I'm always looking for new ways to enjoy my favourite hockey cards. During the pandemic, I worked from home for more than a year and spent a lot of time in my home office. Luckily, I had already filled the walls with three uncut sheets (which you can read about here), making the experience a bit more enjoyable and creating a unique backdrop for Zoom calls.
As I spent more time in my office, I began to notice an empty space on one wall. (Apparently I don't like empty spaces.) Half of this particular wall is angled to accommodate a hallway, so the space was not big enough for another uncut sheet. Too bad, as it would have been a good excuse to get my last one framed (Sheet A from 1987-88 O-Pee-Chee). But I did end up finding another way to fill that space with more hockey card inspired wall art!
Instagram Influence
Last year, when I created an Instagram account to compliment this site, I found that using square images for posts made my account page look more consistent and professional. Since hockey cards are obviously not square, I decided to design a simple template.
I started with a black background, then added a black and white image of an uncut sheet. Next came my Uncut Hockey "UH" logo, along with a "Key RC" sticker, which I used to highlight the key rookie cards in my collection. I started to refer to these images as my Instagram "tiles."
Here's an image of my Wayne Gretzky O-Pee-Chee Rookie Card, using this template:
About a month later, I came across a Facebook ad for a site having a sale on canvas printing. BestCanvas.ca was offering an 8" x 8" canvas print of any image for just $3.90 CDN. (If you use Facebook regularly, you'll see the same offer almost every day.) I realized I could turn my Instagram tiles into real tiles to fill that empty wall space.
Cornerstones, Revisited
I pictured a collage of 8" x 8" canvas prints, each one featuring one of my favourite cards. No surprise, I decided to start with the six I consider the Cornerstones of my collection: Rookie Cards of Bobby Orr, Ken Dryden, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy, and Jaromir Jagr.
Once I had the images created, ordering from BestCanvas.ca was very straightforward. I used the following options:
Format: 8" x 8" (Price: $3.90 CDN)
Easel Back: None
Frame Thickness: 0.75" (Standard)
Edge Design: Black
Frame Type and Color: None
Effect: None
The total cost for the six canvas prints was less than $40 CDN, shipping included.
It took a couple of weeks for my order to arrive, and the prints turned out great. The 8" x 8" canvas was the perfect size to display the image of a single card, especially in a small room. I was also pleasantly surprised that my template worked so well, nicely tying together the card designs from different years.
The six prints from my original order are shown below. My 1984-85 O-Pee-Chee uncut sheet provides a good reference for size.
The following two images are close-up shots of the Ken Dryden RC print. The textured finish of the canvas adds a nice effect.
The Second Six
When I saw how nice the prints turned out, I went ahead and ordered six more. For these, I selected my next six favourite cards. Here's how that wall in my office currently looks, with the prints arranged in order of card release.
Enjoy Your Cards!
If you have the cards, you might as well enjoy them. I say that a lot because it's true. After all, what's the point of having cards tucked away in boxes at the back of your closet?
These prints allow me to enjoy my favourite cards every day.
Happy collecting!
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Gallery
Updated to include three additional tiles (Morenz, Plante, and Esposito), which round out the Top 15 cards in my PC.
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