52 Things Tutorial

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I know, everyone and their great aunt Josie has done a deck of cards about something for someone but this is MY personal spin on it.


First, everything you need. A deck of cards, a hole puncher, two key rings, and a Sharpie.


Bust open that deck of cards and pull aside any and all ads and crap cards. I use the one 'nice' Joker as a cover of the book. You'll see that later.


Test your Sharpie on one of the crap cards to make sure it's the line width you want. Make sure your Sharpie/pen of choice does not bleed or smear. Also, this is to make sure the pen is not dried up.


Next, take a crap card and experiment with where you want the holes to be.


I like putting them in the corners, like this. I only use two holes but you may have three if you want.


Shuffle the cards. (I suck at shuffling.) This makes it easier to not pay attention to any one particular card. UNLESS of course you WANT them in the order they came out of the box. I like mine mixed.


This is Jing. Go ahead, Jing, pick a card. Any card.


As you can guess by now, I like writing directly on the card. I don't like messing with glue or modge podge, personally. It makes the deck even thicker in the end and I just don't care to do that. Again, you can do whatever you want with your deck; this is just how I do mine. :)


This is the cover. My fiance's nickname is 'bunneh' and I use it endearingly.


Here all the cards have been written on. I write longer things on 'small' cards (2s, 3s) and short things on 'big' cards (10s, Jacks). Also, I shuffled them again.


Make sure your key rings can contain the entire book. Having extra space to enable turning the 'pages' is also something to keep in mind. I bought colored rings and used purple ones because that's my fiance's favorite color.


Punch those holes! I line the book up afterwards, just to make sure they are even. The holes do NOT have to be PERFECT, just close enough that the book will look 'right' when you're done.


Start threading the cards on either one at a time or a few at a time, whichever you feel most comfortable with doing. It's ok if the rings scratch at the cards. The cards are pretty resilient and so you shouldn't have to worry about ripping them unless you're being rough.


First hole is done and it looks great so far!


Now repeat the process with the second hole and ring.


Now you're done! Yay! You made a book!


Here's an example of the book opened.


For me, it was extremely easy to think of 52 things. In fact, this was the SECOND book I made for my fiance. The first one I did for our 6th month anniversary! I will probably do one for each year from now on just because as time goes by, I can think of 52 new reasons why I love him.

Your 52 things don't have to be long. As you can see, I love the sound of his voice and that's one thing. Try to think of just a few a day and after a week you'll have more than you think! Putting a book together doesn't take long at all. Just take your time when writing on the cards because unless you have an extra deck handy, you do NOT wanna mess up!

Here are a few more things I chose to wrote down in my books to my fiance to give you an idea of some of the things you could write about. It may also make you realize you love the same things about your significant other. And I don't care if you copy them. :)

You listen to me when I talk to you (even if it's dumb stuff)
Your laugh
You have the cutest smile
Your expert ability to burn CDs at moment's notice
Futurama marathons
You share your dark chocolate with me
Never-ending Facebook pokes
You're so sexy when you shoot pool
I can trust you with everything
CVS runs for midol and soda
You leave notes on my car
We have classes together
You never sugar coat things
Your silly dances

And so on. :) I hope this helps! Good luck with your card books!