The Deck That Started Mimies Cards

Hi, I'm Mia, the face behind Mimies Cards. People ask how this all started, and the honest answer is: with a homesick brother and a very ordinary idea that turned out not to be ordinary at all.

The deck that started it

A few years back my brother was living overseas. We're a close family, and there's only so much a group chat can do when someone's on the other side of the world. I wanted to send him something that wasn't another care package of snacks he could buy there anyway.

So I made him a deck of cards with our photos through it. Family holidays, terrible old baby photos, the dog. Nothing fancy, just us, shuffled into something he'd actually use.

And that was the thing. He didn't put it on a shelf. He played with it. Flatmates, hostels, aeroplane tray tables. Every game came with a story about the people on the cards, and he told me later it was the closest thing to having us in the room. A photo frame would've sat on his desk. The deck went everywhere.

That's when it clicked for me: a simple pack of cards can carry a lot more than card games.

Why cards, of all things

Because they get used. That's the whole philosophy, honestly.

Most photo gifts are made for looking at. They're lovely for a week, then they become part of the furniture. Cards are different. They come out at the bach, at Christmas, on camping trips, at 11pm when someone says "one more round." Every single time, the photos come too. You're not just giving someone pictures, you're giving them a hundred future moments where those pictures land on the table mid-game and someone says "oh, remember this?"

That's why every deck we make is designed to be played with, not just admired. Proper card stock, a finish that shuffles the way cards should, photos placed so the deck feels like one beautiful thing rather than a collage that got out of hand.

From one deck to Mimies

After my brother's deck, I made a few more. One for a friend's grandparents, loaded with grandkid photos. One as an anniversary gift. Then friends of friends started asking, and somewhere in there it stopped being a hobby with a hot glue gun energy and became Mimies Cards.

These days we make custom photo decks for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and every kind of occasion, plus our chaos-in-a-box drinking game for the nights that need refereeing. My sisters are part of it too, which feels right for a business that started as a family gift.

The part I care about most hasn't changed: you send us your photos, and we design the deck. Not a fiddly online editor where the layout becomes your problem at 10pm. You choose the memories, we make them look like they were always meant to be a deck of cards.

What we're about

Every deck that leaves us has to pass the same test my brother's did: would someone actually use this, again and again, and feel something every time? If it's just going to sit in a drawer looking sentimental, we haven't done our job.

Personal, thoughtful, and a little bit iconic. That's the bar.

If you've got someone in mind — a nana who takes cards far too seriously, a partner, a mate overseas — send us your photos and we'll design them a deck.