Do you ATC?

Do you ATC? An ATC are artist trading cards. A tiny piece of art that is 2.5″ by 3.5″ (that’s the same size as a standard playing card) that are meant to be traded and never sold. Those are pretty much the only rules. You can use anything to make your card: paper, paint, ink, stamps, stickers, ephemera, photos, fabric, ribbons, anything. On the back you put your name, title of the piece, and if its part of a series, then the series number. Craftster has a whole board of different people’s atcs. Some are for trade, some are not.

I tried to get into making them, and the few that I made I did like. But it took me so long to make one! I am the most indecisive crafter.

So here are the few that I created.

“Gone Baby Gone”. This was my first ATC. The image came from a book of old photographs. I used 4 different scraps of scrapbooking paper for the background. And then mulberry paper over the top right corner. I inked the edges with brown ink and stamped the words. The words are lyrics (sort of) from a violent femmes song (warning that’s a YouTube link)! The actual lyrics are gone daddy gone, but I liked mine better for this purpose.

After the first ATC, I did a limited series of 4 love quotes atcs. (That makes it sound way more fancy then it actually is).

“Where there is great love, there are always wishes.” I printed the quote on mulberry paper and used 2 different paper scraps for the background. I cut the hearts using my sizzix machine from 2 different red scraps of paper. I then used a crimping machine for the big heart. Add a little bit of inking to it, and bam! It’s done. Sorry the next one is a bit blurred.

“Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.” Quote is again printed on mulberry paper. The flower is from a patterned paper. I cute a circle from different paper and used pop dots to make it pop out. I added some doily paper thing underneath the flower and inked the doily a little bit.

It’s kinda redundant to keep explaining these, so I’ll just post the photos of the last two.

“To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven”

“Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye.”

So, those are my only attempts at ATC’s to date. They are a great way to use up little bits and pieces. And god knows, I am not one to throw out a tiny piece of paper that maybe, one day, eventually, I might just want to use. I may try again someday. I think I will try again someday. It’s a fun little process, I do love playing with paper. I don’t really have a purpose for these. I have not tried to trade them. I just kinda have them stored away. Maybe I should make a whole bunch and display them?

If you make ATCs, what do you do with them? Do you trade them? Do you become attached to yours and cannot let them go?