Custom Playing Cards for Kids

I wanted to make something extra special for my niece Mylin’s fourth birthday this year. I thought I’d share it with you today, because it could also be a fun little Christmas gift or stocking stuffer.

Lindsey, the suspense is killing us, you’re saying. What is it?!

Calm down! I’ll tell you. It’s “Mylin’s Family Matching Game,” a deck of custom playing cards with pictures of our family!

This is not my niece, obviously.  This is my nephew Kale, such a cutie.

Mylin and Kale live far away from all their grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles, so this is a fun little way they can see our familiar faces everyday.

When the idea popped into my brain, I wasn’t even sure it was possible.  I mean, I’ve seen custom playing cards that are just a regular deck of cards, with a custom image on the back.  But I wanted to customize every single card with a photo, plus make an image for the backs too.

Luckily, in this day and age, anything is possible! I found a company that does just that. I actually found a lot of companies that will do that, but most of them required a minimum bulk order.

But MakePlayingCards.com (who is not sponsoring this post, or has ever heard of me at all) will let you customize the fronts and backs of all your cards with as many images as you want, with no minimum order.

They have design tools so you can add text and colors etc., plus they have tons of size and shape options from mini-cards to 3x5s to circles to hexagons, all customizable.

Since a typical deck has 54 cards, I made 27 pairs for the matching game. It was tough trying to squeeze every person in the family in; Mylin has about a million cousins, but I made it work as best as I could.  That was the hard part!

Then I just uploaded my pictures to the site, designed the backside, and chose from a few other options, including box style and card finish: smooth, linen, or plastic. I went with plastic which was a teeny bit pricier, but I wanted these things to be durable.

They turned out so great! The photos are bright and clear and the plastic cards seem like they’ll last a long time. I had them shipped directly to her house, and my sister reports that are a HIT!  (Don’t be fooled by Mylin’s somber gaze, she is having the time of her life, I swear).

The grand total came to under $20. Not bad at all. I would love to see yours If you decide to make some too!

Happy Saturday!