If your Instagram feed looks anything like mine, you’ll have been inundated by a host of collage playing cards recently. It’s not exactly the direction I expected this hobby to turn in the bullet-strewn aftermath of Warhammer 40k 11th edition, but the smoke has cleared, and I don’t hate what I see. Each playing card represents a little page of creativity, a prompt for imagination, and an exciting alternative to the push-fit plastic of Armageddon.

I like the Armageddon box, don’t get me wrong. The Ork characters in particular are sublime. But I like making this hobby my own, as you’ve probably noticed from my various blogs, and it doesn’t offer much for players there—it’s far better for newcomers, especially if you’ve got someone to share it with. So, with the intention of hauling myself out of the deep hobby rut wherein I currently reside, I set about following the latest trend and making a deck of collaged playing cards to inject some creativity back into my hobby.

Wait, Who’s Even Making Collage Playing Cards?

As far as I can tell, the playing card trend started, as many of these things do, on social media. Terran of Conjured Craft was the first I saw post about it, before being joined by Max from Wightstar, whose deck was supplemented by Trent Holbrook, better known as Miscast. If you don’t follow any of these people, change that. Their constant creativity is an overflowing font of inspiration when your own sources run dry.

Another inspiration was Jerry Gretzinger’s enormous imaginary map, as featured in a recent People Make Games documentary. Between these four creatives, my Instagram and YouTube algorithms decided to beam as much collage content into my eyeballs as a retina can realistically withstand in a single 72-hour period. Truthfully, I’m not mad about it.

These artists don’t always focus their efforts on Warhammer—some don’t paint Games Workshop stuff at all. This is important, as we Warhammer fans can often find ourselves pigeonholed by the tight constraints of IP. We don’t want to look outside of Games Workshop kits for inspiration, and rarely expand our hobby horizons beyond ‘two thin coats’ and other brand-approved advice.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve had far more fun with this hobby when I’ve abandoned these self-applied shackles and allowed myself more freedom. Whether it’s using oil paints to create John Blanche-style paintjobs or exploring independent miniature sculptors’ work to bring more variety to my hobby, moving away from the worlds of Warhammer has helped improve my processes and find the fun in 40k.

Still, I get disgruntled. I see the pile of plastic on my table and simply can’t face painting it all. In the past, I’ve used this as an opportunity to change things up. One time, I built an Ent out of waste sprue. Last time I faced this problem, I made a zine. Now, I’m going to collage.

How Does Collage Help Warhammer?

I am a big believer that the act of creating inspires creativity. It’s a snowball effect that starts with a single flake. In this case, the act of creating micro-collages on playing cards gets your synapses connecting in the right sort of ways to inspire creativity in your miniature making and painting. However, these cards also have a secondary effect.

As well as being small pieces of art in their own right, each card is inlaid with a message. My cards are emblazoned with mantras that span from ‘blood’, to ‘touch grass’, to ‘paint something for a new game’, and everything in between. Each of these is intended to spark inspiration in my brain. Or, it will be a confirmation of what I don’t want to do—for instance, if I draw a card that says ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ and I let out an inadvertent sigh, I’ll take that as a sign I want to do something else. I made this deck, so I can choose when to follow the rules that these cards set out.

I’ve used some of my favourite art in these cards, printed off the internet and glued onto a 79p set of playing cards I bought from Home Bargains. The Art Institute of Chicago has a great resource of free-use art online, so I borrowed my favourite pieces from Francis Bacon, Georgia O’Keefe, JMW Turner, as well as using the search function to discover other artists I’d never heard of before. I also tore up a couple of old editions of EDGE magazine for worthy textures and lettering. Sometimes an image sparked an idea, other times I sought out something specific to match a prompt I particularly wanted to use. I let ideas flow freely, whether they were good or bad, and didn’t spend too much time thinking.

Maybe it’s some ethereal power or the ritualistic aspect of forging this deck from old magazines and a liberal application of Mod Podge, but my creative spirit has been thoroughly restored. It’s been helped by a change of medium, trying something new, and by the cards themselves. This time last week, I was staring into a black hole of inspiration, feeling my imagination slip away into the void. Now, I have a deck of 30 cards to utilise as hobby prompts, and 24 more yet to make. Whether you paint Space Marines or historical figures, build battleships or sculpt faeries, it’s worth taking a step back and finding inspiration in new places.

I may not have made any tangible dent in my pile of shame this week, but I’ve come away inspired and ready to tackle my next project with renewed vigour. The black hole is disappearing in my spaceship’s rearview mirror, and I’m destined for a pearlescent swirl of a galaxy never before explored. And I feel safe in the comfort that, should its searching tendrils of antimatter come clawing at my subconscious again, I’m armed with the perfect deterrent for its inspiration-draining influence. A simple deck of cards; customised, collaged, and capable of rewiring my brain at a moment’s notice.

Warhammer 40K

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