Artist Trading Card (ATC) labels

When swapping with or giving trading card art to another artist - print these out to attach to the back!

And if you need more info on exactly what an ATC is...

What's an ATC?

It's an Artist Trading Card - basically a little piece of you to share with others!  ATCs are never sold, only traded or given away.

ATC history

The artist trading card is said to have originated in 1997 in Switzerland when M. Vänçi Stirnemann of Zurich hosted the first swap. Since then these small art pieces have grown in popularity!

ATC details

👍🏻 Each ATC should be exactly 3.5 inches tall and 2.5 inches wide - same as a baseball card. Most are rectangular but some artists do experiment with arched tops, folding flaps and pockets etc. They should have a little weight to them - cardstock, not lightweight paper - but not so much that it couldn't slip into a clear plastic sleeve made for this size card.

👍🏻 Some artists include interactive parts that fold or swing out of it (think flaps and doors, limbs on paper doll cards, tails on animal cards).

👍🏻 ATCs can include text like quotes or journaling, stamping, painting, pencil, mixed media, basically anything goes. Make yours a reflection of YOU and your own style. If you do cute, cute is perfect! Just remember: these aren't throwaway art. Put your heart into what you share with someone else!  ❤

👍🏻 ATC cards are often traded inside card sleeves to keep the art safe inside, but the sleeves are not required. (I bought a pack of these because I think it'd be fun to use them as "business cards" when someone buys one of my paintings instead of a printed card.)

3 types of ATCs

1⃣ One-off – a one-of-a-kind card
2⃣ Series – a few cards that are on one theme, usually numbered – 1 of 5, etc
3⃣ Edition – two or more cards that were created to look identical

On the back of an ATC

Include the following, typed & attached or handwritten: Name of the artist, date, title (if it has one), email or website, and any notes like whether it's part of a series or edition (see above).

How to get into a swap

You can google for swap groups, and we don't endorse or not-endorse any of them. But we do host some swaps in our community at Artventure on Mighty Networks! They're free - just the cost of postage for whatever you want to send out.