Cutting out The Liminal Tarot—I’m a little (lot) nervous

[daughterofwater]

Hi everyone. I love the feeling of this forum. Thank you for being here!

I wrote to the amazing artist Penelope Cline and she wrote me back! I had no idea when, each day’s eBay search results for the Liminal Tarot turned up the guide—it meant I could cut out and laminate the full deck from the book! Of course I purchased it right away!

And I am going to do this—and I don’t expect perfection. I do paint and draw, but I am not experienced with crafty-type things. Can someone please give me some guidance on what scissors to use—if any, and how to laminate? Would I find a laminating machine on eBay? Or would I take them to a shop?

I’m not expecting them to feel like Tabula Mundi but I am planning on utilizing the cards for myself for artistic inspiration and occasional spreads for myself—I haven’t gotten to the place of reading for others yet.

Thank you!

[Pen]

Hi daughterofwater, Pen here! A craft knife and metal ruler are probably better than scissors - maybe practise a bit on some copy paper first though. As for a laminator - they're fairly inexpensive on Amazon and usually come with a few pouches. Once you have one it can be used for other crafty things.

Basically a laminator works by heating two rollers inside the machine. You plug it in, switch on and wait for the red light to turn green. This lets you know that it's hot enough to melt the glue between the two layers of plastic that is the pouch. You place the paper/s to be laminated between these two leaves of plastic and carefully feed it into the machine, making sure you have the front edge straight as you do so. Again, practise with something that doesn't matter first until you're comfortable with it.

The laminated sheet will come out of the machine on the other side; let it cool on a flat surface before trimming - again, a craft knife and metal ruler tend to work better than scissors, although a decent pair of scissors will do the job. If you want rounded corners there are cheap little cutters that will work OK, as well as the really expensive ones that can cut a whole stack of cards at once.

I'd be inclined to buy a new laminator if I were you rather than trust a secondhand one, although there's not too much to go wrong with a basic machine. Laminating is a bit addictive - quite a few historical tarots that are out of copyright can be found online and downloaded to print and laminate at home. Good luck!

[litefoot13]

Store lamination definitely has a different feel to it than most home lamination. The sheets used in home laminators tend to be a little thicker and more sturdy than store laminate. (Store laminate is great for posters because it's flexible enough it can roll up still)

One big key about laminating is to definitely make sure you have enough space between items on the sheet. If they're too close, the laminate won't seal properly.

I laminate a lot of bookmarks (I make things out of old books), so I've picked up a useful trick for keeping a lot of small pieces aligned correctly in a sheet of laminate. Just use a glue stick and put a small bit of glue on your papers before putting them in the laminate, it keeps them in place so you don't have to worry about shifting.

[Pen]

Store lamination definitely has a different feel to it than most home lamination. The sheets used in home laminators tend to be a little thicker and more sturdy than store laminate. (Store laminate is great for posters because it's flexible enough it can roll up still)

One big key about laminating is to definitely make sure you have enough space between items on the sheet. If they're too close, the laminate won't seal properly.

I laminate a lot of bookmarks (I make things out of old books), so I've picked up a useful trick for keeping a lot of small pieces aligned correctly in a sheet of laminate. Just use a glue stick and put a small bit of glue on your papers before putting them in the laminate, it keeps them in place so you don't have to worry about shifting.

Really good tips, litefoot. Thanks.

I left the bleeds on the card images (both front and back) in all Pen's Guides to make trimming easier. So about 3mm or 0.125" can be trimmed off on each of the four sides to make cards with borders of the same proportions as the Limited Edition, although the cards will be slightly smaller overall. Best though to laminate with bleed intact first, then trim as desired.

[daughterofwater]

Oh my goodness! Thank you so much! I am off to Amazon now! Thank you both, so much!

[BreathingSince72]

Hi everyone. I love the feeling of this forum. Thank you for being here!

I wrote to the amazing artist Penelope Cline and she wrote me back! I had no idea when, each day’s eBay search results for the Liminal Tarot turned up the guide—it meant I could cut out and laminate the full deck from the book! Of course I purchased it right away!

And I am going to do this—and I don’t expect perfection. I do paint and draw, but I am not experienced with crafty-type things. Can someone please give me some guidance on what scissors to use—if any, and how to laminate? Would I find a laminating machine on eBay? Or would I take them to a shop?

I’m not expecting them to feel like Tabula Mundi but I am planning on utilizing the cards for myself for artistic inspiration and occasional spreads for myself—I haven’t gotten to the place of reading for others yet.

Thank you!

I know I am really late to this party. I loved all of the comments. Metal rulers are great for this sort of thing with a plastic cutting board. Discards also puts out a paper slicer for under 20. It has a smal blade that you pull across your car stock or paper to cut. My kids and I have gotten a lot of mileage out of it. Walmart also sells a laminator for under 20 and the sheets are not too bad. I would love to hear how your project turned out.

Victoria