Okay, so today I decided to mess around with something totally new – creating a playing card design, specifically the Eight of Hearts. I’ve never really tried something like this before, so it was a bit of an adventure.
First, I fired up my usual design software. I’m not gonna name any names, but it’s the one everyone uses. You know the one. I started with a blank canvas, the standard card size. I had a vague idea in my head, but nothing concrete.
Getting the Basics Down
I knew I needed the basic card shape, so I drew a rectangle with rounded corners. Easy peasy. Then came the background color. I went with a classic off-white, just to keep it simple. I figured that I could always change it later.

Next up were the hearts. I spent way too long trying to draw a perfect heart shape freehand. It was a disaster. Seriously, they looked like lumpy potatoes. Finally, I gave up and used the shape tool. Much better. I made eight of them, all the same size (thank goodness for copy and paste!), and colored them bright red.
Arrangement and Tweaking
Now for the fun part – arranging the hearts. I initially tried the classic layout, you know, the symmetrical one. I used what I thought was appropriate and what I remembered and see. It looked…okay. But it was boring. So, I started moving things around. I rotated some hearts, flipped others, and played with the spacing. It took a while, but I finally found an arrangement I liked. It’s still symmetrical, but a little more interesting, I think.
I added the “8” and the little heart suit symbol in the corners. I picked a simple, bold font. Nothing fancy. Again, I used classic red for these. I thought about adding some fancy borders or patterns, but I decided to keep it clean and minimalist.
Final Touches
After staring at it for what felt like hours, I made some tiny adjustments. I tweaked the spacing between the hearts, adjusted the size of the corner symbols, and made sure everything was perfectly aligned. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so this part took longer than it probably should have.
- Started with a blank canvas.
- Drew the basic card shape.
- Created eight heart shapes.
- Arranged the hearts on the card.
- Added the “8” and suit symbols.
- Made final adjustments.
Finally, I saved it. I stared to send my friends and show them what I made. And that’s it! My very own Eight of Hearts design. It’s not perfect, but I’m pretty happy with it, especially since it was my first try. I had a lot of fun. I might even try making the whole deck someday. But for now, I’m calling it a day.