I want to have a waterproof set of Cards Against Humanity. How?
June 13, 2014 12:48 PM
The idea of playing Cards Against Humanity in a hot tub sounds awesome. How can I make this happen? Bonus points for waterproofing options that don't cost hundreds of dollars and/or don't take hundreds of hours of work.
Go to Kinkos and have someone laminate them for you. It'll cost.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 12:54 PM on June 13, 2014
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 12:54 PM on June 13, 2014
If laminating and cutting them out is too much work, what about these laminating luggage tag pouches? I've used them to make spoke cards before, they're very waterproof, and seem like they'd be the right size.
posted by Juliet Banana at 1:01 PM on June 13, 2014
posted by Juliet Banana at 1:01 PM on June 13, 2014
I think you will need to self laminate them; the large press laminators at commercial places have minimum size and maximum thickness requirements. There are sticky lamination cards and heat-based (need a machine) as well. Check the stock thickness before putting money into a small home laminating machine.
You could DIY with clear Contact paper. Cut a square, lay sticky side up over a grid (to allow you to lay them out evenly with minimal spacing). Lay out cards, then put another square sticky side down atop the cards. Smooth down and cut apart.
This acrylic coating is moisture resistant, not proof. Test on similar cards.
posted by Buttons Bellbottom at 1:03 PM on June 13, 2014
You could DIY with clear Contact paper. Cut a square, lay sticky side up over a grid (to allow you to lay them out evenly with minimal spacing). Lay out cards, then put another square sticky side down atop the cards. Smooth down and cut apart.
This acrylic coating is moisture resistant, not proof. Test on similar cards.
posted by Buttons Bellbottom at 1:03 PM on June 13, 2014
Bonus points for waterproofing options that don't cost hundreds of dollars and/or don't take hundreds of hours of work.
Parallelize your solution: Take the people you play this game with and give them each a subset of cards to laminate before the game starts, in exchange for something (you'll pay for the food or drink for game night, etc.). Your lamination costs won't change a whole lot, but your time expenditure will be divided by the number of people in your group.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:14 PM on June 13, 2014
Parallelize your solution: Take the people you play this game with and give them each a subset of cards to laminate before the game starts, in exchange for something (you'll pay for the food or drink for game night, etc.). Your lamination costs won't change a whole lot, but your time expenditure will be divided by the number of people in your group.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:14 PM on June 13, 2014
In my experience kinko's laminating is better quality than those DIY contact paper kits.
When I've done it before, the laminating material comes in roughly letter-sized sheets and is basically designed to laminate cardstock type things. It'll be more cost effective to arrange several cards on each sheet, but otherwise you shouldn't have to worry about size and thickness requirements.
The machines kinko's uses basically are the small home machines, or at least are the same type of laminating machine I used when I worked in a TV art department, which came from an office or art supply company and was nothing especially fabulous. That said it would be a lot cheaper to laminate a few hundred cards at kinko's than it would be to buy one of those machines and the lamination sheets. Unless you really laminate a lot of stuff.
It is also possible to get ID-card sized lamination sheets and run them through those kinko's/office laminators, though IMO for your use it would still be more efficient to line up a dozen cards per standard sized sheet than to get the specially sized sheets. It would save trimming time, though.
posted by Sara C. at 1:19 PM on June 13, 2014
When I've done it before, the laminating material comes in roughly letter-sized sheets and is basically designed to laminate cardstock type things. It'll be more cost effective to arrange several cards on each sheet, but otherwise you shouldn't have to worry about size and thickness requirements.
The machines kinko's uses basically are the small home machines, or at least are the same type of laminating machine I used when I worked in a TV art department, which came from an office or art supply company and was nothing especially fabulous. That said it would be a lot cheaper to laminate a few hundred cards at kinko's than it would be to buy one of those machines and the lamination sheets. Unless you really laminate a lot of stuff.
It is also possible to get ID-card sized lamination sheets and run them through those kinko's/office laminators, though IMO for your use it would still be more efficient to line up a dozen cards per standard sized sheet than to get the specially sized sheets. It would save trimming time, though.
posted by Sara C. at 1:19 PM on June 13, 2014
Cards Against Humanity is given away for free in PDF form on their website. The base set, at least. Maybe you could have that printed out on a plastic sheet and cut them yourself?
posted by Willie0248 at 1:23 PM on June 13, 2014
posted by Willie0248 at 1:23 PM on June 13, 2014
Do they need to be water proof to play in the hot tub? Couldn't people just dry off their hands and keep the cards out of the water?
posted by bleep at 1:28 PM on June 13, 2014
posted by bleep at 1:28 PM on June 13, 2014
Print them on waterproof paper? They'd be a little floppy. And probably wouldn't hold up to prolonged submersion.
posted by mskyle at 1:54 PM on June 13, 2014
posted by mskyle at 1:54 PM on June 13, 2014
There is cheap-ish waterproof paper for laser and inkjet.
posted by mercredi at 1:56 PM on June 13, 2014
posted by mercredi at 1:56 PM on June 13, 2014
Max here, from Cards Against Humanity.
Cards Against Humanity cards are already made with an aqueous plastic coating that should hold up to moisture - my deck has survived some beer spills and wet tables.
We tested out the hot tub question a while back on our blog and found that the cards should survive.
If you're really worried about it, I would either purchase some card sleeves or have the cards laminated. You could also always coat them with this stuff.
posted by Maxistentialist at 2:05 PM on June 13, 2014
Cards Against Humanity cards are already made with an aqueous plastic coating that should hold up to moisture - my deck has survived some beer spills and wet tables.
We tested out the hot tub question a while back on our blog and found that the cards should survive.
If you're really worried about it, I would either purchase some card sleeves or have the cards laminated. You could also always coat them with this stuff.
posted by Maxistentialist at 2:05 PM on June 13, 2014
Just an FYI on lamination - the plastic seems thin when you handle one sheet and do one finished card but it really stacks up when you do the entire deck. The finished stack will be WAY thicker than you imagined.
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:57 PM on June 13, 2014
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:57 PM on June 13, 2014
Do you know any teachers? We used to laminate stuff in their work room, always leaving money for compensation. The machine and the roll of laminating stuff is about 3 feet wide. We fed the cards in one at a time across the width of the machine, which was rolling continuously, so the row of cards ended up being mostly diagonal. 10 feet later, voila, deck of laminated cards. Cutting was kind of a pain, since the rows were not straight.
posted by CathyG at 4:38 PM on June 13, 2014
posted by CathyG at 4:38 PM on June 13, 2014
Buy a second set and just use one of them in the water; they'll hold up long enough to get in a few games which is really all you're likely to want from Hot Tub Humanity. The cost of one set is less than you'll spend on card sleeves or even laminating.
posted by HoteDoge at 8:25 PM on June 13, 2014
posted by HoteDoge at 8:25 PM on June 13, 2014
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posted by sdis at 12:51 PM on June 13, 2014