Autumn Leaves LTCs

I received a much awaited package of Letterboxing Trading Cards (LTCs) from a swap I did through the Atlas Quest website. The LTC I made for the swap is shown in this post. Since I made 30 cards, I have about 3 extra. If anyone is interested in trading for one, leave a comment below.

LTCs & ATCs

Since it was football Saturday (I watched college football ALL day), I set up a card table in front of the TV and made some ATCs and LTCs for upcoming swaps I am in. Below are some of the results.

This LTC is for a swap on AtlasQuest.com. I hand carved the Buckeye leaf stamp. On shiny paper I stamped the image with Versamark ink and let dry. Then I used a brayer to roll on ink from a multi-colored ink pad. I stamped the leaf in the middle again with Versamark and poured on embossing powder. I heated the powder to melt it. It is hard to see in the photo but the middle image is raised and shiny. I used a copper paint pen to draw the border around the card. I made 30 of these. Unfortunately the original embossing powder I used did not look good so I "wasted" a few card in figuring out the right combination.

The following 2 ATCs are for a Punch ATC (using a paper punch) swap on swap-bot.com. I made 4 total with different shades of brown for the owl parts. I used Stampin' Up [SU] Woodgrain stamp for the background tree look. I punched the owl parts with the SU extra-large owl punch. The tree hole is a SU oval punch. Again the border is drawn with a copper paint pen.

"The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live."

[Quote by Flora Whittemore]

I've always been partial to woodwork and wooden items. While in Peru, I saw several wooden doors that really caught my eye.

Some were more intricately carved than others.

When I decided to participate in an ATC / LTC* swap with a theme of doors, I chose to replicate one I had seen in Peru for my LTC. I hand carved the rubberstamp and colored the paper to appear more "wood-like" before stamping the image.

ATC = Artist Trading Card: 2.5"x3.5" piece of art (any medium) traded among artists

*LTC = Letterboxing Trading Card: same as ATC plus the criteria of an image of a hand carved stamp must appear on the card.

Check out http://www.atlasquest.com/ for more information on LTC's and letterboxing.

Thursday Theme - Hands

There are blogs I follow that do challenges for making cards, tags, ATCs, or whatever with certain criteria like color combinations, layout designs, themes, etc. I am finally entering one! The website is Theme Thursday http://themethursday.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/thursday-challenge-hands/ and the theme is hands. This is an ATC (Artist Trading Card) that I made with inks, rubberstamps (I carved the snail myself!), and a postage stamp.

ATC - November 2009

Here are the ATCs I made for November and the theme was fall. I used chalks, ink, and a rubberstamp. I learned the chalk lines technique in a class in October.

ATCs - Artist Trading Cards

Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) are 2.5" x 3.5" handmade [and not mass produced] works of art that are traded among the artists who created them. They are very similar to baseball cards but any art medium (paints, inks, drawing, fabrics, sewing, photography, collage, clay, iris folding, quilling, etc.) instead of players and stats. The only "rule" is the dimensions (2.5" x 3.5") so anything goes! Some people like to keep them "thin" enough to fit in the trading card holders (sleeves & pages are the same used for baseball cards). On the back of the ATC is usually the artist's name, contact information, and title of card. If making more than one in a limited edition or series then they are labeled as such (ie., "1/6" or "4 of 7"). Since ATCs are handmade, they are naturally limited in numbers.

I first heard about ATCs in the October 2005 issue of the Rubber Stamper magazine and had to try making them immediately. It's a fun way to try new techniques or play with colors and embellishments. There are many sites online to get into ATC swaps and find trades. Currently I am doing a monthly ATC swap with my mom and four of my nieces.

October's theme was "language". Below are the six ATCs I made for the swap. I used ink pads and rubberstamps. I colored the base using the direct to paper technique with various ink pads. Then I stamped some sheet music, written document, and Chinese characters in different colors. Each ATC has the recipient's first initial in English alphabet, American Sign Language, and Egyptian hieroglyphs. You can click on the photo to see a larger image.



A couple websites with more information about Artist Trading Cards:
http://www.artist-trading-cards.ch/
http://www.cedarseed.com/air/atc.html

If you make ATCs or are interested in starting and want to trade, leave a comment or email me!