ATC's and what to do with them...

ATC's - what to do with them? Artist trading cards are fun to make and swap but what can you do with them beyond storing them in notebooks or framing them for your walls. While you do have to part with most of the artwork created for swaps there are a few methods for preserving a piece for yourself. I always scan or take a picture of the artwork I send off. This week I was finishing up eleven Valentine ATC's for a swap at artfortytwo.org. Before mailing the cards out I scanned a few of them for use in my own Valentine's. I cut out the scanned ATC's and mounted them on brown and purple cardstock to frame them. I attached the framed pieces to the front of 4x6 cards in pink and cream. Then using the metal foil from last week's make and take I framed the ATC's again on the cardstock  after coloring the foil with alcohol inks.

Add a Valentine verse inside and you have your very own Valentine's - just in time for February.

Minnesota Monday

Well this week, especially today, has been about snow, ice, and WIND. But let's put all that out of our minds.

Last week I was working on ATC cards for a Very Vintage Card Swap with the Red Lead Swap Sisters on Yahoo groups. Swap groups are easy to join and fun to be involved in. Yahoo has many groups which share and trade art through the mail, which is a good way to support the post office in this electronic day and age.

Artist's Trading Cards have been around for awhile. The idea is to create a card sized piece of art to be traded with other artist's around the world. The ATC standard size is 2.5" x 3.5". That is the only real rule other than they are never to be sold but only traded. The medium, method and variety of cards are subject only to your imagination, though many groups will set up a theme in order to stimulate creativity and to focus the swap. The swap I am currently making cards for is a Red Lead Paperworks swap. The theme is Very Vintage and uses 2 Red Lead images and one Red Lead word stamp.

Artist Trading Cards allow for small scale creative exploration of techniques and mediums, are fast and easy, and are fun to collect. On these ATC's I took a printed bag I picked up some time ago shopping and used Tim Holz's Distress Ink "China Blue" to colorize the background. I used the color "Corduroy" to further age the background. Distress Inks are easy to use by rubbing the transparent ink onto paper or cardstock. You can combine the colors for many different looks. They can be further enhanced by misting them with water for a variety of effects. I brought out the photo by using a slide mount punch to cut out a frame from a very glittery blue paper. Some vintage lace ribbon, Red Lead vintage bottle image and there you have it - a Very Vintage ATC.

To learn more about Red Lead Paperworks swap sisters or to join the group visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/redlead/ and enjoy.