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How to Design Your Own Football Cards

Professional card companies like Topps and Upper Deck produce football cards depicting the members of various NFL teams each year. But they needn̵7;t be the only ones. You can create football cards of your own using drawing software such as Adobe Photoshop. With a little cutting and pasting, you can assemble an entire team of NFL all-stars̷0; or create one-of-a-kind card sets for your local high school team, intramural team or pee-wee team.

Things You'll Need

Electronic photos
Printer
White card stock
Drawing program
Personal computer
Scissors

Instructions

- 1
  Collect photos of all the players you intend to make cards for. If you̵7;re working on something for an existing team such as a high school or Pee-Wee league team, get copies of the team photos after they̵7;re taken . If you want to make cards of professional players, look for images online, either in an official pose or in the middle of a game. (The NFL player page has images of all of their current players.)
- 2
  Assemble a template for your card using a drawing program such as Photoshop. Football cards usually measure 2 1/2 inches long by 3 1/2 inches tall and have two sides. The first side is dominated by the image of the player, along with a few spaces for basic information such as his team, position and number. The back contains more in-depth stats such as tackles, pass completions and rushing yards, organized by year. Assemble two templates for each card: one for the front and one for the back.
- 3
  Place a basic frame on the front and the back, leaving room for the player's photograph in the center (for the front) and pertinent statistics (for the back). You can check MyTradingCards.com for ideas on card frame designs or design one of your own if you wish. The frame should be on a layer above the base card, so you can place other details above and below it. The front frame should be very thin and have plenty of space for the player̵7;s image. The back of the frame can be more elaborate.
- 4
  Place the player̵7;s photo on the front of the card, beneath the frame so that it fits into the space inside the frame. Center it so that you can see the player̵7;s face and arms at least, and his entire body if possible.
- 5
  Add the player̵7;s number in the designated space on the front, followed by his team and position. Most drawing programs have a typing tool allowing you to add the letters very easily.
- 6
  Write out the player̵7;s statistics on the back of the card. Traditionally, such stats are broken down by year, but you can organize it any way you wish.
- 7
  Print the front of the card out of a piece of white card stock, available from any printing store. Then reverse the stock and print the back of the card so that it lines up perfectly with the front. You may need to adjust the print parameters to get the lineup right.
- 8
  Carefully cut the card out using a pair of scissors and display it as you wish.

Sports Cards Collecting