Booklet for ATCs

In the swap "Vintage Ladies in Hats", the host invited us to give a distinctive touch to our cards. She asked for a booklet to send well protected ATCs, all the way to New Zealand.
For making a booklet to protect our cards she suggested to use a tutorial from  Fantasy Firebird, a member of ATC for all.
Kay (Fantasy Firebird) has posted a wonderfully explained tutorial of how to make a booklet to sent multiple ATC cards by post.
Many of us have had the horrible shock of receiving ripped envelopes with lost cards back from the post office, or the response that cards never arrived to the hosts, because they weren't protected enough, especially when the artist has used some kind of embellishment.
So I found that this booklet is a great solution, it can be made with any A4 size page of colour paper, or not too heavy cardstock, since it has to be folded many times.
Also the booklet can be decorated with a cover and adding some details theme related. Here is a picture of my booklet and cover for my vintage ladies.
I have made both of them using base wall paper stained with tea bag and decorated with some lady in hat that I printed using a Vintage Brush tool  in Photoshop Element.

 My cards are now in New Zealand, they have arrived perfectly safe, ready to be redistributed with the ones for the other players. So whilst waiting for my returns I invite you to visit the Tutorial that Kay generously allowed me to share with you here.
I love to hear your comments

Vintage Images

After you have prepared those lovely vintage looking background it’s time to start creating your vintage ATCs.

If you are not the type of person that keeps every bit of paper to be transformed in art work then you are in trouble of getting images for vintage cards.

But we know that is not a problem anymore since the inclusion of “Google it!!” in our lives. So that is what everybody is doing these days.

What is really great is that there are loads of generous people, that share their images for nothing but a thanks message and if it possible some donation to keep the going. Also anybody can contribute; if you have images or book pages that can be scanned, without breaking any copyright law - (please, please, please be aware of this, ALWAYS read the small letters)-, you are invited to shared them.

I’m going to give a big THANK YOU to art-e-zine and Above the Mark where I got some great images for my cards.

I’m inviting you to have a look and leave a comment sharing how are you doing with your cards…

Vintage ATCs

Vintage cards are very popular these days. There are many techniques for aging paper and card-stock to give it a vintage look.

The simplest and cheapest is reusing teabags, so go and have a lovely cup of tea and keep the bag for your cards. You can use the teabag as an applicator. First paint the page covering with tea and add some blotches with the teabag.

The same can be done with the leftovers of your black coffee. In both cases, please not milk or sugar. Let the paper dry and it’s ready for painting, drawing or collage.

More elaborated mediums are:

Walnut ink crystal: a finest range of darkness can be achieved mixing different amount of the crystal with water. Apply to your papers/card stock with brush, sponge or dipping the paper into the preparation and move it to let the ink run around.  

Dye ink pads: Lay the paper over a rough surface and rub the ink pad over. After you can add some color with a watery mix of burnt sienna acrylic and water.

Dab lemon juice onto torn edges of the paper and heat with a heat gun. A burn effect can be achieved, the more you add heat it, the darker it gets.

Reuse bad background or work you didn’t like by sanding them with fine sand paper or steel wool. This method can be used also in glossy magazine pages.

These are only a few ideas, experiment and you will find your own techniques, maybe mixing some of them… So, go and have fun, I love to listen how you did…

Family Fun with ATCs

Summer is coming and children will be all day around.
ATC is a great pastime. It’s an deal activity to do with kids in rainy days.
Where to start?
Prepare the surface of your table with a big plastic sheet, paint always runs where we don’t want it.
Cut out card-stock  in 2.5 “ by 3.5”  size, (Tip: This is exactly the size size of a poker playing card, that we usually have at home, you can use one of them as a template).
Then it’s time to spread some art material over the table, everything is valid, crayons, coloured paper, children mags pages, glue, children paper scissors, stamps, children watercolour pallets, etc.
If you are brave enough and don’t mind the state of your table, clothes and floor after this session , poster paint it’s a real fun, but I told you, if you are brave.
Have a little chat with the kids and decide in a theme all together, e.g. holidays, pets, dreams, tales…
Before starting, tell them to write their names and dates in the back of the cards as real artists do. They also can number each card
There are endless possibilities:
Collage: tearing coloured paper and sticking as a background, adding hats and wings to characters from the magazines pages, adding letters and symbols.
Resisting: Make some marks with crayons, and wash over after with some watercolour.
Stained Glass effect: Cut out Tissue Paper of different colours and stick in the card, when it’s dried pass thick black marker outlined the shapes.
Finger-paint: Pour only with small quantity of paint in a disposable plate, with their fingertips; they can draw small insects, like ladybirds, spiders, ask them to allow the paint to dry and then do a second layer to complete the shapes.
After the session they can do an art exhibition and stick the cards in the wall or the fridge door with some blue tack, so they can take them after and maybe organise some trading with friends.

Something about swapping...

One thing is great about belonging to a forum is you get to know great people like-minded. On the other hand, communicate and exchange ideas about something you love to do. You can read and discuss what others like you are doing. Moreover, get inspirational ideas too.

Another great activity if you have the time is to organise a swap.

In ATCsforall  you grow as you participate. For instance, when you host your first swap you are only allowed to have 12 players. At the beginning sounds too little, but when you start receiving letters and posts and you have to answer to all of them, then you understand why it is good to have only 12 players.

It is amazing how many tasks involve. First, you decide your theme and deadline, and then you publish it in the forum. Wait until people start to see it and they express their interest in participating. Otherwise you can say it aloud in some other swaps, (with the blessing of the swap host, of course) to make other players aware that your swap is going on.

Meanwhile players use this swap to communicate, here is when you have to be alert and keep up since you are the host. At this point, you accept your players, publish their name and sometimes take them out from the list if they withdraw.

One thing is great is when you start receiving their works, is amazing having all the work there you can see it and enjoy it. Also as a host you could receive an extra card to add to your personal collection.

After you have received your player’s works, as a good host you swap them and send it back to a different player, making a good job implies that the player receives cards as good as the one they have sent; bearing in mind that they do not get disappointed.

I just did my first one. The theme was ‘Yesterday Clocks’. These are some of the amazing cards I have received and now they are all in envelopes ready to go. 
Hope all of them will be happy when they received their swaps.

Good manners (and keeping safe)

Nowadays, there are many issues about copyrights and permissions of use. Whether an artist wants to use old books pages in Altered Art or somebody wants to show images of somebody else work. Whatever is the occasion, all artists today have to be more aware of copyright laws in their own country and other countries where they are showing or selling their work.

In regards of ATC’s, as they are not for sale, probably this can be taken a little softer. But reading in different blogs no one is entirely sure about that topic.

In my particular case, I would like to show more pictures of cards I have received in different swap, so I started to contact artists to ask for their permission to show their work in my blog.

So, for now, I'm only able to show my cards until I get their answers.

If you 'd like to learn more click  Altered Art

Trading ATCs

Some artists keep their cards to show in exhibitions or markets… The point of this is to trade the cards. There is a huge community out there doing trade for fun, learning and sharing.

It is amazing to see the variety of artists involved in ATCs. There many place where trading is happening both online and in places like art conferences, retailers’ exhibitions, and craft fairs to name some.

Online, artists have websites or blogs inviting to trade one to one normally. Otherwise, there are forums where one can become a member, usually by invitation. Once this step is completed, a member can start participating in different swaps.

I am a member of ATCsForAll. I, particularly, think that this forum is great and very well organised. They also do other amazing events like contest, giveaways and even conferences.

Themed swaps are organised and hosted by older members, and one expresses the wish to participate by posting. Once accepted, the artist sent an agreed number of cards to the host following specific rules. Then the host gathers all swap players cards, mixed them, and send them back. When a member receives others members cards, he/she has to give points to the host and reputation points to the other players. This helps toward your status in the forum.

There are other group well known in the community such as: Yahoo ATC Group, Strahmore Artist Papers, ArtistTradingCards.Meetup and many more…

What are ATC's?

ATC stands for Artist Trading Cards . They are miniature work of art, that artists are swapping around the world since a long time ago.

Although some people credit  the origin to M. Vänçi Stirnemann, who began trading sessions in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1997, it is possible to track miniature art trading  back earlier.

Impressionist  artists used to made small examples of their work to trade with other artists and learn from each other.

Card size is restricted to 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches (63mm x 89mm). They can be produced in different media, including hand-drawn (pencil, markers, ink), hand-painted (watercolour, acrylics, oil), collage(paper cuts,  found objects, old book pages), or even metal and cloth.

As their name suggests,  they can only be traded. When  sold they are called ACEO’s … however that is a subject for another post.