Here goes another card idea I've been sitting on for quite some time and finally went ahead and executed. Anyone who has seen the movie knows that Heat goes hard. That shootout scene downtown towards the end always gives me goosebumps. So badass! I thought everyone in the cast was excellent in this movie, De Niro, Val Kilmer, the whole lot. And of course Al Pacino with his bat-shit crazy line delivery.
This card was simply inspired due to the fact that De Niro and his antihero cohorts wore hockey goalie masks during the opening armored truck heist scene that sets the whole movie into motion. I thought it would be fun to frame the four participants in an older hockey card design, I just needed one that featured four players. That's when I came upon the 1974-75 Topps hockey Team Leaders design. Once I had my template it was just a matter of filling in the details.
Hi there. Long time, no see. I used to have a job that was let's say roughly about 90% downtime and it was just me there. Now I work in a corporate office and the only time I get to exhale is on my lunch break. It's not that my zest for making my cards has diminished, it's just that I have next to no time for it. Well, lately I've put off other things to make time for it. I've had the itch like a crackhead twitching for his fix.
So, for the first in what seems like decades, is a brand new PCb. card. It's a one-off from the 1986 horror Deadly Friend starring a 17 year old Kristy Swanson. I went in for a re-watch and it reminded me of a card I had an idea for long ago. Deadly Friend is infamous for one scene in particular; the one in which Kristy's character explodes Mama Fratelli's head with a basketball. If I knew how to make lenticular cards this would be the first one I'd make, but that's not my lane so I gave it the ol' split screen treatment.
The template of course is the legendary 1986-87 Fleer basketball, famous for having the first mainstream Michael Jordan rookie (along with many other HOFers and legends). This is a template that I wanted to use for quite some time, but it had to be a basketball related card because the design is so synonymous with basketball.
I had funny repurposing the "Fleer Premier" crown to something more Phantom Cardboard-centric. I didn't go too crazy with the card back, just some basic cast info.
This isn't a new card per se, but it's one I don't believe I've shown anywhere before. I needed an excuse to update this site after a nearly 7 month hiatus.
As for the card, I made this one in a, to date, failed attempt at an autograph. Hannah Scharf is a Canadian collegiate gymnastics standout for the ASU Sun Devils I've previously said it before, but the 1991-92 Skybox design is choice for autographs. I collect autographs from the official basketball set. The white negative space offers the perfect canvas for an autograph to really pop, and who doesn't love those futuristic -for the time at least- computer graphics? I love making card using this design, but it does have to be among the most time consuming templates I work with. This card also gave me a reason to use one of my absolute all-time favorite mascot sports logos; Sparky the Sun Devil.
As for me, lots of changes. The biggest being a whole new career. I took a chance on myself switching careers after 22 years in the same field, and thus far the move has paid off in many ways. My old career offered me loads and loads of downtime while at work which allowed me lots of time to tinker with this custom card hobby of mine. My new career doesn't offer that same flexibility.
I've had a lot of fun adventures this summer with the family, so I really wasn't thinking too much about making cards. But, summer is drawing to a close and the kids are going to school in the coming weeks. It's got me thinking about trying to mix in a little more card time, because at the end of the day I really do love making my cards. I'm currently setting up a little work space in my house to give me somewhere dedication to creating cards and I've got a few ideas for new cards I 'd like to make, plus ideas from others that I've gotten via email and DMs. I don't yet know how much I'll be able to do, I just know it will be nothing in comparison to the volume that I was able to crank out for a number of years. Like always, it's treated as a hobby, and I'm doing it as a fun creative outlet for myself.
So there ya have it, I'm alive and doing fine and new cards are *hopefully* on their way.
Rachel Stuhlmann has been dubbed the world's #1 tennis influencer. Rachel draws a lot of Paige Spiranac comparisons, which, in my opinion, is a great compliment. Like Paige in golf, Rachel has played tennis at a high level. She is getting more eye on the game through her social media while at the same time doing justice to the game of tennis with her knowledge and experience of the game.
This card is done in the style of the 1992-93 Upper Deck basketball McDonald's set. I like using this design, as well as other early 90's UD designs, for their clean simplicity and focus on image quality to carry the card.
Recently I was contacted by a gentleman named Myles who had an interest in my cards. It's always flattering to get messages that are complimentary about the cards I've made. It's comforting to know that there's a good number of junk era wax kids out there like myself pretending to be adults.
During our email exchange Myles floated the idea of me opening up some card packs for his YouTube channel. I've been approached in the past about guest interviews and things like that. Typically, I shy away from that type of thing. I'm pretty introverted, so I enjoy the anonymity of my cards. My cards allow me to contribute to the nostalgic/artistic community without really promoting myself. It's about the love of trading card and pop culture nostalgia. I don't feel an urge to put myself out there as 'the guy behind the cards'. But, with all that being said, I did figure I could have fun opening a pack of cards without it feeling like a "look at me" type of thing.
Myles actually sent me a few packs and I started to open them for a longer video but the problem with that is that I ran out of space on my phone. You see, I horde stupid memes so I always have the right joke as a reply to a conversation and custom card screen capture inspiration. So, I had to make a shorter video as opposed to actually cleaning up my camera roll -- please don't talk to me about cloud storage so I may stay blissfully ignorant.
I was saving the Napoleon pack for last as it was the most intriguing to me. I didn't even know these were a thing. For a long time I've had an idea for a Napoleon Dynamite set. That idea isn't totally scrapped because it would be a lot different presentation than these cards. I love that movie. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen it, but I'm confident I can annoy you by going line-by-line with the dialogue. Plus, the Uncle Rico cards I made were really well received, so that's a very encouraging factor to still keep that idea around.
As far as the video I think Myles did a great job. I didn't think pack opening could be entertaining, but I have to admit I was eager to see which cards were next while remembering 11 year old me busting 1991 Topps. I wouldn't mind doing something like that myself, but I have ZERO knowledge on video editing and, honestly, it overwhelms me to think about setting out to learn it because the last thing I need is a new obsession.
As an added bonus my 8 year old son now thinks I'm some sort pseudo celebrity because I'm on YouTube. Kids these days place a lot of importance on that. YouTube to him would've been like me at his age having an '86 Topps Bo Jackson rookie, so I get it.
Although I haven't been posting them, I've been making Paige Spiranac cards and setting them aside over the last few years. I'll save images and sort of use them as custom card practice. I've decided to now post all of the Paige cards I've made so far. The first two are inspired by the 1989 and 1991 Upper Deck baseball designs respectively.
I think this one, inspired by the 1991-92 Skybox basketball set, is my favorite of the lot. It's such a clean look. This is one I'd love to one day have signed.
Here's two bonus cards that I made early on and was able get signed. The first is inspired by the 1987 Topps baseball design and the one on the right is just an autograph card design I came up with. Paige was pretty good at signing through the mail but as her popularity has grown I'm assuming it's harder for her to keep up with it, which is understandable.
With my cards, the bulk majority of what sparks my interest is creating cards that are vintage inspired. The idea is creating cards that look like they could have existed back in time. I don't go too far past the early '90s, when the companies really started to modernize in their card's presentation with newer technologies. That was exciting, but for me the passion and artistry is in the older, more dated card designs. It's all about the nostalgia.
Occasionally I do dabble with designs that are original and a tad more modern looking. These cards are typically cards I'm making for myself in hopes of getting them autographed. When doing so I typically draw inspiration from designs from Upper Deck or Topps, not so much Panini -- I find their cards, design-wise, to be bland, boring and redundant.
I got an idea for a Rose Namajunas card. I wouldn't consider myself an MMA "junkie", but I am a fan of "Thug Rose" and wanted to create a card in hopes of getting her autograph. I love Rose's whole demeanor and humility. I also really like how that humility and her appearance really belies her skill level. She's an absolute warrior.
So, I set out to make a card that would have a little more modern appeal as MMA didn't even exist in the time period that most of my cards are designed to emulate. I started by looking for an image that caught my eye. I knew a good way to achieve and more modern look would be to have the image full-bleed, meaning no border framing the card. I made the image black-and-white as it helps a would-be autograph "pop". From there I added some subtle touches that helped identify it as an MMA card, but as to not distract from the image. I really am happy with the end result and even happier to have it come back to me signed.
