From Coast to Coast Creations

Artist Trading Cards are little miniature works of art.  They are passed from one person to another in exchange for another artist trading card (or ATC as they are commonly known).

Many people credit M. Vänçi Stirnemann, who began trading sessions in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1997, as being the instigator of these ATCs, although you can in fact trace back to the portrait minatures and to business type cards that were popular with Impressionistic era artists.

If  you look back you will see that over the ages many artists have produced minature works for trade or to simply advertise their work.  Previous "trading" cards had few set rules or guidlines and you would therefore find a great variance in size with older cards.

Now the only set rule is in the size of the cards, that being 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.  The hole idea behind the ATC's of today is that they are TRADED and not sold for proffit, however some people now sell their cards (these are known as ACEOs).

It is expected that the cards are created as unique works of art or small limited editions of prints.  Artists on the whole will sign and date the back of the cards, and on occassions may also include a card title and contact information. 

Although there are a number of "live" meets where people will swop their cards, the majority of swops take place via the world wide web, in sites that have arisen with the sole idea of being able to swop these cards.

You can make a card using basically anything on anything with anything!!  If you enjoy drawing, painting etc well do that. Or you may wish to attempt collage, using scraps of papers, art obtained from magazines, books etc.  You can even use items from your card making and/or scrapbooking.  For some ideas look around the atc galleries you will obtain plenty of ideas there.

What can you use for an ATC base??

Basically most anything goes!! However some people are bothered about whether they are using an acid free item, in order that their creation will stand the test of time!!

Here are a few suggestions made by various site members:

·         If you want to use watercolours, inks, acrylics and collage try using 300gm watercolour stock.

·         For pencil, ink and collage try 250gm cartridge

·         For marker pens 300gm Bristol Board

·         For acrylic painting

·         try gesso covered canvas mounted on card or 300gm watercolour paper

·         If you only have flimsy cardstock glue a few layers together.

·         As long as you aren’t worried about the acid content of your card/paper you have a host of other options, such as cereal boxes, cardboard, tissue boxes etc

·         Wood eg Balsa wood or wood veneers

·         Fabric, eg: Timtex, felt, heavy denim, canvas

·         Playing cards

·         Regular cardstock

·         Leather

·         Chipboard (ebay seller of various sizes http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZckresale )

·         Thin plastic

·         Postcards

·         Polymer clay (rolled flat)

·         Index cards

·         Canvas paper

·         Bristol board for ink/coloured pencils/markers also good for collage

ACEO stands for "Art Cards, Editions and Originals". These cards have one main rule - they are 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches - the size of a trading card.

Purists would say that the artist who sells his or her work is breaking the main rule of Artist Trading Cards, however many artisits would say that they were only bringing the chance to trade to the general public.  Of course my observation would be  that obviously the lure of money set them to selling their works and not  the thought that others were unable to crete their own works to swop!!

In theory, cards are also sold either as originals or editions. Make sure you know which you are buying! If it is a print it should say so, and it should be numbered and signed, usually on the back.  Don't expect to get an original one only card, many of these sold cards are churned out by the box load, just be careful when you buy and be prepared to be stung!! 

There a vast number of trading sites on the web, all you need to do is type in the words "artist trading cards" and you will find a whole host of sites that invite you to join them.  There are a wide selection of sites on the Yahoo groups, plus many craft stores are also getting onto the band wagon and hosting swops!!

Below is a list of some sites that I either trade with myself, or have been reccomended or just found in my travels.  I suggest that you try some of them out and see where you are happiest.

www.ATCsforall.com

http://iboard.jeansartdolls.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FabricAndPaperATCS/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ATC_Trading_zone/?yguid=273712672