ATC Cards!

Today I have been making ATC cards. For those of you who don't know what they are, ATC stands for Artist Trading Cards. People trade these just like you would a baseball card. They are baseball card size, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"only they are works of art. People use all sort of materials to make them. I have seen painted ones like miniature paintings, fabric collages on them, stamped, etc. The scrapbook store in Black River Falls that Diane and I go to when we stay up there is having a year long swap. This swap has a monthly theme. Each month you make 10 of your card to trade with the other people in the swap, plus an extra one that is displayed in the store. In return you will receive 10 different cards from 10 different people. Diane and I are both participating in this swap this year. I did my first 3 months worth today. I love making little things like this! When I start receiving my swaps back, I will post pictures of them on here. This first one is the one for May. We were to make something feminine, girly, something that represented Mother's Day. The saying is from the stamp set Sweet Thing p.68. True love begins when nothing is looked for in return. I thought that was a quite appropriate saying as mother's tend to love unconditionally. On the right side of the card I used the wheel Forever Flowers p.46. I just love it. It looks so elegant! This next ATC is the one that I made for June. The theme was to make a masculine looking atc. I used the background stamp Sanded p.136 on the Sage Shadow card stock. I love how it looks! You can make just about anything look masculine if you pair it up with this background stamp. The horse and the stars are stamped from the set Wanted p.107 and then I used the small star punch to punch out the star. I also did some tearing around the horse and some distressing with the ink pad. I also used the spiral punch to get the notebook effect.












July's challenge was to recycle in honor of our nation's birthday. We were to use something we would normally throw away. I decided that I would cut the base of my card from my Post Raisin Bran cereal boxes. I used the brown side up and inked the edges with craft ink. The center piece is glossy card stock which I brayered ink on with a spectrum pad then stamped Lady Liberty with stazon ink. You would never know this a cereal box unless you flipped it over and saw the writing on the back of it. I purposely left that showing so that they would know that I did use something recycled on the project. Make some ATC's....they are a blast! Elaine