DIY Pokemon GO AR Trading Cards

     One of my favorite features of Pokemon GO is the AR (augmented reality), wherein the program superimposes an animated image of the Pokemon you've clicked on over the image of your surroundings displayed by your phone's camera.  It enables you to take all sorts of cutesy or humorous photos with your favorite Pokemon.  But what can you do with these photos once you have them?  Why not fashion your own trading cards using your AR images?

Materials:
*Printed AR Pokemon photos
*Letter and number stickers (I used my Silhouette CAMEO to cut out the letters and numbers.  It was cheaper than buying packs of stickers, but gluing down every letter took quite a while)
*Blue cardstock
*Red cardstock
*White cardstock
*Black cardstock
*Mounting tape and/or all purpose adhesive
*Scissors
*Pencil

Directions:
*Attach printed photos to blue cardstock and then trim off the excess cardstock around the photo.

*Using stickers (or letter cut outs), write the Pokemon's number in the Pokedex and its name across the top (or bottom) of the photo (see e.g below).

*Print out the Pokeball template given below and cut out the pieces.

*On black cardstock, trace the large circle shape.

*On red cardstock, trace the shape corresponding to the upper half of the Pokeball.

*On white cardstock, trace the shape corresponding to the lower half of the Pokeball and the smaller circle.

*Cut out the various cardstock shapes and assemble the red and white cardstock pieces over the black circle to create the Pokeball shape.  Glue down the pieces.

*Glue the Pokeball to the center of the back side of the card.

*Using stickers (or letter cut outs), write Pokemon along the top of the Pokeball, curving with the shape, and GO at the bottom of the Pokeball.  Now you have your very own Pokemon GO trading cards!

Further tips and ideas: if you have friends or family members who are also fans of the game, you can exchange cards with one another to get your favorite Pokemon/complete your Pokedex, or you can give them out as gifts.  Wondering where to store your new trading cards?  Find a plain photo album that will fit your cards (mine I printed on 6 x 4 photo paper and then bought 12 x 12 sheets separated into 6 x 4 segments) and decorate it to look like a trading card book.