If you are like me and you collect a specific popular player, you look online (and sometimes obsessively) for cards that you do not have.  Thanks to the explosion of inserts in the 90's - on, there is no shortage of gems you can find.  My son will sometimes say "Dad, what are you doing?  Looking on ebay for Canseco cards ... again?" Quiet, boy ... don't you have some homework to do? It is equally exhilarating to find a card you never knew existed as it is maddening to find out that the card you wished you had owned

Ladies and gentlemen, this is currently what you see in my office, just next to my desk: I can hear you thinking "Hmmmm, I wonder how many complete custom sets he has made from all this." Nope.  Just nope.  I swear, if I were an ice carver, you could give me a metric ton of ice, and I'd be lucky if I could carve out a thimble.  Yeah, I'm the one who, in elementary school was cutting something out with scissors, kept getting one side crooked, and compensated by doing the other side ... only to make that side crooked,

One of my next projects might be a nice run of Roberto Clemente cards.  As you know, Clemente passed away quite a while ago.  You also probably know that he was one heck of a baseball player. Did you know though, that he hit number 3,000 for his career in the last regular game he ever played?  Yup, he had exactly 3,000 hits.  I think that is just so amazing.  It kind of makes me bummed out thinking about Gehrig, and how he was only 7 shy of 500 homers.  Clemente getting 3,000 smack dab on the button?  Awesome! It

So, the last few days have been very, very exhausting and frustrating.  I have been trying out many different methods to get the desired look *just right* for my newest customs. Before I go any further, I'm going to remind you who is writing this.  Me.  The crazy dude who collects that one dude who had a ball hit off his head and go into the stands for a homer.  The guy who put the spotlight on the whole steroids thang, and hurt the generation of ballplayers I grew up watching of going into the hall of fame.  Well hey,

Easter is around the corner, and I thought it would be appropriate to toss some easter eggs into my most recent PC item:  A 2013 Topps Jose Canseco (duh!) - autograph prototype  1/1 SSP.  :) This one was a doozie, as I was practicing all kinds of different methods, papers, techniques, etc.  I have finally risen from the card stock, cutters and recovered from the adhesive vapors to tell the story. One of my first customs was a 2013 Jose Canseco A's card.  Just a plain, base white card.  I enjoyed it, but wanted to do refractors and a super.