Instead of using regular playing cards to play games like Go Fish, and inserting the joker to play Old Maid, have fun making your own sets of cards and then playing with them!
You will need to make 52 cards so make sure you have plenty of supplies before beginning. Poster board is inexpensive and works fine. Measure and mark a piece of poster board into equally sized rectangles. Cut them out carefully (adults can help smaller children).
Decorate your cards with your favorite characters, sports, or anything you like. For example, instead of having a King of hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds, you might want to make a King of baseball, basketball, football, and soccer. Just make sure your “suits” are clearly indicated on each card if you also want to use your cards for other games where suits matter.
You can use stickers or stamps to indicate your suits, draw your own pictures, or print out some clip art to glue onto the cards. You can also use stencils if you prefer. It might help to have a regular deck of cards handy to make sure you make a card that represents each one.
Another fun idea is to adapt these and other card games to make up your own games. You can also use these cards to play memory games. Just mix them up, turn them over, and flip two at a time to get a match.
If you want to design your cards on the computer and print them off, use cardstock that will fit your printer. For miniature cards, use pre-perforated business card stock. You can find it at office supply stores or the office supply section of a store near you. They are available in different colors and you can use any desktop publishing program to help you set up for printing business cards.