So last week I was digging through my craft closet looking for pumpkin stencils when I found this dusty box of blank tarot cards I forgot I bought on clearance years back. Figured hey, why not turn them into some spooky Halloween tarot cards? Total winging-it project mode activated.
Getting My Spook On
Dumped all 78 cards on my messy kitchen table – felt slightly overwhelmed seeing all that blank space. Started by grabbing a pencil and just sketching rough ideas right on the cards:
- For the Death card? A rotting jack-o’-lantern with crow perched on it. Not original but classic.
- Devil card became this lumpy potato-sack scarecrow with bat wings glued on crooked.
- The Tower turned into a haunted mansion with bent popsicle sticks and way too much fake cobweb.
Honestly looked like my 5-year-old niece drew half of them. But hey, Halloween’s supposed to be messy, right?
Ink And Pain(ting)
Pulled out these cheap acrylic paints from the dollar store. Colors were drier than a skeleton’s cough. Mixed like garbage too. My “wispy ghost” for The Moon card? Ended up looking like a moldy tissue glued on cardstock. The black ink pens bled everywhere when I tried tracing my pencil lines.
Used nail art brushes for tiny details since my real brushes got ruined last Halloween painting fake blood on pumpkins. Big mistake. Those bristles bent sideways after two cards. My “bat swarm” on the Five of Cups just became black splotches. Gave up and finger-painted the High Priestess card purple – smudged it good reaching for coffee halfway.
Glitter Nightmare
Thought some orange glitter on the Wheel of Fortune pumpkin would look festive. Tore open the glitter tube like a caveman – exploded everywhere. I’m talking cat fur sparkle catastrophe levels. Found orange flecks behind my ear three days later. Used glue sticks to attach sequins to The Star card – half fell off before I finished the next card.
Let ’em dry overnight… woke up to find some cards stuck together where wet paint touched. Peeling them apart took off chunks of cardstock. The Emperor’s creepy cornfield now has bald patches.
Finished-ish?
Three afternoons later? Deck’s a total hot mess. Major Arcana are kinda recognizable if you squint. Minor Arcana? Cups are spray-painted plastic goblets I scribbled on. Swords became lollipop sticks snapped in half. Pentacles were just traced around pennies. Wands are twigs from my dead basil plant.
Shuffled them – edges crumbled. Card stock soaked up paint and bent like a stale pretzel. Did a quick three-card spread: Death (rotten pumpkin), The Tower (wobbly mansion), The Devil (sad bat-wing scarecrow). Interpretation? My Halloween project’s cursed. But it was fun getting glue gun strings stuck in my hair again. Might use ’em as cocktail napkins for my Halloween party instead.
