"Aging" Decks... Anti-Bling, if you will

misfitknits

thanks aurarcana!! :D that looks SOO good!!! that looks just like tea dyeing too! i'm surprised and impressed by that!! great job. i'm sure it wasn't easy, i'd probably be too heavy handed with a stamp pad!! :D
 

SakuraFae

laura_borealis said:
That looks amazing! It's subtle, too... just a hint of age. You did a great job. :)

Just a note: My pics are just of sanded cards, so far... I haven't antiqued them yet. That will probably be tomorrow, at the rate I'm going... partly because of some unasked-for help I've gotten! Little paws get into everything! :D

Attached is also a sanded vs. unsanded pic, for comparison.

I really like the look of the sanded! Like the kitty paw too!
 

Laura Borealis

Here's a picture of a card with the Distress Ink, alongside a card that has only been sanded. For comparison purposes, I chose two cards with the same color background. It's easier to see the difference in person, though you can tell in the photo too.

I like the Distress Ink. I tried it on normal, uncoated paper and it sinks into the fibers and is a lot more dramatic. With my cards, which still have a good bit of U.S. Games lamination, the effect is much more subtle. I love that I can stipple it for darker areas. I'm hoping it doesn't rub off though.

I'm doing a few at a time, and spreading them out to dry thoroughly. It will take me a few days to get them all done, I think. And I need to do Umbrae's ash trick on the sides of the deck, as described here (at the end). This project has been more of a process than I thought when I started! And to be honest I don't think I'll ever sand a deck again. It just took too long.

When I finish the whole deck I'll take some more pictures. :)
 

Attachments

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SakuraFae

laura_borealis said:
This project has been more of a process than I thought when I started! And to be honest I don't think I'll ever sand a deck again. It just took too long.

When I finish the whole deck I'll take some more pictures. :)

They really are looking great to me laura, well worth the effort and I would think, making it more unique and yours than a RWS out of the package.
 

Yurikome

Hello,
I was wondering if any of the decks you all are aging are LoScarabeo cards? I swear, they are just made of plastic :/ Great durability, but I've had my Gothic Tarot of Vampires for years (umbraed the heck out of it too) and it still is horrible to the touch. I love working with it, the pics are great, but I hate laying my hands on it :/

Any tips on how to deal with thick plastic cards? :/
 

Laura Borealis

More than a U.S. Games deck? My Fey (a Lo Scarabeo deck) isn't any more plastic than is typical for U.S. Games. Is your Gothic worse than that?

My most plastic deck is my Fantod, which I swear I could take in the bath and it would emerge unchanged. It's as plastic a plastic thing as you could imagine. I table-edged it (the basic Umbrae) and it's barely more flexible... an almost imperceptible difference. :(
 

Yurikome

Well I have a USG Morgan-Greer, and they are indeed plastic BUT very thin and bendable, I don't feel like they need any changing. The Vampires are just much much thicker (I don't know if it's the lamination or cardstock inside).

I conquered my fear and just sandpapered the heck out of it (I did sand it before, just a bit, but all I got was white scratch marks) and bent them over the table (AGAIN) and they've just started to feel a bit more papery. Except I only did it on the backs, which is the part I touch most. I wouldn't dare touch the picture side. Better than nothing.
 

Laura Borealis

Yeah, my sandpapering produced a lot of white scratches too. I really should have gotten some finer grade sandpaper instead of barging on with what I had. I'm glad you've gotten a bit more of a papery feel into your deck. And I wish heartily that publishers would stop with the plasticizing. Or at least use a matte finish!

ETA: Did you do the tea dunk on your Vampires?
 

emmsma

Today I will be tea dunking my Thunder Bay Conver. Did my table edge treatment and trimmed and rounded corners last week or so. Think I managed to scuff them up enough to let the tea in. :p Such plasticky plastic cards!

I think they are looking much better than when I started. Am nervous and excited to continue the process.
 

Yurikome

@Laura - I honestly can't remember if I tea stained them the first time... I know that I blackened the edges with a permanent marker after I trimmed it, and after a while of shuffling discovered that the ink spread a bit from the edges and across the surfaces of the pictures. So they got dirty that way. And I have no problem with the colors so I don't think I did that... I could try now, if just for altering the texture of the cards, I'm fairly calm about the untreated fronts, color would probably only change on the backs. Problem is I REALLY sanded them to whiteness in some places... might be too much for dunking them in tea... maybe just a swipe with a tea soaked cotton bud?