New Dream Girl Cards Wave 2

As was mentioned in the last post, I'm working my way through a backlog of new additions to the Dream Girl custom set.  Here is the second wave of six cards.  

I noted that there's a few of the girls in the new additions that'll be featured on two cards with my inability to chose one photo over the other.  This time around it was Emma Watson.  My cards, my rules ;) 

New Dream Girl Cards Wave 1

I've been working on a card set that I want to call a "passion project" but at the same time I do not want to call it that because that just sounds overly dramatic.  I like to keep the whole thing fun and not take it too seriously.  These are trading cards and not my "work" or my "art".  The cards give me an opportunity to be creative in an otherwise mundane existence.   I appreciate the humor in them more then anything, coupled with an outlet that can quell my OCD-like need to perfect custom trading card nuance.

So, while I've been plugging away at this card set *tease* I've been adding onto the ongoing Dream Girls set I've cultivated over the last couple of years. I'll see images from time-to-time that I feel would make great additions to this highly subjective series.  But, I haven't stopped long enough to make physical renditions and post them here.

I figured I better put a few of these out there before it gets out of hand.  As it stands there's 17 new DG cards all told.  With that many I've decided to post them in three waves, with this being the first.

Each of the three waves will feature one Dream Girl that has two versions.  Basically it happened that threes time I couldn't choose between two images, so I just didn't.

Sig. Showcase: Christie Brinkley

I just got these two cards back via a send-in from a private signing that Official Pix did with Christie Brinkley.  It was pretty much a no-brainer to participate in this signing.  Autograph + 80's icon is an automatic custom card-on for me.   

I've made 3 cards featuring Christie, one as a part of the ongoing Dream Girl set, and two within the Vacation set.  I chose the two pictured above to send in.  It was a toss up between the two Vacation cards.  The other is the iconic shot of Christie in the Ferrari, but I chose the hotel swimming pool scene card with the idea that the upper left corner left a lot of space to really showcase an autograph.

The Dream Girl card is the first of the sixteen "official" DG cards that I've gotten signed.  There's a few rouge Dream Girl cards out there however that were done as commissions that have been inked. 

Another thing that really appealed to me about this private signing was discovering upon some research how clean Christie's autograph is.  I was confident the cards would turn out great.  For Official Pix's part these two cards were signed exactly as I requested them to be, plus they put a nice holographic COA sticker on the back.  I'd highly recommend their service if you're an autograph collector.

New Dream Girl Trio

My card making production is a far cry from what it was during the Covid era of 2020-21.  Being back to in-person work has had a negative effect on my pace, but I still find time here and there to have some rectangular creative cardboard fun.

In this time I've fielded a number of inquiries about the Dream Girl series I'd been cultivating.  I guess I'm to assume it has a little bit of a following.  I can see the appeal.  Beautiful woman X a very memorable early '90s baseball card subset.  It's got the freshest ingredients.  

So, since it's been a hot minute I've decided to add not one, but THREE new additions to this ongoing set.  Halle Berry, Brooklyn Deck and Charlotte McKinney.  The latter two are carry overs of a boxing themed TKO! series I  had started that was kind of a predecessor to the Dream Girl set, and the Halle was a cutting room floor commission.

Jennifer Connelly

In at lucky number 13 in the ongoing Dream Girl series is the beuatiful and talented Jennifer Connelly.  The really neat thing about about Jennifer Connelly for an '80s kid is that we got to mature (debatable for me) with her film roles.  I really feel like Jennifer Connelly "one of ours" and should be, if not already, be considered a treasure for our generation.  

Many us of were introduced to her in 1986 as Sarah in the fantasy tale Labyrinth.  From there it was on to fun roles like in Career Opportunities and The Rocketeer, both 1991.  The turn of the century saw Jennifer really come into her own with career defining performances in movies like Requiem for a Dream and A Beautiful Mind for which she won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Dream Girl, Kate Upton

Continuing in the "Dream Girl" series inspired by the 1991 Score baseball Dream Team subset is the newest addition, Kate Upton.

Kate, like a number of the other Dream Girls in this series, was able to use her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue stardom to springboard herself into household name status. 

Dream Girl Alex

I wanted to add a more modern entry to what has turned into an ongoing series of "Dream Girls" cards (inspired by the 1991 Score Dream Team subset).

The beautiful Alexandra Daddario is the newest in this card series.  While I like to keep things nostalgic around here, I see no harm in Alex joining the team.  This card also serves to help balance the set a bit between actresses and super models.

Christie Brinkley

Christie Brinkley being added to the ongoing collection of 1991 Score baseball inspired  "Dream Girl" cards was not an if, but when.  Christie, like a majority of the women in the Dream Girl set, gained notoriety by becoming a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover girl.  In fact, Christie is the only model to appear on 3 consecutive covers, starting in 1979.  In the '80s S.I. Swimsuit Issue cover girls were the apex of what you'd consider a "Dream Girl', to me anyways.

Of course Christie also permeated the fantasy girl realm for some many of us as  "The girl in the red Ferrari" in National Lampoon's Vacation.  Beverly D'Angelo and Christie Brinkley??  Clark, you lucky dog.

Rachel Hunter

If you're talking a who's-who of elite '80s goddesses then you must include Rachel Hunter to the pantheon of unimaginably unattainable super hotties.  

With the addition of Rachel to the 1991 Score baseball Dream Team inspired Dream Girls lineup it completes the iconic 1994 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit "Dream Team" cover alongside Kathy Ireland and Elle Macpherson.  

Elle Macpherson

The newest addition to the 1991 Score Dream Team inspired Dream Girls set is none other than the legendary Australian supermodel, Elle Macpherson.  Being on the cover of a record five Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues I would think puts Elle on the Mt. Rushmore of supermodels.

Salma Hayek

The newest addition to the ongoing 1991 Score Dream Team inspired Dream Girl set is none other than Salma Hayek.  

There was a a good long time that Salma topped my celebrity crush list.  I'm pretty sure it started with her snake dancing scene in from Dusk till Dawn.   At 54 Salma looks better than most whom are half her age.

Tiffani Thiessen

 

Next in the running Dream Girl series that was inspired by the 1991 Score Dream Team subset is none other than Miss Kelly Kapowski herself, Tiffani Thiessen.  

Dream Girl Kathy Ireland

This custom card is probably long overdue.  I've made a few of these "Dream Girl" cards from a 1991 Score baseball "Dream Team" inspired design.  When you're talking about dream girls for Gen X'ers, Kathy has to be on the shortest of shortlists.  Hopefully, this card makes up for her absence to date.

Phoebe Cates

I've been wanting to add a Phoebe Cates card to the mix.  She is, of course, in the Fast Times at Ridgemont High set I did, but I this is Phoebe Cates we're talking about so more cards would never be a bad thing.

Phoebe is already in Topps' Gremlins set, so that wasn't on the table.  I decided Phoebe would be a great addition to the previous Dream Girl cards I had done in the style of the 1991 Score Dream Team subset.  For any 80's guy, Phoebe Cates was surely a "dream girl" at some point.

Claudia Schiffer

While doing some mindless scrolling the likes of which most humans engage in now on a daily basis I happened upon this image of the German born goddess Claudia Schiffer used for this card.  I want to say it comes from a Guess? Jeans campaign. 

Claudia Schiffer, like Cindy Crawford or Christie Brinkley, is one of those names that put the "super" in super model.  Those women's names for any of us guys growing up in the '80s or '90s immediately conjure up the vision of feminine beauty that almost didn't even seen real, too perfect.  Like if you were to mention the name "Claudia Schiffer" it was probably in jest of her incomparable good looks, like "yea, but she's no Claudia Schiffer".

Seeing that this image is black and white it's makes are great addition to the other two Dream Girl card's I've made that are patterned after the 1991 Score baseball Dream Team subset. 

Cindy Crawford II

I was pretty certain that when I made my Anna Nicole Smith Dream Girl card I was eventually going to use that design again; all it would take was the right babe in a nice black and white photo.  The time to re-up has come much sooner than later.

I've written before about my infatuation with Cindy Crawford in a previous post.  I ran across this particular image and instantly recognized it from the first Playboy magazine I ever bought.  I was 18 and it was a special edition on Cindy herself ....or it might have even been a compilation of celebrities that had graced the pages of Playboy magazine, either way I remember the purchase's circumstances very vividly.  I remember that even though I was of age to buy a nudie magazine I was still pretty red faced and embarrassed putting it on the counter.  I spotted it the day before but didn't have the guts to buy it.  This is pre-internet and I couldn't get the prospect of the glory of what was between those pages out of my head, so I went back to the party store at the corner of my street the very next day.  I waited until I was the only one in there and I sheepishly put it on the counter and tried to avoid eye contact with the shady dude behind the counter that used to keep my younger brother's change when he'd buy candy telling him "we'll call it even, boss".  He did give me my change and I hurriedly walked out holding the book with the cover pressed against my chest.  Lame, I know.  I didn't have that issue for long.  It was lost although I'd pretty sure a friend of mine that I guess didn't have the fortitude that I did to buy a copy from that store "borrowed" it without my permission never to return it - shady as hell, but hard to blame the guy.

Anna Nicole Smith

I was thirteen when I first became aware of the voluptuous model Anna Nicole Smith.  I have to believe that’s a very influential age for a boy when it comes to shaping what he finds attractive in a female because Anna Nicole became, for me, the prototype of the ultimate female form.  My “type” since then has always been the ultra curvy amazon type.

There wasn’t the internet back then and at thirteen you can’t just go into the party store and buy a Playboy so I clearly recall scouring all of the different magazines we had in the house hoping to run across an Anna Nicole Guess? Jeans advertisement.  Even National Geographic got a page-by-page examination.  Guess? did a great job with  Anna and the sultry black-and-white ad campaign which had a sexy old Hollywood bombshell vibe to it.  As the years went by my preference for the “Anna Nicole Smith type” was cemented but my attraction to the actual person waned with all the bizarre happenings in her life from her marrying the geriatric billionaire to her weird reality show and ultimately her untimely and pretty sad death.  This card is a tribute to the best Anna, the one who’s look and natural charisma captivated so many like myself.

I thought one of the pictures from the Guess campaign would be perfect to retrofit into a 1991 Score baseball “Dream Team” inspired design.  1991 Score’s base set to me is real bland but no other set can touches that year’s subsets.  That years was loaded with a number of attractive and creative subsets.

“Dream Team” was a 13 card subset that featured baseball’s best in artistic black-and-white studio style photographs.  It’s pretty easy to see why I chose to match Anna’s photo to this set with one slight variation turning the word 'Team' into 'Girl' because for a period in time Anna Nicole Smith was most certainly my “dream girl”.  I’ve actually been wanting to make a card for her for a little while now but I wanted it to be something that was special and made sense from the design standpoint.  I think this card achieved both.