Apr

Artist Trading Cards

By Leirs

Artist Trading Cards (or ATCs) are miniature works of art about the same size as modern baseball cards,small enough to fit inside standard card-collector pockets, sleeves or sheets. The ATC movement developed out of the mail art movement and has its origins in Switzerland. 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). The cards are usually traded or exchanged rather than sold.

ATC’s have been on the fringe of the paper crafts industry for awhile but lately they’ve been growing in importance as companies like 7 Gypsies have been releasing products aimed squarely at that activity, and stampers and scrapbookers look for more things to do with their supplies.

Many stamp designs now being sold that were obviously influenced by the ATC aesthetic, which is infiltrating mainstream scrapbooking. Even companies as diverse as Tim Holtz and Making Memories both introduced ATC supplies to their respective companies.

Tim Holtz ATC-Size Cling Mounted Stamp Games