Artist Trading Cards

Artist Trading Cards are by far one of my favorite things to create.

"What are Artist Trading Cards?" you may ask.

Well, Artist Trading Cards, also known as ATC's are tiney works of art that an artist creates to trade with other artists. The purpose of this is to encourage artists to share tips and techniques and thus learn from one another. And besides that, how cool is it to have your very own miniuture art collection!

There are a few rules when it comes to ATC's. The 2 most important rules are that 1. The ATC's must be 2.5" X 3.5" and that 2. the cards must be sturdy enough to survive mailing, and of reasonable thickness. Aside from these two rules, pretty much anything goes. I have seen ATC's that have been created with all sorts of themes and techniques ranging from painting or drawing to sewing and needlepoint right through to paper piecing and collage. I of course tend to create mine mainly using papercraft techniques. Most ATC's are also given a title and have been signed and dated by the artist who created them.

I got into ATC's about a year and a half ago, and I have collected over 200 ATC's since then. I really do love them. I love everything about ATC's from making them, to collecting them and meeting new artists along the way.

The picture at the begining of this post shows the most recent ATC I have made. It is called 'Stand Guard Over My Heart'. Its from a series called 'Open The Door To My Heart'. You can see in the first image, the door closed, and the second image shows the ATC with the door open. I'm very pleased with how this ATC turned out. I think that next year I will make all my Valentines ATC's!