I love artist trading cards (ATCs) almost as much as I love making large art. ATCs are limited to 2 1/2″ X 3 1/2″, and the rules are that they cannot be sold, only traded, thus the title, Artist TRADING Cards. In the past few years, I have seen artists sell these in galleries and can only assume that they and the gallery owners are ignorant of the rules. Enough of my soapbox.
The limited size of these little beauties makes it easy to churn them out once you have a design. In our local stamp club, River City Stampers, we regularly trade cards, signing up for the swap at one monthly meeting, then making the required number of cards and swapping at the following meeting. Each swap usually has a theme (Christmas, anything but paper, my hometown, etc.) so we get a great variety of little limited edition pieces of art. Each piece is usually numbered and always contains the name of the artist who created it.
The limited size also makes it easy to lose them. Keeping up with these babies can become a chore. There are turn-around stands especially made for ATCs, or they can be inserted into sports card holders and kept in notebooks.
I always keep one of my cards for myself and always number them with the card number and quantity, i.e.,1 of 14. I usually keep the number one card for myself, unless I have one that is a little less than perfect, in which case that becomes my sample. I wanted to house my favorites in a showcase form, so I made this little ATC book. You can have as many pages as you like, so it would also be great to house one or two entire swaps per book.
This is a view of the inside front cover and page one with the sports card sleeve and patterned paper in place. Note the black embossed swirls. They finish off the pages.
Supplies
• Patterned paper, two 6 X 6 pieces for covers
and an extra sheet for the inside pocket liners
• Solid paper or cardstock in coordinating color,
two sheets 5 3/4″ x 5 3/4′ for cover insides
• Chipboard or book board covers, 6″ X 6″
• Black cardstock, 6″ X 6″ for as many pages as you like
• Cream Cardstock, 1 sheet 8 1/2″ X 11″
• Scraps of cardstock to match your patterned paper,
approx, 4 1/2″ X 4″ and 2″ X 1 ”
• Versamark Ink
• Black ultrafine embossing powder
• Swirl stamp
• Gold fine-tip pen
• Bind-it-all machine and o-wires
• Ribbon scraps to match patterned paper
• Sports trading card sleeves, one per page,
available at major discount stores or any sports memorabilia store.
• Heat tool
• Beacon Zip Dry Glue
• Be Creative Double stick tape
• Computer-generated title and inside cover phrase
• Brown dye ink
Directions
Cover
1. Cover chipboard front and back with patterned paper using Zip Dry adhesive. Sponge brown ink on edges for vintage look.
2. Stamp and emboss swirls on cover.
3. Trim title block, sponge edges and layer onto colored cardstock. Add dots with gold pen. Trim inside title block, sponge edges and layer onto cardstock. Attach with Beacon Zip Dry.
Inside pages
1. Stamp and emboss swirls on each page, front only. NOTE: I prefer to not have anything on the back of each page so that when the page is turned, the ATC is the total focus. This is just a personal preference.
2. Adhere card sleeves with double-stick tape. Trim patterned paper and slip into sleeve to hide tape. This will keep your book looking finished even if there is nothing in the pocket.
Finishing
Assemble pages and covers and punch and bind with Bind-it-all. An alternative would be to use a Cropadile to punch three holes and add binder rings. Tie ribbons in wires or rings. Add ATCs and place it in a prominent spot in your home for admiration.
This book’s size could be adjusted to hold just about anything. You could use a variety of plastic sleeves to hold your own card designs, favorite color combos or inspiration pieces.
These are a few of the ATCs I have made.
Trim and vintage image from RockCandy Studios
Stamps available at www.artisticoutpost.com
Stamps available at www.artisticoutpost.com
Trim, ribbon and vintage image available at www.rockcandystudios.com
Remember, if you have any questions about this project or any others I have posted, please leave a comment here or email me at inkyfingers@bigriver.net.
Have a great week! It’s half-over and we’re on the downhill side of Friday! WhooHoo!
Tags: Artist Trading Cards, Artistic Outpost, ATCs, Be Creative Tape, Beacon, Book, RockCandy Studios, scrapbook
