Altered Playing Card Deck - Month 1

I'm so excited to be hosting this swap series and I hope you'll join me in this 9 part series of swaps, that, when completed, will be an entire deck of playing cards transformed into Halloween themed mini works of art.

Here are the guidelines. You must follow these in order to make sure you and your swap partner wind up with a proper complete deck. Failure to follow these few rules could result in a 3 rating and that would not be fun for anyone.

First, the deck of cards you will use must be high quality and be standard poker size cards (2 1/2" x 3 1/2") Do not use Bridge card size, they are too narrow. Bicycle and Bee brands are good ones, but you might also use a deck from a casino, as long as they are the right size and are high quality, coated playing cards. It does not matter what image is on the back.

Second, each month I will assign the exact suites of cards you will be making. I am going to list all the swaps at once, so you'll see the pattern. The final month is going to be a make up month, in case someone has missed a month and is missing some cards

Finally, the cards will serve as your art base. You will essentially be creating 52 ATCs with one twist - each card must have one corner exposed so that you can fully see which suite it is. You should cover at least 2/3 of the card surface with your art.

Now, with regard to the art you do on the cards - of course the theme is Halloween, but I am going to leave it up to you as the artist to determine the theme and style. However, please look at your partners profile and avoid dislikes. I am making the sign up time rather short and the completion time as long as possible so I ask that you do not start your cards until partners are assigned. You do every card differently, or you can choose a theme for the entire suite or even a consistent theme for the entire deck.

You can use any type of medium on the card as long as they are neatly done, Paint, collage, fabric - No glue showing (unless it is glitter glue). Please do your very best work. No sticker slapping!!! Each card should have at least 3 layers or design components. I encourage you to add embellishments, but keep in mind, they should be able to slide into a plastic sleeve. You can also tear, punch holes or cut into the card slightly. You must put each card you create into a plastic sleeve once it is dry to protect it in shipping. You will have plenty of time to complete 6 or 7 cards each month.

The backs of the cards should be marked just like an ATC - please list your name, swap title and date. No further design is required, but feel free to decorate if you desire.

So, these are general guidelines for each months swap. After this initial swap, the guidelines will be listed after the current month details.

For JANUARY, we will start with Highest of the Heart suite. So that would be:

ACE of Hearts

King of Hearts

Queen of Hearts

Jack of Hearts

10 of Hearts

9 of Hearts.

These are the first six in the series. Next month will be the last 7 cards in the Heart suite. Please contact me with any questions. I am on swap-bot every day so will answer right away.

For future reference, future month swaps will be

February - 8,7,6,5,4,3,2 of Hearts March - Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9 of Diamonds April - 8,7,6,5,4,3,2 of Diamonds May - Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9 of Clubs June - 8,7,6,5,4,3,2 of Clubs July - Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9 of Spades August - 8,7,6,5,4,3,2 of Spades September - Make up month.