Artist Trading Cards from Around the World

The Canvas Corp Brands Creative Crew is an international team of amazing designers that live, work and create from all areas of the world.  We inspire, support and collaborate with each other and we also love a good challenge.  One of our first challenges of 2016 was an ATC (Artist Trading Card exchange).  About 25 of our Crew members jumped in to make ATC’s and share them with fellow Crew members.  Each member created their mini works of art with fun discussions going on behind the scenes bringing the Crew closer together and learning a bit more about each other.  We got to see many sneak peeks and no two are alike.  Some of them are painted, some of them are sewn, others are paper pieced, while others are stamped and inked.  

Each Crew member had a list of 12 designers to make and send their personal ATC’s.  Yes in an envelope, yes with a handwritten address, yet with a real life stamp and yes they all got a postmark from places near and far.   As part of the team Lisa and I decided we wanted to participate, so we had the honor of receiving 12 (plus a few more – thanks guys) ATC’s and it was like getting a secret gift each time one was delivered.  Mail has become almost a burden, with mailboxes filled with junk advertisements, bills or someone else’s mail that should not even be in your box.Long gone are the days of handwritten letters, personal notes and handmade cards.  We forget how good receiving a special note or letter can be, so this little challenge not only let us bring out our creativity and share it with others, but it brought back that joy of receiving real letters in the mail and actually opening them up.

We thought it would be fun to walk you through the steps of the ATC’s created here at the office that shipped around the world and then share the individual Crew ATC’s as they link up and share their work.

We created our ATC’s to fit inside a variety of the 7gypsies ATC size file folders.  This miniature folders are so fun to use and are just the right size for not only Artist Trading Cards, but they are great for calling and business cards to keep them organized or to present them in a pretty cool way.

What we used:

• 7gypsies American Vintage: American Stamps 12×12 Paper
• Canvas Corp 12×12 Canvas Sheet
• Canvas Corp Tags & Ties Skinny – White
• 7gypsies Stamp – Dare to be Remarkable
• Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist – Cross My Heart
• Tattered Angels Simply Sheer Mist – Dark Blue
• Tattered Angels Baseboard Mist – Cardboard
• Canvas Corp Ticking Fringe – Blue
• 7gypsies ATC Size Printed File Folders
• Canvas Corp Jute Cord 
• Black permanent ink pad

Tools:  scissors, paper cutter, sewing machine, black thread, pins, paper towels

 Artist Trading Card Size:  2 ¹⁄₂ by 3 ¹⁄₂ inches (64 mm × 89 mm)

 Cut your canvas into ATC size and mist with your choice of Glimmer Mist(with glimmer) or Simply Sheer Mist (without shimmer), set aside and let dry.  If you like the frayed edges on the canvas make a small slit and rip the canvas along the weave of the fabrics and you will get this great fringed look.  The canvas will bring out the beautiful deep color of the mist, dab with a paper towel to reduce the intensity and to give it a more vintage or distressed look (of blue jeans).

Mist each of the Skinny Tags with the Chalkboard Baseboard Mist.  As you can see this mist is pretty incredible giving a vintage, watermark look and no two are alike.  Unlike distressing inks that are great for edges and smaller spaces, this mist allows you to mist larger areas to get this great look and will work on fabric, raw wood, paper, burlap, silk, ribbon and other porous surfaces.  Set these aside to dry.  If they curl up, which paper tends to do when you soak it with water, you can set something with a little weight like a book on them and they will dry flat.

Each of the tags is then stamped with one of the cool 7gypsies stamps.  We like Dare to be Remarkable as we thought it was the perfect message for each of our designers.  

Stamp each tag with your saying.

Rip thin pieces of the ticking pieces from the ticking fringe to make these little tags.  

Cut the American Vintage American Stamps paper into ATC size and light them up with the misted fabric as shown (sorry no photo of the before lined up)

Now grab you sewing machine and if it has fun different stitches then you can really have fun trying them out, if you don’t own a sewing machine and have always wanted one, they are so much fun.  Today’s machines basically sew for you, they even have a needle treader, so we don’t get letters anymore, but our sewing machines can thread themselves, so technology has its good and bad effects.  

Slip the tags into their little pockets and you have a little ATC pocket card to share a little tag, special message or a secret treasure map.  We picked the American Stamps as our base paper to share a little vintage America around the world.

I love how cool the fabric looks, almost like old vintage fabric.  Take a look at all the stitches we played with.  They are not perfect by any means, but that is the fun of this, I don’t think perfection was required.

Each ATC was tucked into one of these precious little file folders and tied with a bit of jute cord.  Each folder is printed inside and out and is the prefect way to wrap them, ship them and keep them organize.  

The newer ATC file folders have the coolest tabs, check out the luggage handles, cameras and flowers.  They are also great for organizing the ones you receive too and slip them into a 7gypsies ATC Crate.

Here are a few other fun ideas for organizing and showing off your ATC Cards:

Cigar Boxes – very cool and if you like that smell oh my!!!

ATC Vintage Spinner Rack – (we are thinking about bringing this back if we have enough interest.  Let us know what you think in the comments (and yes we do read them if you think you might need one of these)

So a box of ATC’s is standing at attention and ready to make their way world wide to each member of the Crew who created their own ATC’s for this challenge.  

For the Crew Challenge, each Crew member made 12 ATC’s to share and each will receive 12.  Lisa created these 12 little sweet beauties that will make their way around the globe.   These vintage little girls have been added to an assortment of vintage 7gypsies papers and accented with just the right details.

Jaine Drake organized this fun swap and shares her mini art pieces that traveled to a different group.

Hi there, Jaine here.  When Christine asked me if I’d organize this swap I was thrilled. Many moons ago I enjoyed swapping these little pieces of art and had forgotten how much delight it gave me to find actual stamped mail in the post box. My reaction each time I went to collect the post must have been priceless. In an age where communication is mainly through e-mail, messenger chat and Facetime there’s little reason to send real mail anymore and I knew it would be the ideal way to extend friendship to other Crew members around the world.

These are my Atc’s from fellow crew members.

I made my 12 ATC’s as part of a series making each one slightly differently.  They had to reflect me and my personality so my background is made using my favourite inks and paints in a mixed media style, a red heart for friendship and a bit of doodling.  

For every ATC I received, I saved those all important envelopes. These I’ll make into a mini album at a later date but I’ll most definitely be keeping them as they’re all so beautiful.

We hope you are inspired to create you own ATC’s, join a group or start one local or maybe internally.  

We have asked our Crew to share their ATC’s and blog posts from their personal blogs with you here so you can travel across the world with us to see all the creative designs and to see how very different each one of them really are, each their own little work of art.

Happy Creating!!!

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