I know they have been around quite a while, but I just heard of them recently and they are actually perfect for me (and I would recommend making these to others) when I have design block.  They are called Artist Trading Cards or ATCs.  There are no limits, use them to try techniques out for the first time so that your results don’t go un-used.  Try out some stamps or punches for the first time and use those test pieces of paper together creatively on an ATC.  If you would like to make them, there are only two rules. They must only be traded not sold, and they must be normal trading card size which is 2 1/2 x 3 1/2.  I cut black chipboard to size to make mine. I know there are ATC gatherings that some crafting organizations hold in various large cities so it is a rather large community of people that make these and trade with other artists. 

Here is my first ATC. Called ‘Smile’.

I like the colors and the paper.  In looking at it now after a couple hours since I made it, I wish I wouldn’t have been so random with the way I layed out the paisley shapes still I’m happy enough with it to share it on my blog. Again there is no wrong way to make an ATC. Some will be better than others. I will definetly be making more.

Here are the pieces that I worked with.

Die Cuts With A View Paper (my favorite brand of paper) Mango Frost Design and Solid Paper is what I used.

I got this EK Success punch at AC Moores on Clearance. This is the first time I used it.

I liked the shape and thought I could some how fit them all together in an interesting layout either like a fan or a flower.

The Smile came from one of my cricut cartridges that I was testing cutting some of the shapes out. Luckily I cut the perfect size for an ATC.

I took from Mango Frost Solid Stack, the blue shimmering paper for the base of the card and covered my black chipboard with it.

I took the smile cut out and inked it with Antique Linen Ink to give it some dimension.

I’ll give my card a 3 out of 5 stars.  I think I could do better but here’s to learning from first tries!

Thanks for visiting!

I absolutely loved this Mod birthday stamp I got made by Inkadinkado but never used it until now for this birthday card I made for my nephew.
 

Here is the process of how I made it:

I used the Inkadinkado Mod Birthday Wood stamp for the sentiment and then made a frame with my Spellbinders nestabilities Standard Circle Large set
 

I thought that I needed shapes to fit the motif of the stamp, and I just love circles so instead of stars i played on more of the circle elements of the stamp design and used my 2 inch fiskars, 1 1/2 inch EK Success, and 1 inch fiskars circle punches to make the circle shapes.
 

It needed little circles to fill in some of the blank spaces, so I thought i’d hole punch some of the paper, then I needed dimensional dots that small, so just cut a strip off the side and cut that into little tiny pieces to pop out the little circle shapes. 

Then it was just a matter of trying to place them on the card in some sort of way that made sense. Tried to balance the color, and the different shapes on the card but I didn’t want to have them go inside the frame. That was just for the stamp.

I stamped with Stazon Jet Black for contrast to all the colors. This was going to be it, but as you saw above, I needed some circles to fill in all the blank white spaces and the little circles really did the trick as you can see on the final card again below.
 

So far, this is my third card, and so far I think I’ve learned that my cards come out better when I have a concrete idea as to what I want. A little planning and waiting until I have a complete vision for my card seems to make them a better. 

Here are the details for this card: 

- Size: 7 x 5.5 (roughly. I measured it for a sleeve I made for it but  never wrote it down. 

- Mod Birthday Wooden Rubber Stamp by Inkadinkado 

- Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large 

- 2 inch Fiskars Circle Punch (Extra Large)

- 1 1/2 Inch EK Success Circle Punch 

- 1 Inch Fiskars Circle Punch (Medium)

- Regular office hole punch 

- Dimensional Adhesive 

 - Stazon Jet Black Ink

I was skeptical because we are all taught that when things are too good to be true, they usually are but in the case of Scrapbuck.com I was pleasantly surprised. Here are some brief details about my order with alot of photos to show you close ups of the quality of the products.

Here is the breakdown of price ranges, total items and cost before shipping.

Packaging
Just well done. The box wasn’t damaged in any way so UPS seemed to do a good job. The items were stacked neatly inside with brown packing paper to fill the rest of the box to avoid alot of movement to damage the items during shipping.

Here is how the package arrived.

Speed of delivery
I ordered my items on Friday by about 1:30pm and they arrived Tuesday so their policy of ship by 1 business day appears to be true in my case. In comparison to other online stores though, it feels a bit like your flying blind with no tracking number but if they can consistantly ship like they did with my first order, I feel like I am going to be friends with them a long time.

Dollar items

Got two packs of these small tiles. Thought they were a unique accent for a page.

Birthstone sticker gems in two sizes, and some mini gems for accenting.

I do not need anymore plain buttons, these had interesting colors and designs on them and for a buck thought they would be a great addition.

Product Details
In checking some of the items that didn’t meet my expectations, it wasn’t really scrapbucks fault. For example, the fox and panda studded stickers that I love are smaller than I expected. I didn’t pay attention to the dimensions that are in the product details on the site.

Fox and Panda studded stickers. I thought they would be bigger than this but that is my fault for not looking at the dimensions that ARE clearly in the product details for these. I still think they are adorable and I can definetly see them being used on a kids page.

The shiny paper, (that you can see farther down in the pictures) I thought was ‘metallic’. Instead it was high gloss. I have some uses already in mind for that but again it wasn’t what I was expecting but that was really my terminology vs. Best Occasions Brands description.

Dimensional Squares and strips, which i have never seen before. Also some halloween themed alphas and a couple phrases.

Velvet and foil flourishes, watercolor cherry stickers (these match some cherry coasters I bought to make a mini book with), some vellum alphabets. All for $1 a piece.

$1.50 items

More alphabets, and my new favorite thing I am stocking up on are epoxy stickers. I love the glassy appearance of them.

See through phrase tags.

Butterflies, Epoxy lollipops, Halloween stickers with googly eyes. And they are good names too K& Company, Jolees by EK Success.

Gorgeous epoxy floral stickers from K & Company.

Vintage Looking Dimensional Alphabets. Thought they would work great in a Shadowbox idea I have.

I really need more phrases so thought these fit the bill and I love the color scheme.

I have never heard of Forever In Time but they have some really pretty stickers. These too were $1.50.

Yes, more alphabets. These are a mixture of paper and foil and there is 64 pieces in all. For 2.50

Prices & Shipping
There are alot of dollar sticker racks at walmart and target now, but to save me a trip to those stores, for a limited line of products vs. being able to order those same dollar stickers and alphabets at a dollar and 1.50 a piece from the comfort of my own home, I’d go with the latter. The prices are good and fair, the only thing though is I would really wait to order again until I need 50 or 60 dollars worth of things. Mainly because the shipping is high at $7.99. I couldn’t see ordering 20 dollars worth and paying the flat rate again. Another thing would be to order with a friend so that you could split the shipping with them when ordering alot. That would be fair.

Here are the paper packs, chipboard and alphas. From top to bottom, The Colorbok noctourne pack has 395 punchouts, the next is the shiny paper which is a heavy high gloss paper not metallic like i thought, the next is the 40 paper pack, the next is the 100 pack. Finally the last is a prismatic alpha set that i have the matching prismatic paper for. I am on the fence with my choices here. It probably is best in general to see paper in person before you buy so you know what your getting for sure. Still i

Conclusion
I’m left with the feeling that I would definetly order from them again. Like I said before though, I would probably either order with someone to split the shipping with, or wait until I really need 50 dollars worth again (which could be a while my sticker binder is ‘really’ full now! Ahhh what a comforting feeling.

I give Scrapbuck.com 5 out of 5 Craft Scissors. Scissors are a necessity of crafting...another necessity is low cost supplies that allow us to keep crafting affordably and in my estimation scrapbuck.com delivers.

www.ScrapBuck.com

One Important Final Note About my Review
I’ve seen other disclaimers on reviews that I thought i should include my own here. My experience here might not necessarily be what you experience. I am just sharing what I’ve learned through this process. So you can take this as just another review reference as to whether or not you would like to order from them. These are my opinions expressed for the sole purpose to share my experience with others. I am in no way affiliated with scrapbuck in anyway but a recent first time customer.

Thanks so much for visiting!