ATC's - what and why?

What is an ATC and why do we create them?
Maybe you have read or heard these referred to and you didn't know what they were.
Well, the letters stand for Artist Trading Cards and so they are just that, little cards that an artist will make to trade with other artists. If you were going to a convention or a class or belonged to an artist group, these would be created ahead of time to then be traded with others at the event. Typically, each person makes many of these and they are usually created according to a theme. You might pick a topic that is dear to your own heart or work in a medium that is typical of your own crafting. They are usually about 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" and so they are just tiny little canvases just waiting to be ART!
Mine were created around the products in the August I Am A Scrapaholic kit. The kit comes with some precut ATC cards just waiting for some art to be added.
For this first one I used the Inque Chipboard pieces as a stencil. I just cut off a small section of the negative of this one piece and added ink pads in the open spaces. When I was done with my card, these are basically orange shadows. The acrylic bird is colored with alcohol inks on the backside and a stamping on the front side.
I cut out one of the flowers from one of the 7gyspies prints and coated it with a clear paper glaze that I added the Mica flakes into that were part of a previous kit. You can also barely see a butterfly shape - I used the Heidi Swapp mask and rubbed Fluid Chalk stamp pads around that which then leaves the butterfly shape on the paper.

Thanks for visiting, Linda
Materials:
7 gypsies papers
Tim Holtz tickets
Acrylic bird
Making Memories stickers
Inque chipboard
Glimmer Mist spray
Dot stamp - Impress Rubber stamps
Fluid Chalk stamp pads
Alcohol inks - Ranger
Fern stamp - Hero Arts