Frugal couple save £400 on Euro 2016 Panini stickers… by DRAWING football players by hand
Harry Kane, Gareth Bale and Christiano Ronaldo among footie aces in bootleg album
A FOOTIE mad couple have saved a fortune on their Euro 2016 sticker album - by hand drawing all their favourtie sports stars.
Sian Pratchett and husband Alex have doodled football aces such as Gareth Bale, Wayne Rooney and Christiano Ronaldo to save on paying out for Panini stickers.
The pair of self-declared "Panini cheapskates" will save £400 by drawing the 680 stickers instead of forking out 50p for a pack of five.
Alex, 32, said: "It takes a lot of time - but it is worth it."
He was just a schoolboy when he started collecting stickers for the 1994 World Cup in America.
That first collection was a heartbreaking failure and Alex never filled his Panini book.
When he told wife Sian about his plans to start another sticker book she told him: "Perhaps there are better things we could spend our money on."
So she came up with a way to do it by on the cheap - drawing them by hand.
The couple started the bizarre hobby for the last World Cup and are now ready for the kick-off of Euro 2016 in France.
They even admit they are no artists but insist the collection is a bit of fun.
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Alex and Sian, also 32, started a blog to share their creations with friends and have since had more than 100,000 hits from around the world.
He added: "I think there has been gentle bemusement.
"People think it is a strange thing to do if you can't even draw, but we're not taking ourselves too seriously.
"We are enthusiastic but hopeless.
"But we hope you can at least look at the sticker and think 'I can see who they're going for' rather than saying 'I don't know who that is meant to be'".
Other stars to be hand-crafted so far include England stopper Joe Hart, Belgium's big haired attacker Marouane Fellaini and the Three Lions' latest starlet Marcus Rashford.
We're not sure how they would get on trying to swap them though.
The couple have even drawn self-portaits in the same style.
The pair, originally from Newport and Caerleon, Gwent, are cheering for Wales despite moving to Oxford where Alex works for Cancer Research UK.
The couple are asking for donations to the charity and top donors will also get a sketch of themselves.
Each portrait takes about 20 minutes and it will take them a total 227 hours to finish.
Alex said: "It's taking up so much of our time, while I'm at work I draw pictures on my lunch break.
"It's like having a second job."
The Sun Online has contact Panini for comment.
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