Weekly Challenge Entry & The Inspo Behind It (June 3, 2026)

Hey there,

Just wanted to pop in and share my weekly creation for this week. The challenge is to create a unique trading card using the ImageStudio AI image generator. Like the phone challenge, as soon as I read this one a certain story came to mind that inspired my creation.

Would you rather the story ot the inpiration first? For future reference, lmk in the comments below this post 👇🏾

The Challenge Rules

The challenge rules are here, but here's a quick summary:

Title: Create a Trading Card of Yourself

Rules: Use Image Studio to design a collectible trading card featuring yourself.

My Characteristic Choices: Holographic, purple, Ultra rare, dark-skinned woman (I did try my picture but it didn't turn out)

The Inspiration

I shared a bit on my submission where you can also read up on it but basically I used to work at the hospital sitting with at risk, behavioral health patients. Typically the person either had some sort of risk of doing harm to themselves and others. Sometimes it could be a very violent individual, sometimes it could be someone with Alzheimers or someone who needed constant supervision.

This patient had a mental disorder and was known to get physically and psychologically violent. He was also tall and a lot of people didn't like to work with him tbh. Psychologically and physically, he could be a lot so its understandable.

Well anyway, on a particular day he was assigned to me. He had an episode earlier in the day and like I said, no one wanted to deal with him. Well, someone has to do the job so I did on that day.

When I got there, I remember that I first observed he had Yugi-Oh because he had cards on his nightstand or something like that. The memory has faded but that came in handy later when he started getting a bit upset.

Now, remember I mentioned he was known to be violent and idk about anyone else but...lets just say that wasn't an option...so before it got to that point, being quick thinking, I had to at least try to find an alternate solution.

It was then that I mentioned Yugi-Oh. The way he got excited and did a complete redirection will never leave me. He was so excited that someone knew about Yugi-Oh.

And I'll be honest, it had been some 20 or so years forward to the last time I even played Yugi-Oh so my memory of all the cards and stuff was bad to say the least lol but I knew enough to relay to him that I knew what he was talking about.

His favorite card was Dark Magician (thank GOD I remembered that ONE! LOL! 😅🤣😅) He went on and on about how it was his favorite card, pulled out his coloring book, colored some pages and everything.

I set a full 12 hour shift with no issues from him. So I praised him and told him if he did a really good job being good and if he did good for the next few days I would bring him a pack of Yugi-Oh cards.

He in fact was good and he also remembered his promise. Please don't ask me if I got him his Yugi-Oh cards because I shamefully forgot 🙈

But he still looked forward to that pack of Yugi-Oh cards. He was still so excited and he was still good for me that second night I watched him too.

And you might think, well he did good for the promise of an item but that's not it, although sometimes physical items are nice. But I never did get the chance to give him that pack of Yugi-Oh cards.

It was more important that I related to him in some way and that's what made me more successful with many other difficult patients. Sometimes, especially in tough times, it matters that you see the person and relate to what they're feeling even outside of our own feelings.

So I created a female version of Dark Magician in memory of this occassion. Of course she is dark skinned because I am lol.

At first I did try with my picture but it didn't come out right so I scrapped that and let it create the person.

The Outcome

Her name is: Astral Magicians, Sorceress of Cosmic Vision

Originally I did try to use my photo but it did not turn out well. It basically looked like a party hat so I redid it without an image and I must say that I am pretty impressed with it for many reasons.

It did a fantastic job of turning dark magician into a woman. She looks like a real Yugi-Oh card and character. She is proportionate and everything fits properly. Her gaze, her posture, and the aura of the card all speak confident, focused, and thoughtful sorceress of power.

The AI also came up with the description from points I wanted it to use.

Did you play or watch Yugi-Oh growing up? I only have brothers so I was into the guy stuff since it was just easier to be into whatever they were into, lol. Anyway, my daughter said I should trick my brothers into thinking its a real, exclusive card. What do you think? lol, it would be so funny if they fell for it. Perfect payback for their hazing 🤣🤣🤣

If you're a sister with all or mostly brothers you know what I'm talking about 🤪

Thanks for reading and have a good weekend,

Marlinda