Have you ever been part of an ATC Swap? ATC stands for Artist Trading Card and it originated at an artist convention where artist made miniature works of art on small 2.5″ x 3.5″ canvases. Instead of handing out business cards as they met other artists, they handed out their own works of art! In the crafty community, we’ve made these mini cards (which are baseball trading card size) as our works of art to trade. You’ll have swaps at physical craft shows/events/crops or virtual swaps where we send them to our friends across the country/world! Let me show you how easy it is to make an ATC!
Supply List
| Cardstocks | Other Supplies |
|---|---|
| PopTone Black Licorice PopTone SnoCone DCS Aqua Shop CutCardStock (affiliate link) | * Sharon’s Scissors Die Set * Spellbinders Trimmer * Spellbinders Sparkle Splatter * Spellbinders Detail Scissors The above are all affiliate links |
Let’s Make This Artist Trading Card
Step 1. Cut the base to 2.5″ x 3.5″ from PopTone Black Cardstock
This is optional, but I like the round the corners of my ATC because it makes it easier to slip into a sleeve or pocket for folks who like to collect them and put them into storage sleeves/binders.
Step 2. Cut a 2.25″ x 3.25″ Panel from PopTone SnoCone
If you are not rounding corners, it’ll look like the picture above. If you are rounding corners, you’ll want to round these corners on this layer too.
Step 3. Adhere these two layers together
Step 4. Assemble your focal image. I used Sharon’s Scissors for my Crafty Swap.
I used PopTone Black for the blades and DCS Aqua for the handles… I replicated my favorite fussy cutting detail scissors. 🙂 The nice thing about ATC’s is that they are small. So you really don’t need too much and that’s what also makes them quick to make so you can create a batch of them to hand out and trade/swap with your crafty friends!
Step 5. Attach a Sentiment
You don’t have to add a sentiment if you don’t want to since this is a little piece of art and not a full card, but if you want, for long sentiment stickers like these, I like to just cut them up between words and adhere them wonky for some fun.
Step 6. Splatter!
I added some Sparkle Splatter
Picture Gallery
Enjoy!
