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Instructions and Tips for Use of ASL Play Aids 
 Cheat Sheets and Charts 

Cheat Sheets are small, two-sided play aids designed to be printed, cut out, and laminated.  Each cheat sheet is focused on a particular subject, and is small enough to place directly on or near the playing area, as opposed to having to find room for large charts. 

To use these Cheat Sheets, print them out using the "two sided printing" feature of your printer (a few printers can do two sided printing automatically, but most require one to print one side then reinsert the paper to print the second side).  

Alternatively, put them on CD/DVD/flashdrive and take them to a copying establishment that can do two-sided printing.  It is possible to get the two-sided printing effect by using a photocopier, but this is physically more difficult.  It is also possible to print pages separately, cut them out, then glue them to each other or to a piece of cardstock.  Then one could laminate them.

Even if printed on a thick cardstock, these play aids will last longer if laminated.  Personal laminators are quite inexpensive now--models for $100 to $300 are available at office supply stores like Staples.  Copying establishments such as Kinko's can laminate play aids for a small fee.

 OBA Access Cards

There are several possible methods to create attractive OBA access cards.

Essentially, they are designed to be printed (two-sided), then laminated and trimmed.   The exact number of cards one should create depends on individual wishes, but a safe number is to create enough cards for two American artillery modules.

Printing.  Because it is important to keep variation (between printing on front and printing on back) as small as possible, it is usually better to do the two-sided printing manually rather than automatically (for those with printers with automatic two-sided printing).  When printers automatically switch to the other side of the paper, there is more variation than when it is done manually.

Trimming.  Because of the variation, it is usually desirable to leave a small white border around the cards.  That way a little variation can occur, yet one will still have a uniformly-sized set of cards.  Print out one card, put it on a sheet of white paper, draw an acceptable border around it, then create a stencil from the outline.  Use that stencil and an X-acto knife to cut out the cards.  

Laminating.  Laminate the trimmed cards, and use the stencil again to cut out the laminated cards (there may be a need to create a slightly larger stencil to handle the laminating trim).

It is possible to ignore the laminating step.  However, even if one prints the cards on executive card stock, there will be significant wear and tear on them.  One possible solution is to put them in card protectors of the sort used by people who play collectible card games.

One alternative is to print out the graphics (or put them on disk) and take them to Kinko's or a printer.  For best quality, print them on premium photo stock paper (there really is a difference in how nicely the images come out), one sided, then take them to Kinko's or equivalent to make 1 sided to 2 sided color copies.   There is less printing variation with disk-based images.

It is extremely expensive to have Kinko's do the trimming, laminating, and lamination trimming.