Cardart without borders

As a creative-type card collector, I've longed to get into the #cardart scene that popped up during the pandemic. I've whipped up tons of customs over the years, but "making cards" without relying on photoshop and a printer is a whole 'nother ballgame. Took a while, but I think I've found my niche with border art. I take cool (but cheap) cards with plain borders and fill them it, either as "full bleed" imagining a larger image, or as a "mashup" inspired by a different design, by just drawing on them freehand. I gave a sneak peek in my previous post with some early attempts, but this post is more of an official "opening" of my would-be gallery. Check it out...

Rickey's 1989 Topps Traded is one of his best-looking cards and quickly popped to mind when this idea first hit me.

Fun to use some imagination filling in the catcher with his hand up Boggs' butt.

Now we're into the mashups. 1985 Donruss is one of my favorite designs to vandalize cards with, as seen last post.

The Topps/Donruss 1988 mashup is another go-to of mine. These make my brain go "Wait, what?" for a millisecond when I look at them (which I like). If I'm distracted, I turn them over expecting to see the standard Donruss back, lol.

Some of my early efforts with Upper Deck cards, including unsolicited collaborations with Vernon Wells, Sr.

This series making Bo Jackson's 1988 Topps card even bluer might be my favorite so far. You can bet I'll be doing more of these.

I even classed it up with a special stamp. Every card I draw on is finalized by having the back stamped, signed, and dated with the year. I don't bother to "number" them because I want to be free to repeat myself if I want to, but I suppose technically speaking they're all "1/1" since I couldn't repeat my freehand drawing exactly, even if I tried.

Still unemployed after getting laid off earlier this year, I would love to work this artsy endeavor into a side-hustle that could help subsidize my hobby purchases at the minimum, or ideally even create a little stream of household income and help me squeak by without getting another dreaded real job for the time being. I'm hoping that these, along with my other cardboard creations such as the creamy 1991 Fleer mods, will find a market for "homemade parallels" or whatever you wanna call this style of cardart. After not seeing much interest on Etsy, I updated my eBay account to let me start selling on there again for the first time in years and have slowly started putting together a few listings.

You can check out my stuff on eBay at https://www.ebay.com/usr/breakdowncards

I'm hoping to add new stuff weekly, if not daily, until I've got a decent selection available. And I'd love to work out off-eBay deals for this stuff, too, so feel free to get in touch regarding a trade, purchase, or commission-request and we can hammer out a deal. (I'll likely add a cardart section to my Trade Bait Page soon.)

I've got a lot of ideas cookin' up that I'm excited about-- border art and beyond-- so expect more stuff from me over the next while. Hopefully you don't hate it! :)

Get Your Glow On! (New, Improved Glowing Cards!)

I've been working on improving my GAV (Glowing Altered Variation) cards.

Getting better at it!

They  glow-in-the-dark  and look kinda cool in the light, too!



Here's a song about glowing, in case you want to hear a song while you read this post. With the title "Babe Rainbow" you'd think it might be about collecting all the Ruth parallels in a certain set, but I don't think that's what it's about.

I still want to further improve at making them, but I'm happy with how these cards have been getting better as I've been making more of them and learning which techniques get the best results.

They look even better in person.

I've even devised a way to make valuable cards into glowing cards without actually touching them!

(hint: special case)

Last time I talked about my glowing cards, Play at the Plate suggested cards such as these might do well on eBay.

Well, since I've sunk more than I care to admit on this little arts & crafts project of mine, I thought I'd test his theory and see if I could recoup a few bucks.

I've currently got auctions running for all these cards pictured, except the Mantle and Dick Allen auto.

The Cubs lot (Dawson and Sandberg) is up on Listia.

Over on eBay, I've got a Phillies lot, Mets lot, and Yankees lot.

Help a blogger out and throw down a bid on any of these if you can.

Snatch them up for yourself, or perhaps surprise a trade buddy with unique "1/1" cards as a little Christmas gift.

And if you don't want to shell out, but still would like a unique Glowing Altered Variation or two of your own, I'm down for trades! Petethan had a great suggestion that people could send me a card or two they'd like me to turn into a glowing card for them, and include cards for me for my trouble and expenses.

So if you've got a double or two of your favorite player/team that you'd like me to make glow in the dark for you, just let me know. As always, my wantlist is here.. (you don't need to blow me away or anything.. just something to make it worth my while).

Thanks!

oh, and CONTEST TIME! Be the first to identify this below card in the comments and you win the card plus get a pick from the prize pool. (my standard contest rules apply.) Hint: The set that it's from is featured in this post already.

Introducing Glow-in-the-dark altered variation cards!

Like most collectors, I've got lots of junk cards I don't need, many of which nobody's ever gonna want. The age-old question is what to do with them.. Let them keep taking up space? Trash them? Give them away and hope somebody would actually want to keep them?

Perhaps somewhat inspired by the often-hilarious Baseball Card Vandals, which takes a black Sharpe to cards to make them funny, I asked myself how I could "hack" virtually worthless cards to make them better? Short of getting them autographed or professionally graded, there's not much you can do to make cards more desirable.

Then I had a "eureka!" moment. I love glow-in-the-dark cards.. Why not get crafty and turn these 2-cent cards into makeshift  glowing cards?! YES!

I even have a "marketing plan" in place! I'm going to christen these as "GAV" cards: "Glowing Altered Variation" (Gav is also a shortened version of my name, get it? So cheesy!!) For each of these GAV cards that I make, on the back I'll sign it, hand-number "1/1", and mark as "GAV", then I'll keep a log to make sure I only make one Glowing Altered Variation of that particular card to keep the serial numbering true (this is important! Sure, other people could create their own altered glow-in-the-dark cards, but I'll keep my GAV cards nice n' legit! Only one ever for each card!).

Corny gimmick to try to give some desirability to junk wax? YES! Will it work? Probably won't do much, but whatever, it's fun! Some purists might frown on "defacing" cards like this, but hey, better than throwing them away! I obviously wouldn't make a Glowing Altered Variation card of anything valuable. But if a card is worth less than a stamp, it's fair game.

I plan to whip up a bunch of these.. some for myself, of course.. but I'll also happily spread some around via trades and contests here at Baseball Card Breakdown. Assuming anybody wants them.

Sure, everybody has multiple copies of Fred Lynn's '88 Donruss card... but only ONE person could own Fred Lynn's '88 Donruss GAV card.. it glows in the dark and is hand serial numbered 1/1!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!! SSP!!!

I encourage all you guys out there to think up creative ways to create unique "1/1" junk cards yourselves. Imagine actually getting excited about trading '90 Score or '92 Fleer with somebody! What a wonderful world this would be! "I'll trade my Player-A 1/1 custom altered card for your Player-B 1/1 custom altered card!" Together we could achieve the dream of working up a little interest in common flagship base cards from the overproduction era that we all otherwise never give a second thought to these days.

Anyways.. this initial batch of GAV cards isn't perfect, but I'll experiment with different techniques, and hopefully I'll improve at making these over time. (I would like to get them less blotchy and less "green" in the light.. I realize the players look kinda like they've been slimed.) When I do any that I'm especially happy with, you can bet I'll show them off on the blog.

I'm hanging on to the McGriff above, but these other 3 cards pictured are up for grabs. Again, these are "real" pictures of "real" cards (not photoshopped or whatever).

Contest! Want one of these cards? Just leave a comment below, and if you're among the first 3 people to ask for one, I'll send you one of these cards free and also let you make 1 selection from the prize pool! (first come, first served; my standard contest rules apply.)