ATCs for Everyone Who Is Afraid to Make Them!

How about clay or crochet or knitting or metal or wood or...? :}

Everyone is welcome to make an ATC out of anything, be it paper, clay, crochet, knitted, metal, wood, etc.!

Wonderful idea hun =) I urge anyone who is worried to do ths to just go ahead and you will definitely not regret it and most likely become hooked!

OOh, i so want to join! I am sooo scared though, lol. Have NEVER done any type of swap before. Okay.... I am gonna do it. (pushing join button, taking big gulp)......

Yay! Go for it!

So? An ATC is basically paper card stock measured and cut a ceratin size and decorated in some way?

@piglet59645 I would say that what you've written above is ONE way to make an ATC. You don't need to make it out of paper, or you could make it out of paper. You can decorate it, you can paint, you can hand draw, you can make one out of other non-paper materials, you can collage...

oh I love this :) I too was extremely scared when I first started.... now I have a few under my belt, and seriously- DON'T worry about it! That's my advice. Take your idea and run with it. Just have FUN and make some art! Use absolutely ANYTHING. decorate with ANYTHING. Make your idea of art!

SUPER excited about this swap. This will be my first ATC, but my work is of good quality with all my other crafts, so I'm sure I can handle this one! =] Looking forward to getting ATC-Hooked and seeing some wonderful works of art!

Yay! I am loving the comments here! "Make your idea of art!" - LOVE that!

This is a great idea - I keep seeing these ATC swaps and want to partake but usually it seems everyone is a pro at it and there are so many ATC's and partners involved - jeesh. Seems so overwhelming :). I'm joining this one and cross fingers hoping for the best :P

I'm still chicken, lol

@piglet59645 ya gotta jump in somewhere if this is something you wanna try. And you'll only get better and more comfortable with more experience. I've done a few ATC swaps, I learn with every swap. I am very new to these, I wish there would have been a swap like this when I got started where everyone involved knew mostly everyone is new to the craft. LOL

Can you go outside of the line of the cut out card? Like have some Items hanging off? Or if a collage, can it have an irregular border?

@Kelly627 I would be careful about going "outside the line" - many people like ATCs to fit in the plastic sleeves. I personally love stuff hanging off ATCs, but some people really want to display their ATCs and have everything fit. Irregular borders should be fine as long as the dimension requirement is met.

@piglet59645 don't be afraid! Join this no pressure swap!

Check out atcsforall.com and look at the gallery. You can get an idea of the wide variety of types of ATC's. You are truly only limited by your imagination. You simply CANNOT do it wrong; there's only a difference in style and taste...like any sort of art.

OMG I just joined...YAY!! Ummm what do I do now??? Any comments or advice would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

Cheers, Nic

I am watching this swap for now...I am soooo nervous. I've never done one before. geeeeeez I'm going to start playing with my paper and pencils and see if I can make something presentable.

@NicPow01 you just wait for your partner to be assigned. You can actually work on your ATC any time you want, even before partners are assigned, as this is a sender's choice ATC swap. Some people like to wait until partners are assigned to check out profiles first. Let me know if you have any other questions.

OKay I have been wanting to ask about this. Both side need to be decorated? I am not sure about this part and that is what has stoped me in the past.

Now I am really worried. I just looked at the atcsforall.com and I am no where near that good. They were all hand drawn and looked like they could belong to a professional artist?

I can't wait to give this a try. Thank you for allowing newbies to join. I've been wanting to try ATCs for a long time and this will be the perfect push to finally jump in.

H@mrsdutton - you don't need to decorate both sides. One side is generally just for information -- the name of the swap, title of the piece (if there is one!), your name and SB screen name, the date you made the ATC, etc. Some people add a little decoration to the back, but it is not necessary (if it makes you feel better to know this, I rarely decorate the back of mine.)

@Kelly627 maybe take a look at some Flickr pages and do a search for ATCs? I assure you that not all ATCs are hand drawn - there are SO many techniques people use to make ATCs. I am definitely not a professional artist, but I love making ATCs. Please don't let the idea of not being a professional artist stop you! This is a supportive environment and the idea of this swap is that we are all open to making and receiving an ATC from someone who is not experienced at this. : )

Hi, I'm pretty new to both SB and this is my very first atc swap. I'm just wondering is there a theme for this ? (I always see there're theme stated in others, though I've neither join nor made atcs before and am quite nervous yet excited in fact..)

@katjh the theme for this swap is senders choice.. which means what ever you want to put on the ATC is fine... just do it !

it does make me feel better to know that no everyone does. I will have to work on my penmanship for the information writing, but I was able to finish one side last night after make so many atc I wanted to pass out. I hope that partner (everyones) appreciate the hard work that is going into this project!

lol, I never work on MY penmanship. Whoever my partner is gets stuck with my lousy writing!

iv'e been making them for a year and sometimes i still feel challenged . i have been given some beautiful atc's ...but the thing is to learn from what you see and just go for it. great swap....and i love csny too :-)

I've always wanted to do an atc and inchies and twinchies..Joining this taylor made swap and hoping for the best..

Yay! this is exactly the kind of thing I have been hoping for. It would be great if you could repeat the swap often so that we can improve our confidence. Wish me luck :S

@siouxx05 thank you. :) So can i say that I can use anything to decorate to do up the ATC, just so long the ATC is 2.5 by 3.5 inches ?

Unfortunately, we've had a death in the family, so I'll have to be gone for a while and have to leave the swap. Send a prayer and some positive thoughts for the family, if you would. Hope to be back soon.

Michelle

@EffiG this is a pretty popular swap, so if this goes well, I'll repeat it in January or February.

Michelle (aka @user5789 , I'm sorry to read that there has been a death in your family. Prayers going out to you and your family.

@katjh yes you can you pretty much anything to decorate the ATC. You might want to just be careful about things that are really super bulky - some people are sticklers about wanting to display their ATCs in albums and bulkier stuff may not allow for that. However, there are no real rules about that. I have some amazing ATCs that don't fit in my album due to bulky embellishments that I love.

Is it typical to have almost 80 people in a swap? This is my first one so I'm just curious?

For me it is not typical - this was a big swap!

@CSNYfan i see.. thank you :)

I'm so lucky to have gotten mine already. It is amazing. I'm just blown away. Thank you so much!!!

Whoever gets me, I have no problem with chunky or off the edges.

For the record: I did send my package on December 27. But... I live in Vancouver which is Pacific Time, and swap-bot apparently runs on Eastern Time. So if I click the "I sent my package" button after 9pm, then it thinks it's already tomorrow :)