Okay, so I’ve been messing around with this idea I had, called “Tarot Jewels.” I’ve always been kind of fascinated by tarot cards, not so much for the fortune-telling part, but more for the artwork and the symbolism. And, well, I also like shiny things. So I thought, why not combine the two?
I started by grabbing a standard Rider-Waite tarot deck. Nothing fancy, just the basic one you can find anywhere. Then, I went online and ordered a whole bunch of those little adhesive gemstones. You know, the kind you use for crafting and stuff? I got a variety of colors and sizes, figuring I’d need different ones for different cards.
Getting Started
The first card I tackled was The Star. It seemed like a good starting point, with all that open space and, you know, stars. I carefully peeled off the backing of some tiny, clear gems and stuck them onto the card, following the pattern of the stars in the image. It was a little fiddly, but kind of relaxing, actually.
- First, carefully peel off the backing of the gem.
- Then, very gently place it on the card.
- Press down lightly to make sure it sticks.
I did a few more cards, experimenting with different colors and gem placements. For The Sun, I used larger, golden-yellow gems. For The Moon, I went with pale blue and silver ones. I even tried outlining some of the figures with tiny gems, which was…challenging, to say the least. Some of them definitely ended up a little crooked.
Experiment Time!
It took some trial and error, figuring out which gems looked best on which cards. Some of them just didn’t work. Like, I tried using red gems on The Devil card, but it ended up looking kind of…tacky, not scary. So I scrapped that idea.
After doing a few of the Major Arcana cards, I decided to move on to the Minor Arcana. Those are a bit trickier, because there’s less going on in the images. I’m still working on figuring out the best way to embellish those without making them look too cluttered.
Overall, it’s been a fun little project. It’s not perfect, and some of the cards are definitely more successful than others. But it’s a cool way to add a little sparkle to something I already enjoy. And who knows, maybe I’ll even learn something about tarot along the way!
