disastrously botched trimmings

[Myrrha]

My first trimming foray was the Rohrig.

OOP.

Indestructible cardstock.

Huge cards . . . hard to keep a straight line.

Yep.

It's ruined.

\m/ Kat

Even if your trimming wavered a bit perhaps it isn't ruined.

If you can find someone who has a trimmer or paper cutter with a gridded bed you could just cut them a little smaller. The grid means that once you get one long and one short side of each card trimmed it is easy to cut the rest of them exactly the same size. They might be a little smaller and you might loose a bit of image around the edges but they would be all the same size and have straight edges.

 

[thorhammer]

Even if your trimming wavered a bit perhaps it isn't ruined.

If you can find someone who has a trimmer or paper cutter with a gridded bed you could just cut them a little smaller. The grid means that once you get one long and one short side of each card trimmed it is easy to cut the rest of them exactly the same size. They might be a little smaller and you might loose a bit of image around the edges but they would be all the same size and have straight edges.

LOL, thanks, Myrrha It's bad, but not unusable, it's just that I don't use it It is, however, unshuffleable, which is okay because the deck is unshuffleable untrimmed, and I love any excuse to mess those INCREDIBLE backs around on the floor!

Do I ever, ever make any sense? LOL

\m/ Kat

 

[Le Fanu]

Ya know, Fanu - if you hadn't thrown it away, and you didn't live in Lisbon, I'd say toss it in the mail to me! Ya wanna fish it out for me??

Sorry, It´s gone. Got the leftovers from lunch (salmon) tipped over it before being taken out into the trash and must have been taken away long ago....

 

[SolSionnach]

Sorry, It´s gone. Got the leftovers from lunch (salmon) tipped over it before being taken out into the trash and must have been taken away long ago....

Oh boo. I was having the nicest fantasy of what kind of wacked-out deck I could've made with it.

Next time...

 

[willowfox]

I wouldn't dare trim any cards with a pair of scissors or one of those one armed guillotines choppers, you are just asking for trouble if you do.

Like I said in the other post, I went around to the printing shop and had it done professionally, on a very large cutting machine. Time: about 5 minutes. Cost: about a dollar a deck.

Then at home I snipped the corners with one of those little corner gadgets. Result: perfect.

Scissors are absolutely horrible for cutting a dead straight line in something like a card, I highly recommend to people thinking about trimming their cards, don't use a pair of scissors!

With a metal ruler, a cutting knife(razor blade type) and a lot of patience you can trim your cards really well, but don't rush it, never press down to hard on the knife, and when your hand starts to hurt then take a break.

 

[Sheri]

I wouldn't dare trim a deck with scissors or with a straight edge and knife. Too much variation in how the cutter and cards can be held.

My BEST cuts to date have been on a heavy duty, one-armed guillotine cutter... but I also have edge guides that I screw into the bed to keep the cards in consistent position as well as a laser cutting guide. With it, I can shave the hair off a gnat's rear and it has come in handy when I have had to make adjustments because the images weren't centered on a card consistently... and it shows no signs of wearing out like my plastic-based rotary cutter beds have.

My worst trim job was my first, a Thoth using a straight edge and Xacto knife. It's still useable, but I can't shuffle it as the edges aren't even... and it's driving me crazy! I'm planning on putting it through the guillotine this weekend to fix it.

valeria

 

[WolfSpirit]

I snipped the small white border off my Dreampower Tarot, majors and minors. When I had done a few of the minors, I realised the picture on it is a different size from the majors, so now I have a few minors that are smaller.
It does not bother me as the minors are so terribly sparse, I only use the majors and courts which are gorgeous.
Same thing with the Tarot of Transformation...there is one card that has a smaller image and larger border. I fixed this with transparent sellotape, I just put the border back on and believe it or not, it is hardly visible.

Thanks to years of handcrafting, I never have accidents with the cutting itself, as long as all borders are the same size *knocks on wood*

 

[Cerulean]

My second Via Tarot...

I bought a second Via Tarot.

My first was thoroughly trimmed, decorated and worked with into something else...I bought a second to use for readings as is, but it turns out my 'personal' decorated deck was missing a card...it bothered me so much that the first deck was missing a card, so I cut the missing card from my second deck...

A month or two later, I found the missing trimmed original. I had put the second deck in a small photo album flip book so I could flip to the right card when using the 'decorative' deck and the book. Whenever I flip through, the trimmed version of one card seems to leap out at me...

I do not regret making a personal oracle of the first deck. What I regret is while the second deck is suitable for study in a flip book, it's not the same as a whole card deck.

The court cards in the Via are some of the most intriguing that I've come across and there are some majors that are enchanting. Some cards I will shrug at, but I'm over my initial take of oddness or negative feelings that I didn't resonate with some of the designs.

I hope to someday invest again in a set to straight as cards...rather than use my personal decorative version and just the flip book, though!

Cerulean

 

[jeseryn]

Druidcraft has never been a favorite (big feet, not my favorite color treatment etc). The cards were also just too GIGANTIC for me to shuffle or feel comfortable with.

So I trimmed it.

I left the tiniest bit of the faux stone edging and the titles. I used a pair of scissors and they are all close but not perfect. Also used a corner rounder.

Anyway.. they feel good now.. Even though the edges aren't all exactly the same it doesn't feel shoddy. So I wouldn't worry about everything being exact. As long as one isn't obviously much larger or smaller then the rest it will still be a decent deck.

Just as an aside: trimming the deck has made me like it just a little more but I'll never really use it so it's living in a box with all the other little misfit toys. lol

 

[thorhammer]

Druidcraft has never been a favorite (big feet, not my favorite color treatment etc). The cards were also just too GIGANTIC for me to shuffle or feel comfortable with.

So I trimmed it.

I left the tiniest bit of the faux stone edging and the titles. I used a pair of scissors and they are all close but not perfect. Also used a corner rounder.

Anyway.. they feel good now.. Even though the edges aren't all exactly the same it doesn't feel shoddy. So I wouldn't worry about everything being exact. As long as one isn't obviously much larger or smaller then the rest it will still be a decent deck.

Just as an aside: trimming the deck has made me like it just a little more but I'll never really use it so it's living in a box with all the other little misfit toys. lol

This happened with the Rohrig I mentioned ^above^ - the images were all just slightly different sizes making for a pretty wacky finished product .

It's also the case with the Wheel of Change, which I currently use exclusively. I trimmed it because I OBJECTED VIOLENTLY to the colour coded borders, particularly to the use of RED for CUPS!!!! Ugh . . . anyway, all the images are surrounded by charming thin watercolour frames which complement the colour scheme of the image. Both images and frames all vary slightly in size - which constantly reminds me of when Ric (of Lo Scarabeo ) said that the borders are a bit of a buffer zone to compensate for slight differences in image size.

But I've never had trouble shuffling my WoC. I use it a lot, and it's quite softened and worn with a pronounced bend in the cards that I can't get rid of, but none of them clump together whilst shuffling, and IMHO it's now the ABSOLUTE PERFECT size for shuffling. Great deck. Trim it. Doesn't matter that it'll turn out a bit weird, trust me

\m/ Kat