I love everything about artist trading cards: their size (regular playing card size...3.5 x 2.5 inches), their idea of sharing art examples as a business card, their limitless creative possibilities, their way of reaching out to others and how they can spark the imagination. My super creative and crafty dear friend Linda who lives 3,000 km away in BC, suggested that we swap ATCs once a month. I can't remember how many years ago that was but we've kept up the tradition of mailing two to each other every month. Sometimes one of us (usually me!) falls behind in sending them. But we always make it up. We make two cards the same of each design: one to keep and one to send. In addition to the creative aspect, Linda had thought that it would be refreshing to have something other than bills in the mailbox each month. It IS exciting to receive her brown padded envelopes full of 'stash' and ATCs each month. A couple of years after Linda and I began to swap ATCs, I joined Life Book 2016, an online art course, and discovered that Life Book also ran a monthly ATC swap. I was in! Life Book's swap gave a prompt for each month which helped me with ideas. Life Book pairs people interested in the month's swap so each month I have someone different to swap with (as well as Linda). I love it and continue with Life Book's ATC swaps to this day. Receiving an envelope from someone somewhere else in the world each month is fun! It reminds me of all the penpals I had when I was a teenager. As an icebreaker in a recent theatre course, we had to anonymously provide three items which represented ourselves. I chose the ATC on the right, one of my all-time favourites. I had to explain what it was but it garnered lots of attention. Last year I offered a year's worth of ATCs, one a month, as a charity auction item. The person who won the bidding requested that her friend and her friend's parents receive the gift. She felt that they needed something uplifting in their lives. They had no idea what ATCs were or why they were receiving them! She explained to them what Linda had said to me many moons ago: ATCs provide something cheerful and creative to look forward to in the mail each month. And indeed they do. Did I mention that I love ATCs?
2 Comments
Jana
4/17/2018 04:00:12 am
They do sound like fun!
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Fran
4/18/2018 03:02:14 am
Ah, you have prompted me to look out my ATCs ...
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AuthorWelcome! I'm Sue Blott: a writer of all things, a poet at heart, mom, wife, daughter, step-mom, grandma, tea drinker, tai chi-er, mystic, artist, dreamer...and now a blogger! This is my world. Categories |