About this Event
Decked Out: Draw, Doodle & Design Playing Cards
Turn an ordinary deck of cards into a collection of miniature works of art.
Ready to play your creative card?
Join Dash of Creativity for a playful, beginner-friendly art workshop where ordinary playing cards become tiny canvases. Use colorful markers, paint pens, patterns, illustrations, and simple doodling techniques to give classic cards a completely new personality.
Transform face cards into unexpected characters. Add flowers, mushrooms, stars, animals, monsters, seasonal details, or abstract patterns around the original numbers and suits. Create coordinating cards, experiment with a theme, or make every card completely different.
No drawing experience is needed. If you can make a line, dot, swirl, heart, or funny face, you can create something memorable.
A Creative Workshop with a Twist
Playing cards are small, familiar, and surprisingly fun to decorate. Their compact size makes them less intimidating than a blank sheet of paper, while the existing numbers, symbols, and characters give you an easy place to begin.
A king might become a wizard. A queen could become a garden fairy. A row of diamonds could turn into flowers, stars, tiny fruit, or a colorful geometric pattern. You can work around the original design, cover parts of it, or reinvent the card entirely.
Your designs can be colorful, whimsical, graphic, vintage-inspired, seasonal, nature-themed, or delightfully strange. Choose a style that reflects your personality, favorite colors, interests, or sense of humor.
What You’ll Create
Each participant will receive playing cards to customize during the workshop. You might redesign a few individual cards, decorate an entire suit, develop a coordinated mini collection, or create original characters from the traditional face cards.
Sample designs and creative prompts will be available, but you are not required to follow them. You can recreate a simple idea, combine several sources of inspiration, or design something completely original.
Optional creative challenges will add an extra element of fun. Try designing with only three colors, hiding a tiny animal somewhere in your artwork, transforming a card’s suit into something unexpected, or creating two cards that belong together.
What’s Included
- Playing cards to decorate.
- Colorful markers, paint pens, and drawing materials.
- Design examples and visual inspiration.
- Optional prompts and creative challenges.
- Beginner-friendly demonstrations and guidance.
- Your finished cards to take home.
Who Should Attend?
This workshop is designed for curious beginners, casual doodlers, experienced crafters, and anyone interested in trying a different kind of creative activity.
It is a fun choice for a night out with friends, a casual date, a solo creative outing, or a relaxed way to meet other makers. People who enjoy drawing, journaling, illustration, collage, scrapbooking, paper crafts, and mixed-media art will find plenty of ways to personalize the project.
You do not need to consider yourself artistic to participate. The workshop is focused on experimentation and personal expression, not perfect drawing.
Why You’ll Enjoy It
The small card format makes it easy to explore ideas without the pressure of filling a large blank page. If you do not like one design, simply choose another card and try something different.
You can work slowly on one detailed illustration or create several quick, playful designs. By the end of the workshop, you will have a one-of-a-kind collection and plenty of ideas for continuing the project at home.
Finished cards can be used as bookmarks, gift tags, miniature framed artwork, journal decorations, collage pieces, ornaments, garlands, greeting-card embellishments, or small handmade gifts. You may also decide to continue decorating cards until you have created a full personalized deck.
Please Note and Limitations
This is a casual, beginner-friendly creative workshop rather than a formal drawing or illustration class. Participants will work at different speeds, and completing a full 52-card deck during the workshop is not expected. The number of finished cards will depend on the complexity of your designs and your individual pace.
Decorated cards are intended primarily for art, display, bookmarks, gift tags, collage projects, or other decorative uses. Ink, paint, and embellishments may make them unsuitable for traditional card games or shuffling.
Specific card styles, marker colors, and materials may vary. Permanent markers or paint pens may be used, so please dress accordingly. Examples are provided for inspiration, and finished projects will vary.
The workshop is recommended for ages 12 and older. Participants under 18 must attend with a registered adult when required by the venue. Food and beverages are not included unless specifically stated in the ticket information.
About Dash of Creativity
Dash of Creativity offers relaxed, beginner-friendly workshops designed to make learning and creating feel approachable, social, and fun.
Led by creative workshop facilitator Dasha Randlett, each experience focuses on hands-on exploration rather than perfection. Participants receive the materials, examples, and guidance they need to begin, along with the freedom to personalize their projects.
Dash of Creativity partners with breweries, restaurants, libraries, recreation departments, community organizations, and other local venues throughout New England. Workshops bring people together through colorful projects, creative conversation, and the satisfaction of making something by hand.
Come draw outside the lines, play with new ideas, and give an ordinary deck of cards a completely unexpected personality.
Event venue & nearby stays
Stark Brewing Company, 500 North Commercial Street, Manchester, United States
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