Artist Trading Cards as a concept, have been around for a good while now. And they are a very big fad in scrapbooking swaps at the moment - almost every community site I know of is doing a swap on these things, whether traditional or digital. I myself, am leading a group through a Digital ATC Challenge at UKScrappers.

Then there’s Rhonna Farrer’s led swaps in both traditional and digital realms over at 2Peas, where Bre has just added on a second digital swap, the ATC swaps going through Promos4Digis and the ones with a twist at Digital Scrapbook Place, on a DATC forum.

Why do I suggest that the current sets of swaps ongoing at DSP have a bit of a twist going on? Because if you look at these, they are Digital Artist Trading Cards with the emphasis on “Artist”. People are creating almost business-card like trading cards, either in limited editions or unlimited editions. The cards generally have their photo on them, some details, and the DSP logo etc on them. If you stuck a company address and phone number on these things, they would be a great representation of the artist as scrapbook artiste.

This possibly wasn’t the actual idea of the initial DATC challenge which explained the history of Artist Trading Cards in total on this post here. However, it is an interesting twist to make these into “Artist” cards as has been done by many in the swap. Like an About Me layout, but in minature. A similar approach has often been taken within other digital scrapbook forums for design teams in particular. Normally an about me layout is created (with a big mugshot of the design team member) and then miniaturised and put up in a group page on the web. Scrapbook Bytes also uses this approach in their monthly ezine, TidBytes. The “Artist” cards being traded at DSP are very similar in format, apart from the obvious size and in being rectangular in format rather than the more usual square of an actual scrapbook layout.

Not all of theDATC gallery at DSP is full of those “Artist” business-cards, however. Perhaps that was just a natural starting point for many scrapbookers to begin. Now there are more patterned cards happening digitally - blended images, even a friendship quilt.

These are traditionally the essence of artist trading cards, and why they remain so popular today. They are small (normally 2.5 x 3.5 inches in real size) and therefore give anyone the chance to simply create something - as quick or rough, or experimental as you wish. Scrapbookers are excited by this - the chance to play, and normally quickly. Like anything, it’s good to see results come out of your work, and Artist Trading Cards can give us that.

But the whole point of Artist Trading Cards is in the Trading part. These are meant to be a gift, a swap. You collect them. Traditionally mixed media artists have metup and swapped these at conventions and other meetings. And the history towards this is that they must remain FREE.

Which is why when I saw this, I found it ironic. These are Artist Trading Cards being sold on ebay. They are identifiably ATCs in format (vertical, size) but are for sale. Selling Artist Trading Cards has been the subject of much controversy over the internet over the past many months. The artist involved here has changed the label on her artwork to simply “Art Cards” and this is perhaps what needs to be done. Because no-one owns the right to the format of artwork (playing card size) and no one can certainly insist that they can not be sold, based on their historical objectives set (see the DATC forum entry above for this history).

I don’t have a resolution towards this, nor do I particularly blame the artist concerned, for trying to sell her artwork. Many mixed media artwork is sold via Ebay, in rectangular format or otherwise. You could even sell off some altered playing cards themselves as a collage.

Just as long as the person who buys them doesn’t then go and swap them onwards, I guess.

So, that aside, I like the “Artist” twist from some people at DSP. I’ve also seen a twist on the word “Card” before where one mixed media artist created an ATC which looked like a folded in greetings card, complete with heart cutout. Aside from size, it actually looked like a homemade card, I was expecting to see the To, From and Verse inside of it.

So we so far have seen twists on a traditional and historical entity on all 3 words - Artist, Trading and Card. Whatever next?

The Second Challenge 

12th August - 26th August
Here it is, the second challenge. And before that I would like to thank everyone for their fantastic efforts on the first challenge.

The Theme (interpret as you wish) : There is none - unless you count “Do what you Want”

Style: Use Texture

How can you get a flat digital creation to look textured - whether lumpy, metalic, shiney, cloth, cardstock. However you please.

For those busy creating their first digital Artist Trading Cards with the UKScrappers challenge, there is a chance to have some of your cards exhibited. Maxine Church is providing an ATC exhibition at her local art centre in October, and accepting cards for this exhibit. It would be nice to see some digital ATCs being shown through this also.

For details see Maxine’s UKScrapper’s post, here.And specifically, go to her own website advert, which gives you the snail mail address to send your cards to.

I am so impressed with the ATCs created by this group, that I want to show everyone them, outside of the UKScrappers galleries. There is still 2 weeks left for any ATC creations, so I hope to update this entry with more fantastic ATCs as they come.

ATC Theme : Punched Soul

Credits :

Top : Michelle and DragonflyBaby

Middle: Bridget and Melinda

Bottom: Emma and Julie (Jools)

The First Challenge

1st August - 12th August

No pulling punches here, let’s go for gold and all other trite  metaphors, and just do it all. If you only manage half of this, you should be pleased as punch, lol.

The Theme (interpret as you wish) : Punched Souls

Some Blurb Offerings : Punch: punch it out, pinch and a punch for the 1st of the month, punching bag, punch and judy, hole punch, punch drunk, alcoholic punch, pleased as punch… Soul: lost souls, my soul, god’s soul, save our souls, quiet soul, soul music, lonely soul, good soul, spirit soul, beauty of the soul, soul of the foot…

Combine both, mix with a bit of artistry, and show us what you’ve got.

Style: Digital Collage - layer those backgrounds, images, fade them out, use your layer blend styles (PSP) or Actions (PS). Don’t forget to add your own signature / logo if you got around to creating it. And if you’re really wanting to lay it on thick, technique-wise, then consider using some tools to cut out one of your images form the background.

Upload: High resolution 300ppi to a image server somewhere, which we can download from. Low resolution for the web copy to UKScrappers. Both links go on your thread. Remember, if you’re using anyone’s digital backgrounds or images, give credit for these.

And here’s mine… (3 different images - one cut out, one downloaded from the internet, and the other two from my digital image collection) - all blended into a montage. Some very minor typography work, a signature brush, and a border treatment). I apologise if you’re not into skeletons or the symbolism I’ve used- I tend to move to the dark side occasionally. But I promise that I will also use nice angelic images, retro and victorian lovelies in future ATCs also.

Credits : Background Image -downloaded from internet; Angel with clock image and Skeleton Image : Artella clipart - available for members; Border treatment - Terry Merucca, Border Frames, available from Scrapbook-Elements

For the actual Download File, I have created a file directory on my own website to hold all of my ATC downloads - which you can browse to, or you can download it immediately from this link here. The file is entitled ATC1 PacificBlue Aug 2005.jpg, and is 382kb in size.