Have you received one of our cards? Was it:

Nourish, a game about flowers and bees? Watch a video or read more detailed instructions.

..

Hearts, a game for two people, with hearts on the front? Watch a video or read more detailed instructions.

A Roll & Colour game for one person, with a large variety of shapes including stars, sweets, gifts, ribbons, or tulips? Watch a video or read more detailed instructions.

Click on the links above or scroll down to watch a rules video.

Buy cards in our Etsy shop.

Nourish

Welcome to Nourish. This is a game on a greetings card — lay the card flat, and you can play a game on the front of the card, using the instructions on the back. 

What do you need to play Nourish?

Let’s start with what you need to play the game. You need the card, laid flat in front of you. Then you need two dice, or you could roll dice by typing “roll dice” into your browser. You need a small thing, like a button or a coin, or even a little rolled up bit of paper. Then you need something to write with. You will be ticking boxes on the front of the card, but if you want to keep the card looking pristine, then use the envelope instead. 

Before you start

Take the button (or other small object), and place it at the start of the track, where it says “start”. Every time you roll the dice, this button will move one space along the track. This button represents a bumblebee slowly waking up after the cold winter. 

Before you start you should also take a better look at the front of the card. There are seven windows containing seven flowers. Each flower has one blank box, one row of numbered boxes with a tiny drop of water symbol at the front, and one row of numbered boxes with a little sunshine symbol. The numbered boxes are coloured according to the numbers, so so it’s a bit easier to see what’s where. 

How to play

There are four phases to each turn. 

1. Roll the dice
2. Move the bee (that’s the button or other small object) one space further along the track
3. Match your dice results with the two rows on a flower. One die result should match a number in the “water” row, and the other die should match a number in the “sunshine” row. It doesn’t matter which of the dice matches which row. (See example below.)
4. Tick off the flower you have matched, you may only tick each flower once. 

An example of matching numbers

What does it mean to match the numbers you roll to the rows representing water and sunlight? Let’s look at the water and sunshine requirements of two flowers in detail. Suppose you rolled 1 and 2 — you could match the example on the left. If you rolled 5 and 6, you could match the example on the right. It doesn’t matter which of the dice goes with which row, but you must match one in each row.

An example of a full turn

Let’s do an example from the start. 

First, roll the dice. Imagine you rolled 5 and 3. 

Second, move the bee! That means the button or the coin or whatever you are using. Every time you roll, you must remember to move the bee.

Third, match your dice to a flower. Remember that in this example you rolled a 5 and a 3. There are only two flowers which have that combination, so you choose one.

Fourth, you tick off your flower by putting a mark in the blank box. You can only tick each flower once. 

What if you can’t match?

But what if you can’t choose a flower because there is no match? Perhaps you roll a 5 and a 3 half way through the game, but you have already ticked off both the options? Well, you can reroll one or both of the dice. But remember, each time you reroll, regardless of whether it is one of two dice, the bee moves along one space. 

How to win

You win the game by ticking off every flower before the bee reaches the end of the track. Some of the flowers have more common combinations than others, so you may need to be strategic about which you choose early in the game. You may also need to think carefully about which dice you roll. If you don’t want to to tick the card itself, you could also note the flowers on the envelope and tick them off that way. 

Enjoy your card!

Cards for two people

How do you play our two player Roll & Colour cards? Watch the video below, or scroll down for instructions.

What do you need to play Hearts?

You need two players, six different coloured pencils, and four dice.

If you don’t have six different colours then you could use one pencil and draw patterns instead — there are some suggestions further on.

If you don’t have four dice then you could roll dice on your phone. Type “roll four dice” into your browser and it will probably do it for you.

Before you start

There are three set up stages you need to complete before you play.

• Number the columns and rows. We suggest that you number the columns 1, 2, 3, left to right, and the rows 4, 5, 6 starting at the top. Really you could number them however you like, provided that the numbers 1-6 each appear once.
• Allocate a different colour (or pattern) to each number of the dice. There are six dice on the back on the card, so the easiest thing to do is to colour these. That colour then represents that number — so for example if you roll a 6 then you use the colour you allocated to 6.
• Decide which player will colour the inside part of each heart, and which will colour the outside.

You can do the colours in any order you wish, but here’s a rainbow suggestion. If you’re using patterns instead of colours then Bez (of Stuff by Bez) suggests using stripes one way, stripes the other way, hatching, swirly lines, zigzags, and dots.

How to play

The aim of the game is to colour the hearts in different colours. (You’ll score points at the end for hearts which are not next to a heart of the of the same colour — although each of you will only be counting your own parts of the heart.) The way you colour the hearts in is:

• Roll four dice.
• Allocate one die to a column, one die to a row, and one die to a colour. Ignore the final die.
• Choose one blank heart in that column and row, and fill it with that colour. (Or pattern, if you’re doing patterns.)

One player (let’s suggest the player colouring the outside of the hearts) rolls the dice, chooses, and then colours first. The second player (inside hearts) uses the same four dice results to choose their heart and fill it in. Then it’s the next turn, and the inside player rolls the dice and colours first. Basically, the players take turns at rolling, with the player who rolled always colouring first.

Repeat until all the hearts are filled in. Remember that each player is only filling in their own part of the hearts.

There is one more important rule: a heart cannot have the same colour on the inside and the outside.

Example

Let’s take an example. Imagine you roll 3, 4, 6, and 6. You’ll need to use 3 for the column, as its the only number which matches your columns. You could decide to use 4 as the row, in which case you would use 6 as the colour. Or you could use 6 as the row and use either the 4 or the other 6 as the colour.

Let’s say that the player filling in the outside goes first, and chooses column 3, row 4, colour 6. They have a choice of three hearts, all shown in purple below.

Then it’s the turn of the inside player, filling in the insides of the hearts. They choose column 3, row 6, colour 4. They also have a choice of three hearts, all shown in green below. They could alternatively have chosen to use colour 6, as there were two 6s rolled.

Remember, a heart cannot have the same colour on the inside and the outside.

But what if…

You’ll have realised that if the columns are numbered 1-3 and the rows are numbered 4-6, then if you roll all 4s and 5s (for example) then you won’t be able to allocate any of the dice to a column. If that happens, re-roll all the dice.

As the game progresses then one player may find that they cannot fill in a heart. If one player cannot go, then they simply miss the chance to colour in a heart. They might end up with a blank heart at the end of the game…

How to score

The game ends when one person has filled in all their hearts. (Finish that turn though.)

Each player counts their hearts separately. Points are awarded for:

• 1 point per colour used (maximum of 6, of course)
• -1 point per blank heart
• 1 point per heart which does not share a cell (i.e. the same row and column) with a heart of the same colour

That last one may be a bit tricky. The best way to work it out is to look at each heart individually and ask whether it falls into the same cell as a heart of the same colour. Remember you are only looking at the parts you filled in, which is either the inside or the outside. Cross out any hearts which are in a cell with a heart of the same colour. They count up the remaining hearts.

In the example below the outside player has two green hearts in cell 1/5, and two purple hearts in cell 3/5. If we cross these out, there are 12 coloured hearts remaining. The inside player has two blue hearts in cell 1/4.

Cards for one person

How do you play our solo Roll & Colour cards? Watch the video below, or scroll down for instructions.

What do you need to play your card?

You need one player (you!), six different coloured pencils, and three dice.

If you don’t have six different colours then you could use one pencil and draw patterns instead — there are some suggestions further on.

If you don’t have three dice then you could roll dice on your phone. Type “roll three dice” into your browser and it will probably do it for you.

Before you start

There are two set up stages you need to complete before you play.

• Number the columns and rows. We suggest that you number the columns 1, 2, 3, left to right, and the rows 4, 5, 6 starting at the top. Really you could number them however you like, provided that the numbers 1-6 each appear once.
• Allocate a different colour (or pattern) to each number of the dice. There are six dice on the back on the card, so the easiest thing to do is to colour these. That colour then represents that number — so for example if you roll a 6 then you use the colour you allocated to 6.

You can do the colours in any order you wish, but here’s a rainbow suggestion. If you’re using patterns instead of colours then Bez (of Stuff by Bez) suggests using stripes one way, stripes the other way, hatching, swirly lines, zigzags, and dots.

How to play

The aim of the game is to colour the stars in different colours. (You’ll score points at the end for stars which are not next to a star of the of the same colour.) The way you colour the stars in is:

• Roll three dice.
• Allocate one die to a column, one die to a row, and one die to a colour.
• Choose one blank star in that column and row, and fill it with that colour. (Or pattern, if you’re doing patterns.)

Repeat these steps until all the stars are filled in.

Let’s take an example. Imagine you roll 3, 4, and 6. You’ll need to use 3 for the column, as its the only number which matches your columns. You could decide to use 4 as the row, in which case you would use 6 as the colour. Or you could use 6 as the row and use 4 as the colour. In either case, you fill in one star.

But what if…

You’ll have realised that if the columns are numbered 1-3 and the rows are numbered 4-6, then if you roll all 4s and 5s (for example) then you won’t be able to allocate any of the dice to a column. If that happens, you can either flip one of your dice over, or you can re-roll all of your dice.

As you fill in more stars then you may run out of blank stars. You may find that you cannot fill in a star. If that is the case, then flip over one of the dice or re-roll all of your dice.

How to score

The game ends when all stars are filled in. Score one point for each star which is not in a square with a star of the same colour.

Up to 13 points: good!

14-16 points: great!

17 points: perfect score!

About these cards

The Roll & Colour patterns on these cards were originally developed as worksheets for children. However, adults seemed to have so much fun colouring in that we thought it wasn’t fair to leave them out!

They are printed as A5 cards — which is quite large, but not ridiculously so. The sections of the card needing to be coloured are blank, so that you can easily colour. The shapes are big enough for you to use patterns, or even just write the number in the middle of the shape.