Back in November of 2006 I established Sal's Hockey Autograph Blog to share my new acquisitions in hockey autograph collecting. Since launching that Blog, I've added hundreds of autographs to my collection, and have made some new friends around the 'net.
In October of 2007, I launched Puck Junk, which focuses on hockey card sets and collectibles. In the short time that I've run that site, I've made a few more acquaintances, and learned a heck of a lot from some pretty knowledgeable collectors (namely Thom R. and Al K.--thanks guys!!!)
Today, I am launching my third hockey-related website: Sal's Custom Hockey Cards. Maybe I don't have enough things to do (false), or maybe I don't have a life (also false)...but this is something I've kicked around for awhile. Way back in 1997, a whole new world was opened up to me when I went to art school and learned Photoshop. The first thing I did was make custom hockey cards; I made a bunch of cards styled to look like the 1989-90 Topps/O-Pee-Chee set. I took a new technology and applied to something I was passionate about.
A few years later, making custom hockey cards seemed like a silly waste of time. Why do that when you can do real work and get paid for your talents? So, making custom hockey cards kind of fell by the wayside. I guess I saw no need for "creativity for creativity's sake".
But then I saw people around the internet were making their own custom hockey cards, and I thought "No fair! I did that first! I did that ten years ago!"
So, I was kind of envious of other people, applying their technical skills to the worlds greatest game (hockey, in case you were wondering).
And while I was doing that too--I am a professional web designer with a few hockey-themed websites--there is something just cool about making custom cards...it's a blend of do-it-yourself and creativity, as well as that little part of us that drives us to collect things; now we can create the very things we collect.
Plus, making static graphics is so liberating compared to making web sites. A web site might take you days to build; a custom hockey card might take you an hour or two, and you don't have to worry if it will work in Internet Explorer 7, or what resolution the viewer's screen is set at.
This blog will be used to showcase the custom hockey cards that I have created in the past, as well as cards that I will create moving forward.
If anyone would like to share some of the custom hockey cards that they've made, I'd be happy to post them on this site. Plus seeing others work will just inspire me to try harder myself.