A Custom Cut Autograph of Who?

One of the more interesting aspects of collecting autographs for a specific team is locating items of guys that did not play for the team very long. Typically I have to settle for team signed balls or index cards. The best remedy for this is to make a custom baseball card of the players, but it is easier said than done. Designing a card isn't that hard, but finding information on how to make the card is not only difficult, but contradictory.

So after researching for a few weeks, I have decided to just try an amalgamation of the best advice I could find.

But do I really want to risk my Yogi Berra index card on a project that might turn out terrible? Of course not. So who is the victim? Dave Eilers!

Dave Eilers played a single season for the Astros and did not do too terribly, but failed to spend any time in the Majors after his year with the team. I originally obtained his autograph by sending him a request through the mail, which he generously signed. That said, the autograph was in a weird location and not very attractive.

Brutal location, right? But we can rebuild it! After a very quick Photoshop job and a run down to Walgreens, I returned home with two photographs.

I immediately regretted one thing: the word "Congrats!" I should have just said "Congratulations!" but what is done is done. I also liked my company name, which was partially inspired by my son's name, Sawyer. My design is not perfect, but not terrible for 15 minutes of work. I honestly like my logo more than anything else on the card!

It was time to do the most stressful aspect of this, which is cutting out the window for the autograph. I spent more time on this part than anything else because I wanted it to be perfect.

Once the window was cut out, I measured the full index card behind the window and made sure there was a good location for the autograph and then cut up the index card. No turning back now.