Tacomans are invited to celebrate next week the arrival of the Tacoma Playing Cards, a professional, poker-grade, and unique deck designed by Tacoma artist Chandler O’Leary and featuring 14 artists’ illustrated interpretations of 54 Tacoma locations, stories and icons.

Local company Tacoma Makes launched an online, crowd-sourced fund-raising campaign on the Web site Kickstarter.com to raise $13,000 in order to cover the initial investment of artist fees and printing costs. In the end, 376 backers contributed more than $20,000 toward the project. Having beat fund-raising expectations, the company increased its print run from 2,500 to 5,000 decks of cards and started planning for a second deck of cards.

The celebration will take place on Fri., Oct. 26 between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. at Amocat Cafe, located at 625 Saint Helens Avenue (the original artwork is on display at the cafe throughout the month of October). Visitors will be able to see and purchase the original artwork, pick up their own deck of cards, claim their Kickstarter rewards, meet the artists, and enjoy give-aways, snacks, and no-host beer and wine.

On Thurs., Nov. 8, Kings Books, located at 218 Saint Helens Avenue, will host a game night for visitors to play card games including go-fish, hearts, poker and more. The Tacoma playing cards will be provided and participants will play for various prizes throughout the night.

More information is online at tacomamakes.com.