Make Your Own Fun Card Games

Having now spent over a month in lockdown, you and your family may be well and truly bored with your current board games.

A simple (and easier than you'd think) solution to this would be to make your very own card games. Card games are so much fun for all ages and are a great way to keep everybody entertained - which is why we've rounded up our top ideas and suggestions for creating your own. Take a look!

Use Your Hands

The most basic way to make your own playing cards if you don't have any special equipment on hand is to do them with pens, paper, and scissors. Decide on a shape, and size - and start off by drawing and cutting out your first card as a template. You can then use this template to ensure that all of your other cards are of equal size. When you've cut out all of your cards, you and the kids can have all the fun in the world designing and drawing on each of them. (Tip: for ease of use and durability, we'd recommend using card paper or even thin cardboard for your deck of cards. It'll look much better and they're much more stable to play with.)

Print Them Out

Alternatively, you can use your laptop or computer to design your cards and then print them out. If you've got access/know how to use software such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator - this is a great way to make sure that all of your cards are uniform, not to mention they'll look super professional. Rather than having to draw out each and every card, you'll simply be able to hit copy and paste. You could use images and graphics you find online, cool fonts, and even design an awesome pattern for the back of your deck. If you're not too sure where to get started, you could even use an online template.

When it comes to printing out your cards, we'd recommend using thicker paper if you have it. If not, then normal paper should do just fine - just make sure you've got a few hands ready for all the cutting out you'll need to do.

Use Your Phone

This may not be the most traditional method of a card game, but depending on what you're playing this could work out well for you.  There are several Flash Card making apps that are supposed to be used for creating cards to study with, which conveniently can also be edited to be used as a deck of cards for your games. This method would work well for playing games similar to Would You Rather or Heads Up as opposed to games where players each need a set of cards.

Making your very own card game leaves so much room to be both flexible and adaptable. You can adapt games to suit your younger kids, your teens, or even various things to ensure that the whole family is having a fun time. Whether you already have a great idea lined up, or you simply think that it would be pretty cool to make your own card game - take a look at our ideas for creating an exciting game.

Theme

First things first, you should come up with a theme for your game. Whether that be robots, princesses, dinosaurs, or so on - once you've got an idea of what theme your game is going to follow then it'll be much easier to come up with the concept and rules.

How does it work?

The next step would be to decide on the rules. Are you going to create a relatively simple game for your kids such as Snap, or something a little more complicated along the lines of Go Fish or Crazy Eights? Or will you go completely off the traditional route and use your cards for games similar to Heads Up? You and your little ones can take your time coming up with funny ideas and deciding on a rough outline of how your game will work. This is also your chance to adapt the game for any older/younger players.

Play!

Once you've come up with your theme, your rules, and you've made your very own custom card set - you can play and enjoy. You may have to tweak things along the way, but that's all part of the fun of making your own game. If your game is really successful, you could even share it with your family and friends and have a virtual game night!

Coming up with your own card game can be difficult, so feel free to take a look at our game suggestions for some inspiration.

Your own version of Top Trumps:

Top Trumps has been a family favourite for years and making your very own version can be so much fun to do. With your kids, start off by picking a theme such as animals, food, cartoon characters, and so on - and then the real fun begins. You can design your cards on your laptop, and take your time picking out images you like for each card and coming up with different categories. If you're going with food, for example, you could rate each card together with categories such as how yummy they are, how healthy they are, and so on. We'd suggest aiming for at least five different categories for the ultimate game. Print off your cards as we suggested above, and get playing!

The Truth or Dare game:

A simple concept that kids and adults of all ages will enjoy, simply create two sets of cards: a truth pile and a dare pile. The first player rolls a dice, landing on an even number means you get a truth card and an odd number means a dare card. The player must pick up one card and either answer the question or complete the dare. Then, the next player repeats, and so on. The game is super easy to create, and all the fun in making it comes with deciding on silly questions and dare ideas - a great way to get the family involved and giggling. There's nothing better than customizing the game to suit your own family and can be played with any amount of players!

The Memory Game:

It's well known that kids love to play this game over and over, but a great way to get creative and put your own spin on it is to create your own theme and cards as a family. How does it work? You lay out your deck of cards (in which each card must have a pair) and take turns flipping over two cards on each turn. As you may well know, the aim of the game is to find two matching cards, and players must carefully watch each other's moves and commit to memory where certain cards are. The fun of creating your own game comes in with designing the deck of cards - where you can pick a theme for the cards and have fun decorating. To make it more unique, you could even switch up the concept and put your own spin on it.

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