I just purchased the Martin Lewis - Making Magic Volume 1 DVD....and was a bit surprised at all the materials needed for Cardiographic. It is probably my #1 favourite visual, scratch-your-head trying to figure out how it's done illusions.

I know the sketchpad can be pretty much any top spiral bound sketchpad , but the other pieces of materials (which I won't name here for exposure purposes). Can you substitute those for other similar materials? The specialty paper is the one that I might have the hardest time finding. I don't see why that part needs to be constructed using such materials.

Anyone with tips?

And YES I did buy the DVD....I'm not trying to get free information from anyone.

I'm about to head out now to check out my local art stores to see if they carry a usable sketchpad and some of the other material needed.

Go to Staples, then to Home Depot.

If anyone finds a supply of the Bienfang top spiral notepads I would be more than happy to pay for materials and shipping we do not have Staples in Las Vegas.

Thanks.

Well...for those of you in Canada, (sorry, apparently the site doesn't ship to the US anymore) Check out Curry's at http://www.currys.com

They have 9"x12" sketchpads for $4.99. I know the video suggests using legal size 11" x 14" .... but I'm sure you can modify things to accommodate this size.

I'm going for a bit of a scavenger hunt later to find the materials needed. I'll post my findings on here when I return.

Try http://www.staples.com

I typed in a zip code in Las Vegas and they said they can get it to you in one day.

The envelopes are actually pretty easy to find at Office Depot or Staples. I built mine with just a plain paper envelope and it works fine.

Thanks,
Richard

I am not really sure what problems you may be running into...this effect I did years ago after seeing it performed on TV, a beautiful effect indeed! But I did not think it was that hard to firgure out, I went to staples and from some stuff I had at my home I built it in about 45 mins, then built a working prop that I used in my show after that in 15min. Look at it there are simpler ways to create the same effect since you know how it works!

It's a little bit of work, but it is WELL WORTH the effort! I built mine from the directions on the DVD, and it works great. A bonus tip I've tried out - when I'm doing a kid's show, I designed the gimmicked card to look like a cute little rabbit holding a playing card. Instead of the typical jumbo card rising from a deck of cards, I have a rabbit rising up out of a top hat, and the rabbit is holding the selected card. This makes it more relevant for kid's shows, IMO. I wsa going to make up an entirely separate gimmick and pad for the kid's show method, but then came up with the idea of using the same gimmick and pad. The way I did it was just to use the same gimmick, but I drew the rabbit card on the BACK of the 3D jumbo card, so now all I have to do is flip it over if I'm doing a kid's show, instead of having to make up 2 separate pads.