What is an ATC?

There are always more questions than answers.  The bottom line when it comes to ATC’s (Artist Trading Cards) is this: “The Trade is the Thing.” That’s the point. Once you make the cards, you get to trade (not sell) them. The only other requirements are dimensions: width, length, thickness. The finished cards must be 2 ½ by 3 ½ inches and be thin enough to fit inside a baseball trading card sleeve but not so flimsy that they bend or tear when played with (thin papers can be glued on card stock). Other than that, you can use any medium and most kinds of paper, recycled cardboard, junk mail, old photographs, metal, cloth, paint, glue, glitter, stamps, brads, punches, etc.

The sky is the limit. You can glue them, stencil them, cut them and reassemble the images, weave them together, copy them in Photoshop and manipulate the images. You can even make tiny books. You can start with a water color base and use pen and inks to embellish the patterns and designs. Some paints don’t react well with plastic, so there are some storage considerations.

The cards can each be made individually (time consuming) or cut out of larger (perhaps failed) pieces of art and kludged together. You can combine words and pictures and make ATC collage poems.

Questions to contemplate:

What kind of ATC’s could you make if you had a month to make them? 

If you only had three hours, what would the cards look like then?

How many ATC’s can be can be made out of one sheet of paper whose dimensions are 8 ½ by 11 inches?

With the least amount of left-over paper?

With the fewest required cuts?

With the most aesthetic result?

Having the most fun?

There is no one right answer. Only infinite possibility within finite limits. It is up to you how you want to spend your time, energy, and resources. Join the fun. We meet the third Saturday of every month at 3:30 p.m. at the Lyons Depot Library, in Lyons, Colorado.