Sunday, March 25, 2012

Artist Trading Cards

ARTIST TRADING CARDS


What are artist trading cards?
Artist trading cards (ATCs) are miniature pieces of art that are traded around the world. Artists create, trade and collect art at organized "swap" events, either in person or online. The only official rule for ATCs is the size: 2.5" x 3.5".

How did the movement start?
In 1997, M. Vanci Stirnemann, a Swiss artist, created 1200 cards by hand as part of an exhibit. On the last day, he invited others to create their own cards and trade with him during the closing reception. The movement took off, and today, there are ATC swaps in almost every major city around the world. There are also many online swaps.

How do I create ATCs?
Most swaps are open to any media, materials or techniques as long as the card fits into a standard trading card sleeve. ATCs are traded, not sold. However, there are some artists who choose to sell cards. Cards that are sold are called Art Card Editions and Originals (ACEO).

How do I trade cards?
You can locate an in-person swap in your area, find an online swap, or organize your own swap. There are a number of Web sites that others have created to help artists get started. They can be found by doing online searches using key words such as “artist trading cards.” 

Over at "Artistic Document" forum a group of us got together and decided we would take on some ATC for fun - they are very addictive, we have now gone to another forum called "Jellybean Scrappers" and we are continuing the swaps. These are alot of fun and a great way of getting mini works of art.
I will now add some of the swaps that I have been in by showing you the completed sets, they have a theme to follow.
Hope you like looking at these mini works of art.

These two swaps below were from 2010 - see why my friends have been giving me a hard time about updating my blog.

We had Domestic Goddess in April 2010  and Oriental in Sept 2010



1 comment:

scrappin' girl said...

looking forward to you joining our ATC swaps at JELLYBEAN SCRAPPERS Chris !!!!