ATCs Anyone?

 Enjoy the satisfaction that comes
 from doing little things well. 

 H. Jackson Brown, Jr. 

 ATCs Anyone? 

What is always 2 ½ “ x 3 ½ “, never bought or sold, an extremely popular form of art, and a great way to use up those small scraps of paper that most people would throw away without thinking twice? The answer is Artist Trading Cards or ATCs as they’re known in the craft world.

ATCs were invented by Swiss artist M. Vänçi Stirnemann in 1997 who wanted to allow anyone to participate in an ongoing art project. ATCs are the size of baseball trading cards and can be made with any media – pen, pencil, paint, paper, collage, wax, fiber, metal - anything. The first trading session was held in Zurich Switzerland, but ATC trading sessions are now world-wide. You can cut your own cards or buy precut ones, and searching on the web leads to templates, themes, swaps, ideas, exchanges, and then there’s everything on Pinterest! Why, you could devote your whole art life just to ATCs! But let’s not get carried away, people.

I did participate in the #atcad2017 (artist trading card a day 2017) challenge where I made 1 ATC each day in June. One reason I like ATCs is because they are fun ways to create art in a small amount of time. Check out my cards below. Once I started laying them all out I noticed a few things. Many of them are 3D, most of them are made tall rather than wide, and for some reason I used the color pink a lot, even though it’s not my favorite color. 

 ATC Art 

I’ve listed them numerically 1-30 left to right in groups of 5. Which are your favorites? My top faves are in the pic under the “little” quote.

(1-5) My favorite of 1-5 is #4 because 'Love does rock!'

(6-10) #6 was the most popular of all on IG. My favorite on this line is #9 because of the vibrant colors and the wire telephone cord that is attached to the phone. When I hashtagged #10 with #channingtatum, several people in his fan club liked the card. ;-)

(11-15) #12 is one of my top 3 above. It says "love" even though it's hard to see here. I think #13 looks like she's going to bite the guy's ear off. ;-)

(16-20) #17 is one of my top 3 above. I like #20 because it is a magazine photo and I added fun pen details.

(21-25) Ice cream is my favorite food, so I had to include #21. My favorite ATC of this row, #24, is also one of my top 3 at the top. I just love stamps with moon faces. #25 was sewn on my sewing machine.

(26-30) #28 is special because June 28 is the day I was notified I had been chosen to be on The Crafter's Workshop Design Team. It is a very simple ATC but so powerful for me.

I just realized that all of my 3 favorite cards have wings!! Hmmm, I wonder what the significance is there?! Anyway, whether you make a few or a lot, swap or keep for yourself, ATCs are fun little art pieces. Let me know if you make some ATCs, and I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and will join me every Tuesday and Friday for more blog posts at arteverydaystudio.blogspot.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Arteverydaystudio-1850194768568547/.

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