Artist Trading Cards and Exchanges

 In June, I took a fantastic Art Play: Artist Trading Cards 1-hour class with Jennifer Wilkin Penick. This is probably my 7th Art Play session with Jennifer as I love the 1-hour format which includes quite a bit of demo, inspiration, in a very fun and relaxing setting. Participants have the option of watching and/or creating along with Jennifer. Earlier in the day, Jennifer posted a photo of her fodder scraps in preparation for the workshop and that inspired me to pull out my scraps and play along!

Jennifer demonstrated 3 or 4 different ATC designs and by the end of the day I had made 8 ATCs and was immediately hooked on this small format for mixed media art.

Jennifer offered to swap ATCs with class participants and invited us to swap with each other. I was delighted to swap with Jennifer and 4 other classmates. I had fun embellishing notecards and selecting bonus fodder for each swap partner.

And below are the beautiful ATCs I received in the mail (artist credits starting top left, going clockwise):

• Jennifer Wilkin Penick, Washington DC
• Kate K, Indiana
• Pat S, New York
• Stephanie T, California

I also saw two other artists offering to swap via their Instagram posts and responded with my interest. So more ATCs were made and sent out with fodder bits. 

And here are the ATCs received from those exchanges:

• Patti F aka @p4craftstudio, Ontario, CA (left)
• Dee Dee aka @bettsy_doodle, United Kingdom (right)

I am really enjoying these ATC Swaps and hope to make and exchange more ATCs in the upcoming months. I've created a binder with 9-Pocket Trading Card Storage Album Pages to hold my collection of ATCs made and received, as well as started an inventory sheet to log the maker's information: date, name, location, network/IG handle. I also designed an ATC label to affix onto the backsides of my ATCs making it way easier for me to include my information. And I finally ordered a customized rubber stamp with my mailing address, which has been on my to do list for 7-8 months now.

I even found some of the ATCs I made and traded with fellow fiber artists through the Contemporary Quilt and Fiber Artist group back in 2012 including: Maureen L (x2 cards), Jaye L (x2 cards), Bron Mc (x2 cards), Chris C, Angela O (x2 cards), and Rhonda L.

I'm having lots of fun making and sending some of my art out into the world, plus I love receiving happy mail with others' artwork! I've even signed up for the #Trading Paper Pals swap to exchange paper fodder with other mixed media and collage artists!