MonoMonday: Three

Today's Mono Monday challenge is hosted by Rainie.

This didn't turn out quite as I'd envisaged it... The red of the 3 ended up a rather unimpressive grey, and I couldn't coax it to a shade that would both be strong enough to make a bold focal point and yet very distinct from the black of the other cards. (I'd have loved to leave it red, but that would NOT be in keeping with Mono Monday!) So I went for a slightly more radical contrast.

Looking at cards close up like this - and these are fairly old ones - you can see that not only do they wear with use, the standard of mass production (imperfect printing, poor alignment) dates from a time when there was huge demand and they were made and sold cheaply. A time when a family's entertainment of an evening was a game of cards rather than sitting glassy-eyed in front of the latest reality tv spectacular or talent show (and I'm sure provided a LOT more mental stimulation!).

When I was young, we played a lot of cards: rummy tournaments with running scores kept all through a two-week caravanning holiday; pontoon for matches or hordes of foreign (and later pre-decimal) coins; and whist with my grandparents, who, as serious bridge players, probably never got over the disappointment of our limited aptitude for the finer points of play!