Friday 23 May 2014

Tutorial - ATC by Dale Tiernan

Hi everyone. It's Dale here. I'm going to run you through creating an ATC. Perhaps you are not familiar with these term or you are but have never made one. They are a lot of fun. Here's a little run down before I start.

Artist trading cards (or ATCs) are miniature works of art about the same size as modern trading cards baseball cards,[1] or 2 12 by 3 12 inches (64 mm × 89 mm),[2] small enough to fit inside standard card-collector pockets, sleeves or sheets.[3] The ATC movement developed out of the mail art movement and has its origins in Switzerland.[4] Cards are produced in various media, including dry media (pencils, pens, markers, etc.), wet media (watercolor, acrylic paints, etc.), paper media (in the form of collage, papercuts, found objects, etc.) or even metals or fiber. The cards are usually traded or exchanged. When sold, they are usually referred to as art card editions and originals (ACEOs).

That definition was straight from Wikipedia.

I chose some products first of all.
black cardstock
Bo Bunny C-est La Vie Ephemera paper
blue ribbon and blue pen, white ribbon
sepia ink
Pink Paislee Hey Kid Element sticker
Flourish With A Bling, Grace - Pearl

There is Kaisercraft sticker sheet showing but I didn't end up using it.

  1. I chose to use a black cardstock as a background. I cut it to the 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch size and put it to one side.
  2. I then cut a piece slightly smaller of the Bo Bunny paper. It had a nice corset on it that I thought would be terrific. I distressed all the edges and ran the ink along the sides.
  3. I added some colour to the corset with my blue pen. 
  4. Then I adhered the white mini pom pom ribbon to the waist.
  5. Next I added the Hey Boy sticker.
  6. I cut a piece from the pearl bling and added that.
  7. Next I wound the blue ribbon around the top of the paper twice and tied it in a knot.
  8. Finally I adhered the paper to the black cardstock.
  9. All done.
Here is the finished ATC.


When these cards are traded you add your information to the back. They are fun to swap and collect. I have also added some to my scrapbook pages before. It's a like a little mini art work on your page.

Why not try making one of these. I'd love to see some ATC's in our gallery, just for fun.

1 comment: