A: Before you go making your own custom cards, be sure to playtest any new ideas well! One fan suggests using one of your blank cards for a playtest by taking a mechanical pencil and lightly writing the text in. If you don’t press very hard, you can erase and reuse the blank. Some people just put a sticky note on the card for playtesting purposes. After all, you don’t want to make all the effort of producing a custom card, only to realize it’s broken.

The easiest way to make custom cards (and the way we do it here at the Labs for prototypes) is to print onto full sheet sticker-paper, cutting the resultant print-out to stick onto the card (Andy recommends Avery 8465 shipping labels with TrueBlock(tm) technology).

You can print directly onto the cards, but note that, depending on what kind of printer you have, the printing may not stick to the card very well, though sealer can help. Here are the various tips for that technique:

For printing directly onto cards, one uses a carrier sheet, which just means creating a layout for your cards in some application, like Word, for example, and printing out a test sheet on regular paper. Then, affix your card/s to the sheet in those spots, using the design to position the card, and run the sheet through again. You can do them one-up, or six-up, or whatever you find works best. Once you get a template for the card placement on the carrier sheet, you can use that same piece of paper over and over, printing from different files with different art in that spot.

For attaching your cards to the sheet, fans have suggested either 3M Temporary Glue Stick, which is kind of like a post-it-note adhesive to coat the design portion of the carrier sheet (rather than the cards), or Scotch removable double-sided tape, which is a similar temporary adhesive. If using the glue stick, note that the cards may still end up with some adhesive on the backs, which sometimes takes a bit of rubbing to remove.

Also note that printing will go most smoothly if you have one of those printers which has an option to feed from the back so that the paper doesn’t have to do much of a bend (this is sometimes available on printers for printing onto thicker cardstock or envelopes). When you’re printing your carrier sheet, use the same feed you’re going to use with the cards on it, so that it will line up the same way.

All sources recommend sealing, either by spraying with fixative for chalk-pastels, or a clear acrylic sealer, matte or gloss.

Then also, of course, keep the resulting cards away from moisture!