Making your own Bingo Cards
If you love playing bingo, then you obviously like using the old 5 X 5 and/or 3 X 9 numbered cards. After all, these cards are the ones used in big money games, and they’re also the ones you’re used to as well.
Even still, it can get pretty boring playing on the same style of cards over and over again. Unfortunately, you can’t force bingo clubs and websites to change the cards they offer to suit your needs. You can however make your own bingo cards and play them with friends and family. Here’s a quick look at how to make fun and exciting bingo cards as well as some additional ideas for decorating them.
Ways to make Bingo Cards
What’s really great about making your own bingo cards is that you can use several options when creating them. The most attractive way to create bingo cards involves making them on your computer and printing them out. Whether you use a fancy design program or a simple word processor, you’ll have lots of different tools at your disposal when creating cards. You can shade each square with different colors, make designs at the top of the card, draw pictures, and more with a computer.
Of course, if you don’t want to spend a bunch of time making bingo cards, you can always go to a website and print them off. Dozens of internet websites have creatively designed bingo cards so the only thing you need to do is find them and start printing.
If you want total control over your custom bingo cards and/or don’t like using computers, creating bingo cards by hand is always an option too. Poster board makes for good bingo cards while you can stick with paper as well. After choosing a material, you should use a ruler to measure out each square and to keep your lines straight. You can also color in squares or make designs just like with a computer, only this way you have total control during the process. Just keep in mind that making bingo cards by freehand is very time-consuming (depending on how many cards you make).
Ideas for Custom Bingo Cards
How much you choose to deviate from the norm when making bingo cards is all up to you. But in most cases, the farther people go off the board when making their bingo cards, the more fun they have. Keeping that in mind, here are some things you can do to create some really good bingo cards.
Change the number of squares: As mentioned before, 5 X 5 and 3 X 9 bingo cards are the norm. But since you have options when creating a bingo card, you don’t have to stay in the box; you could make 3 X 3 cards, 7 X 7 cards, 3 X 7 cards, etc. And if you choose to make different sized cards, you can make up different winning patterns as well.
Substitute words for numbers: It isn’t imperative that bingo cards have numbers on them…it’s just the way they are typically made. That being said, you can easily substitute words for numbers on bingo cards and not miss a thing. When using words instead of numbers, it’s always a good idea to keep a theme such as foods, cars, movies, or anything else you can think of.
Bake edible bingo cards: Baking bingo cards might sound crazy, but if you’re really looking for something different and have a love of baking, this is the perfect idea. After you bake the bingo cards, you can decorate them with frosting and make the lines and numbers this way too. Just make sure everything is dry before playing!
Get creative with markers: Aside from the actual cards, you can also have fun by passing out interesting markers to players instead of the usual daubers. Some fun things you can use to mark the cards include seashells, colored pebbles, candy, and pennies.
