Make a Funny 2-Times Card Deck

A little fun project for the holidays with kids and even grownups

Dec 20, 2023

Like the firewood that warms you twice, once in the cutting and again by the woodstove, here’s a simple project for the holidays that will be fun in two different ways.

You might be with children, if not in your family then maybe with a neighbor or a small after-school group at community center. Sit together at the table with paper, pens, glue sticks and scissors, and make a Funny-Two-Times card deck!

First it’s fun to make, and then it’s fun to play. Here’s how.

Make all the blank cards ahead of time. You need:

A playing card
Cereal box cardboard
Cardstock
Holiday gift wrap
Pens, pencils, glue sticks, scissors
Ideas for drawing easy cartoon faces

Make a cardboard pattern by tracing the playing card onto cereal box cardboard. Cut it out.

Trace the pattern onto cardstock to make 25 game cards. Cut them out.

Lay out a sheet of holiday gift wrap paper, upside down on the table.

Examples of vintage 1970’s gift wrap from my box

Glue each card to the back of the wrapping paper, and cut them out:

For one deck, make 25 cards with patterned backs and blank fronts

Now you’re ready for an Art Party!

Put the 25 cards on the table along with pencils, pens and some colored markers, as well as a few ideas for funny faces. See the easy, shape-based examples below.

IMPORTANT: For one 25-card deck, make 12 pairs (12 different designs), plus 1 unique card so you can play Old Maid.

With pencils and pens, everybody draws funny faces on the blank sides of the cards, maybe with speech balloons.

It’s easy to draw cartoons with Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book of Faces. My used copy, below, once belonged to the Riverside Elementary School Library.

Emberley’s simple step-by-step instructions guarantee success. He says,

Start with these ideas, and take off from there to make your own faces.

Add some speech balloons, maybe outrageously funny!

Here is a card I made, below. For the Old Maid game, you could add a name for her, like Silly Sally.

I added a speech balloon to the man below. I copied the matched card on my computer but, instead, you can hand-draw two cards with the same picture. Note: instructions for drawing my two characters are in the backgrounds.

Be free and have fun! Here are some more ideas:

You’ve just made two games in one — your own Funny 2-Times Card Deck!

Now it’s time to put away the art supplies, and play Old Maid (or Bold Maid!).

You can also play the Matching Game with your deck (you can take out the Bold Maid), where you lay all the cards face down on the table. Turn over two cards; if you uncover a pair, keep it! Then it’s the next person’s turn.