ARTiST TRADiNG CARDS

"Every child is an artist. The problem is to remain an artist once he grows up."

~ Pablo Picasso

I spent the weekend at my Grandmother and Aunt's house playing the part of Nanny Mc Carrie.   We had a lovely time.  The girls and I made artist trading cards.  We totally geeked out on these for several hours and produced quite a stack.

What are artist trading cards you say?  Well they are tiny 2.5 x 3.5 pieces of art.  They are meant to be created and then traded with another artist with the intention of building a wonderful collection!


The Artist Trading Card movement was started back in 2007 by a Swiss artist named M. Vänçi Stirnemann, who hand-crafted 1200 of these miniature cards for his art exhibition.  On the last day of his show, he encouraged people to create cards of their own to trade with him.  

To make your own you will need a 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 card of watercolor, acrylic, or card stock.  You can also by them precut at most craft stores.

Then  create your work of art using any media.

When completed, write your name, address and/or email, title of your piece

Then trade!!  There are a bunch of sites totally devoted to ATC Swaps.  Some of them are geared towards children.  I have been searching the Internet for swaps that I can get the girls involved in.  I ran across a couple that we missed the deadline, but I am sure more will crop up.

For more information on Artist Trading Cards check out the Art Junction site.  It has lots of ideas and details. Art Trader Magazine has some cool stuff on trading cards as well.