To make your own trading cards, design a front and a back at 2.5 by 3.5 inches, print nine to a sheet on card stock at 100%, print the backs on the reverse flipped on the long edge, and cut along the marks. Card stock around 80 to 110 lb feels real and still feeds through a home printer.
No printer handy? Print the free blank trading cards somewhere else and draw on them, or make one in the browser with the trading card maker.
1. Decide what the card is about
Kids usually know before you ask. It might be a creature they made up, the family dog, a best friend, or the whole soccer team. That choice decides the layout:
- A battle card has a name, a power number, two moves and a line of flavor text.
- A sports card is mostly picture, with a number and a few stats along the bottom.
- A pet or friend card swaps the stats for star ratings and a few lines about them. Five stars for cuddles, two for manners.
Make up your own types, symbols and frames. Copying a real game's logo or card design is a quick way to make a card you can't share.
2. Lay out the front
Work at the real size, 2.5 by 3.5 inches (63 by 88 mm). Anything drawn bigger and shrunk later ends up with words too small to read.
Keep a border of about an eighth of an inch all round. Cutting by hand is never perfect, and the border hides a cut that wanders. Then, top to bottom: the name, the picture taking up about half the card, and the moves, stats or notes underneath. Big, simple pictures read better at this size than detailed ones.
3. Make the back
One back for the whole set makes the cards look like they belong together. A pattern, a scene or a logo you drew works, with the set's name and room for a number like 3/12. Kids will hunt for the cards they're missing once there's a number to chase.
4. Print the fronts
Nine cards fit on a sheet: three across and three down take 7.5 by 10.5 inches, which leaves room for cut marks on Letter or A4.
- Paper: card stock around 80 to 110 lb cover, about 215 to 300 gsm. Plain printer paper feels flimsy, and much thicker stock jams. Check the heaviest paper your printer takes, and use its rear tray if it has one.
- Scale: print at 100%, or “actual size”. “Fit to page” shrinks every card a little. Measure one card on the first print to check.
5. Print the backs so they line up
This is the step that goes wrong. Set two-sided printing to flip on the long edge. When the sheet turns over left to right, its columns swap, so the back meant for the left-hand card has to sit in the right-hand column of the backs page. The middle column stays put.
Before using card stock, print one test on plain paper and hold it up to a window. If the backs sit a few millimetres off, that's normal for a home printer, and a plain-colored back or a wider border on the back hides it. If your printer can't print both sides, print the backs page, put the sheet back in the tray the right way round, and mark a corner first so you know which way that is.
6. Cut them out
A paper trimmer gives the straightest cuts. Otherwise use a craft knife and a steel ruler on a cutting mat, cutting the long lines across the whole sheet first and then the short ones. An adult should do the knife part. A corner rounder punch makes the cards look bought. Then they go into penny sleeves or a nine-pocket binder page, both made for this size.
Ideas that go down well
- A card for the pet, with a photo and honest ratings.
- A card for every player on a kid’s team, numbered as a set, handed out at the end-of-season party.
- Birthday cards for the birthday kid, or one for each guest as a party favor.
- A family set, where grandparents get the highest power numbers.
Doing it on a phone
Card Lab, our app, does the layout and the printing for you. It opens on a finished card to change, with picture buttons first so a child who can’t read yet can still make one, and it has battle, star and buddy cards, 56 hand-drawn stickers, drawing and photos. Every card has a back, and it prints sheets of nine at real size with cut marks and a page of backs placed to land behind the fronts. On iPhone and iPad the print dialog asks the printer for both sides. On Android the sheet is a PDF that goes to the share sheet, so set both sides in your printer’s app.
It doesn’t do everything. The cards stay on the phone that made them, and you still need a printer and scissors. It’s free on the App Store and Google Play.
Download on the App Store ▶ Get it on Google Play
Looking at other card makers too? We put them side by side, with what each costs, in apps like PokeArt.
Frequently asked questions
What size is a trading card?
2.5 by 3.5 inches, which is 63 by 88 mm. Most collectible card games and sports cards use it, and standard card sleeves and nine-pocket binder pages are made to fit it.
What paper should I print trading cards on?
Card stock, not printer paper. Something around 80 to 110 lb cover (about 215 to 300 gsm) feels like a real card and still goes through most home printers. Check your printer's heaviest paper setting first, and feed it from the rear tray if it has one.
How many trading cards fit on a page?
Nine. Three across and three down at 2.5 by 3.5 inches takes 7.5 by 10.5 inches, which fits on both Letter and A4 with room for cut marks.
How do I print the backs so they line up?
Print the backs on the reverse of the sheet with two-sided printing set to flip on the long edge. Because the sheet turns over left to right, the back for the left column has to sit in the right column. Print one test sheet on plain paper and hold it to a window before using card stock.
Can I make trading cards on my phone?
Yes. Card Lab, which we make, designs the front and back on a phone and prints sheets of nine at real size with cut marks. It's free with one banner ad, on the App Store and Google Play.
Can I make trading cards without an app?
Yes. The free trading card maker on this site makes one card at a time in a browser and prints it at real size. Or print the blank trading cards and draw them by hand.