Blank cards?

I've always been curious about the blank tarot cards that's on sale. I have a question though: is the surface of the blank side shiny? Ugh..I momentarily forgot what you call the shiny surface of the paper. Basically, what I'm worried about is the medium that I can use on the cards if I were to make my own deck. The "shiny surface" sometimes don't take pen, markers, or color pencils too well. Same with water color...that won't work at all. Anyone's who has bought the blank deck before and can tell me how the surface is and what kind of medium it's suitable for?

i dont know if they are shiney - but if they are you should use

ACRYLIC PAINT, OIL PAINT (but this takes too long to dry!!!!),

or PERMANENT MARKER PENS

ALSO - A QUESTION

does anyone know where i can buy blank cards in the UK???

you know what i did? something really simple and probably kind of silly. i bought three white posterboards from wal-mart. they're in teh stationary department and they have all sorts of colours usually. i measured the size of the cards i want and outlined them and then cut one out at a time. for me, it's the perfect thickness and the un-shiny side is great to draw on and erasers work well, if you're using graphite like me.

in the us, in my area, white posterboards at wal-mart are like .36 cents. so, perhaps it would be a good idea for you as well? with the size i have i can fit all of the major arcana on two posterboards with some left over for major mistakes.