BelovedK/DSC04102.jpg

I don't have any fancy markers or supplies laying around, so sharpies might be my weapon of choice did it hold up? I don't have any fixative. Do you think it will stand up without fixative? How long did it take to color the borders for the whole deck?

I haven't tried embossing powders but it'd probably look nice. The problem is, even the thin nail polish makes the deck a lot thicker.

Did you ever end up using the embossing powder? I have some and am tempted to go this route, but wonder if it would take a lot of powder to do the whole deck, and... how well it would stand up to use ie. would the embossing crack from shuffling/bending.

I've got my tools all gathered:

• nail polish in 5 glitter colors and a non-glitter purple (a pimped out deck should have some purple in it somewhere!)
• Glitter Magic washable markers
• Sharpie fine point paint markers
• Permapaque fine line markers in metallic colors
• permanent ink markers in various colors
• bold color felt tip pens
• Bic Mark-It permanent markers in 36 colors

I don't just want to introduce bling, but also change/add some colors. I believe it was shadowdancer who gave some of the folks in the Robin Wood Tarot black hair with Sharpies. I want to give that a try with markers that won't run.
Rodney

In hindsight, do you recall which markers were the best to work with? do you know if the metallic painters would work well for the borders?

Guys 'n gals, throw away those glitter pens! This is the way to fly - it works beautifully. I didn't know what I was getting at the time, but this nail polish is called Stripe Rite & it's in a square tall bottle. The brush is real long & skinny so it's perfect for small places. The only problem I've had is it getting thick after a few cards - it needs to be thinned often or it will clump. I took this pic with the sun shining on the cards, hoping you would get the true glitter effect, but it's still not perfect.

When choosing the glitter nail polish, any tips? single color or multi-color? Have you tried adding glitter to a clear nail polish? I'm trying to work with what I already have on hand if I can.

Nail polish! I'm going to start on my new Mystic Dreamer tomorrow - glitter, opalescent...oh, this will be fun. And what about nail jewels? Many of them are flat.

Did the nail jewels work, or did they peel off easily? I am considering maybe sealing the nail jewel with a dab of super glue?


Tips anyone or does anyone have more pics? Kissa, if you're still active on the forum, holy cow that deck you pimped is a work of art!

 

[rwcarter]

I don't have any fancy markers or supplies laying around, so sharpies might be my weapon of choice did it hold up? I don't have any fixative. Do you think it will stand up without fixative? How long did it take to color the borders for the whole deck?

Sharpies definitely won't work without some sort of fixative. Do a test for yourself on a playing card or extra card from your deck. Use the sharpie to darken an area, then take a piece of white paper and rub the sharpied surface over it vigorously - you'll see the black marker will transfer from the test card to the piece of paper. I did that test before I started my project and knew I was going to have to spray the cards with a fixative or much of my work would be for nothing.

In hindsight, do you recall which markers were the best to work with? do you know if the metallic painters would work well for the borders?

Unfortunately, I don't. But I have another deck that's been "in progress" for more than 2 years now. I hope to make some headway with it during the end of the month when I'm on staycation for 2 weeks. So I'll pull everything out again soon. But I don't think it matters what kind of markers you use as long as you use fixative. Just make sure not to spray the fixative on too thick for the first coat unless you don't mind the occasional run of color.

When choosing the glitter nail polish, any tips? single color or multi-color? Have you tried adding glitter to a clear nail polish? I'm trying to work with what I already have on hand if I can.

Cheap nail polish works fine. One of the purple ones I used came out gray if I didn't shake the bottle really well. If you want a multi-color effect, multi-color polish should work fine. The polish doesn't require fixative, only markers and paint pens do.

Did the nail jewels work, or did they peel off easily? I am considering maybe sealing the nail jewel with a dab of super glue?

Unless they are completely flat, you'll be introducing extra height (even if barely measurable) to your card(s). The polish will do the same thing, so it may not be a problem. But if you're only going to use markers, I wouldn't add jewels unless you plan on adding them to every card. I believe I included pics of how thick my pimped deck was compared to a regular deck.

Tips anyone or does anyone have more pics? Kissa, if you're still active on the forum, holy cow that deck you pimped is a work of art!

I haven't included any pics of my 2-year old "in progress" deck, but I might do that next week too.

Good luck and have fun with the process!

Rodney

 

[Scibility]

Thanks a million Rodney, GREAT tips. And yes I saw the picture of how thick the decks become after embellishing them. I'm grateful that you posted that picture for perspective. Please do post some updated pictures when you're done. I'd love to see the finished product, and hear any additional insights. I'll take your advice and have to hold off until I can get some fixative somewhere. Thanks again. Looking forward to seeing your final product

 

[AJ]

if you are talking about heat embossers, no can do on cards, the heat makes them bend and curl. I tried everything on my practice card deck.

I used sharpies all over my tarot of the saints, working out my fury. It's still there.

Probably depends on the card stock, some of them you can see the ink beading up like water on wax. If you do use them, leave them out overnight or even a couple of days to cure before you put the deck back together. That is good advice whatever methods you decide to use.

 

[rwcarter]

For fixatives, I was talking about spray varnish after letting the cards dry for a day or so after pimping them.

 

[Kissa]

Hiya Scibility,
yep I'm still alive, not pimping so much nowadays though
Thanks for bringing back such nice memories.
People here are indeed very creative, give it a try!! You'll love it