WARNING: Trading artist trading cards (ATCs) can be highly addictive. Elsewhere in my posts, I've mentioned ATCs and my practice of trading them. I've been doing this for several years now. It started with my dear friend, Linda, who lives in a different province to me. She introduced me to them (as you can tell, it's all her fault!) and suggested that we trade them every month by snail mail. Tired of only bills in her mailbox, she thought it would be nice to have some happier mail. And so began our trade which has remained fairly constant to this day. Then I discovered Life Book with Tamara Laporte and Tam's Willowing Arts site had monthly ATC swaps. And themes. Linda seemed to have countless ideas with her cards but I struggled more with mine and heartily embraced a set theme each month. Plus signing up for the Willowing Arts swap each month meant being assigned a partner to swap with. I've been doing this for over two years now and have swapped with people all over the world. I always send bits and pieces along with mine to collage or art with and have received beautiful cards and 'stash' in return. Also a couple of years ago, in an effort to help my son-in-law in a silent auction fundraiser for his spiritual centre, I offered a year's supply of monthly ATCs (including postage). The prize was snapped up by a lovely lady called Karen who wanted to send them to her friend's aging parents, ironically in BC, the same province where Linda lives. After the year, Karen asked if I would continue to send them as the couple had apparently enjoyed getting them so much and had even created a little stand for them all. So she donated again to the spiritual centre and I'm in the middle of sending another year's worth. This means that each month I make 8 ATCs in total with two different designs, 4 each of the same design. I keep two, Linda gets two, my Willowing Arts swap partner gets two and Karen's people get two. I email Karen a picture of them each month and tell her the theme and the title of each card. March's theme was 'favourite colour'. When Karen saw my cards, (see the photo at the beginning of the blog) she said they reminded her of the following songs: I usually use old playing cards for my ATCs as they're the right size (3 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches). At first I covered the backs to pretty the cards up but one of my swap people sent me her ATCs which were also made on playing cards but with the back bare, showing the card itself. I thought this was cool and liked the extra randomness of this (plus it's much less work!) so I now do this with my cards. For the fronts, I especially love to layer. I ponder the cards all month, selecting materials to use, then build the layers up. It's wonderfully creative. And did I mention highly addictive?
4 Comments
Kimi Bois
4/18/2019 07:12:12 am
what a wonderful idea! I love that!!!
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I've wanted to try my hand at ATCs, but I don't know if I could handle working on something so small.
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4/18/2019 06:29:09 pm
I used to belong to a fb challenge group that did weekly ATC's. I love creating them. They're a lot of fun to make and a great way to use up scraps and little odds and ends!
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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 |