You seem to be hearing, "Do you have a trade?" more and more at both scrapbooking and stamping events.

So what are we trading?

ATCs - which is the acronym for Artist Trading Card.

So now you are asking, “What exactly is an Artist Trading Card?”

An ATC is work of art in miniature. The concept of ATCs was the brainchild of M. Vanci Stirenmann, a Swiss performing artist. He developed his first ATC collection for a display in his bookstore, after admiring a collection of hockey cards. On the last day of the display, anyone who wanted one of his cards, could have one, but only for a trade of their own. The popularity of these little works of art grew from there.

Originally, the cards were mainly collected and traded among artists; now the ATC craze has spread to all of the paper crafts. Thanks to the Internet, we are seeing them everywhere expressing every imaginable theme. You can see them incorporated into scrapbook pages, as places to add journaling or for an extra picture. They are showing up as part of the face of a card, a easy way to say "Hello" or a simple "Thank You," tucked inside an envelope, and ATC swaps are happening all over the world. Nothing is too outlandish for an ATC.

How do you play? Well, the rules are simple. ATCs are to be traded and collected, never sold. They must measure 2½” x 3½” and the back should include your name, the date it was created, and the title of the card. That’s it. Those are the only rules.

For the face of your card, pretty much anything goes. The theme of an ACT can be simple, silly, or serious. They can express interests, emotions, or nothing at all. Any type of media can be used to create an ATC. They can be decorated with stamps, ink, fabric, stickers, die cuts, paint, paper, photos, and embellishments – almost anything you can think of that will fit on the card.

Some artists will use actual playing cards as the background; others prefer to start with a blank piece of heavy cardstock that will stand up to mailing. I have even seen them done with fabric as well as done entirely digitally. It all depends on where your imagination takes you.

I love doing ATCs, just for the pure fun of it. Being involved in swaps is a great way to learn, just by participating, I get to see the styles and techniques used by other artists, ones I might not normally use. The Internet provides a great place for ATC enthusiasts to participate in swaps or trade sessions, as they are more commonly called. If you are interested, just do a search on Artist Trading Cards and browse through the sites. There are some great reference sources out there.

So now you know all there is to know about producing an ATC. Fairly easy – right? So sit down and get designing and then let me know when you are ready to trade. I always have a few extra in my pocket.

Tutorial written by Annie Frazer

Note: Annie made her cute ATC's with Betsy Lombardi's Summer Sun Collection (retired) used as printables.