WHAT'S AN ATC?

When time and/or space is limited, but you still want to create art, an ATC may be just the thing for you!  An ATC, or Artist Trading Card, is art in a small format.  There are exact specifications for the size of an ATC, and that is 3-1/2" x 2-1/2" (either orientation).  Further, an ATC may never be sold; it may only be given as a gift or traded.

What brings me to this topic today is that I have been asked to trade pieces of art with a woman in New York State.  We met on a website called artjournaling.ning.com, where art journalers (primarily) gather to share their work, chat about projects, and/or  inspire or be inspired.  Susan and I were often commenting on each others' work, and Susan proposed that we "swap" pieces of art once a month.  I laughed when she said, "We like each others' work so much, we are pretty much guaranteed to like what we receive!"  And she has been right!  We swapped Valentine-themed "tags" in February, then Spring or Easter tags in March.  This month we are swapping three ATCs of any theme.

Both Susan and I like vintage-themed *anything*, so I have created two vintage ATCs and then one about birds--a passion of my own.  Here are the ATCs I created:

The first, "she is JOYFUL," was created by manipulating a photo of my sister as a young girl using a photo editing program.  I protected her image with a scrap piece of paper and then stamped over it with a script stamp.  The vintage numbers at the side are rub-ons, and the title, a portion of another stamp.

The second ATC was covered with a piece of scrap patterned paper and contains a vintage image from a "free" site that I trimmed and then adhered to my ATC.  I next stamped a clock and the quote, "to be all that is possible, we must attempt the impossible, to be all that we can be, we must dream of being more."

The background for this last ATC was created by applying more layers than I can count of red, orange and pink Dylusions ink sprays!  I added a stamp created by coating bubble wrap with acrylic paint, then applying it to my ATC.  Lastly, my quote and the birds on a wire are also stamps.

I hope you enjoyed your visit here today and might just be inspired to create an ATC yourself!  I love comments, so please leave one if you like what you see here!

Joy to you!