Rachel Stuhlmann

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.

Lola Marandel

Maybe a month or so I was just looking through some of the cards I've made over the years, just sort of scrolling through the folder.  I came to the cards I've done utilizing the 1992-93 Upper Deck McDonald's basketball inspired design.  I noticed that the three cards I've done using this template have all been volleyball cards so that got me interested in trying out a different sport whenever the opportunity presented itself.

I recently started following French professional tennis up-and-comer Lola Marandel on Instagram.  While scrolling through her feed I found a couple of pictures I felt would work well for a custom card.  

To give this card a tennis theme I switched out the hardwood bottom border for that of a clay tennis court and of course traded in the volleyball for a tennis ball.  I think my favorite thing about this card is the combination of colors.

Zehra Güneş

Zehra Güneş is a Turkish volleyball standout.  One of her pictures came up as I was scrolling through the Instagram discovery page.  I 'liked' it and with the way IG works her pics are in heavy rotation on that page now.  I decided that it was a sign that the 2021 Turkish League MVP should get her own custom trading card.

This card is done in the style of the 1992-93 Upper Deck McDonald's basketball set. 

Winifer Fernández

Encouraged by how my Allison Stokke card turned out I was eager to try another Upper Deck inspired design. 

Winifer Fernández basically became the Allison Stokke of women's volleyball in 2016 when images and video of her went viral because she's really, reallly attractive.  But, just like Stokke she is way more than just a pretty face, but rather a very accomplished athlete at her own respective sport, and like Allison Stokke that was pretty much overlooked on account of her being smoking hot.  So, like I did with Allison Stokke I made a custom card that highlights both Winifer's beauty and her athletic brilliance. 

I wouldn't have minded again using the 1989 Upper Deck baseball design for this card but I didn't think it lent itself as well to volleyball.  So, I went looking for a basketball design since both sports are played indoors on a gym floor.

1992-93 Upper Deck McDonald's

I landed on the 1992-93 Upper Deck McDonald's basketball.  I remember being really excited about theses cards when they came out.  I don't have stats and figures but I want to say around this time basketball cards were taking the hobby spotlight from baseball.  This was due to it being Shaq's rookie year and there was never anyone quite like him before, a true phenomenon.  You also had hobby favorite Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls thoroughly dominating the league in the midst of their first three-peat run.

The 1992-93 Upper Deck McDonald's were a 50 card set only available at McDonald's restaurants.  I seem to recall with the purchase of a value meal you could also get a pack of these cards.  McDonald's did something similar with NBA Hoops the season prior. Cards came three to a pack in the familiar Upper Deck foil wrappers.  It was just star players bolstered by a solid rookie class that was headed by names like Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning and Christian Laettner.

I was always a fan of oddball type issues.  I dunno, just something about them that's a bit more exotic I guess.  Cards used to come as cereal prizes, on snack boxes, as fast food premiums, retail store exclusive boxed sets, etc.  These were always favorites of mine because they were a little more difficult to come by, especially pre-internet.