November is fast approaching and I will once again be hosting an Artist Trading Card swap with the theme: For All the Saints!
One of our greatest joys as parents is teaching our children about the saints who came before us - from the earliest history to modern times, rich and poor, young and old, from all walks of life, who fought the good fight and finished the course and are enjoying their eternity with God in heaven. We share their lives and their stories and we teach our children to make friends with the saints and call upon their intercession to assist us on our own journey towards salvation.
Everyone is invited to make ATC's of their favorite saints as we prepare to celebrate the Church Triumphant.
Artist Trading Cards are tiny pieces of original artwork created for the purpose of trading with others. In May I hosted a similar swap here on the blog and we received 575 pieces of Marian artwork made by artists of all ages. We had so much fun making and trading the cards, and I know lots of you greatly enjoyed it as well.
St. Joseph and the Child Jesus by Lydia, pen
An ATC is precisely 2.5" x 3.5" (6.35 x 8.89 cm) in size - you can buy ready made cards at a craft or art supply store or cut your own from larger pieces of paper. Card stock, heavy watercolor paper or any sturdy paper is good. We usually cut ours from watercolor paper - a 9x12" sheet will give you ten cards. Their small size makes them fun and non-intimidating to work with.
St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes by Anna Ruth, pen and watercolor
Artwork can be of any media or combination thereof -watercolors, acrylics, pen and ink, colored pencil, calligraphy - whatever you like.
St. Peter and St. Paul by Mary Rose, pen and watercolor
Once again, we welcome participants of all ages in the swap, from the littlest budding artists -
St. Therese by Kateri (age four), pen and watercolor (oh, that spelling!)
all the way through to adults. We had many mothers participate in the last swap - one of the greatest pleasures for me was seeing so many other busy moms taking time for their own creative endeavors and to see their individuality reflected in their artwork. Some mothers expressed their artistic talent drawing or painting while others demonstrated their creativity through various scrapboook and papercrafting techniques.
watercolor by Lydia
The swap will work the same way as we did it last time. Here are the details:
- Each participant will create five ATC's to mail out and will receive five different cards in return.
- Everyone will send their cards to me. I will sort them out roughly by age group of the creator, and then mail the cards back out to their new recipients. When you mail your cards to me, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope that I can use to send your new cards to you.
- International swappers are most welcome! It's always extra fun to receive cards from a far away place.
- The swap is open to all ages. This is the perfect opportunity to sit down and create some lovely artwork alongside your children, so I would like to encourage moms (or dads) to participate as well!
- Each card should be labeled on the back with the creator's name and however much info you'd like to share - age (for the kids), date, title of the piece, media used, location, email etc. Last time some participants were looking to connect with others for possible pen pals and the like, so you are welcome to include more info if you like.
- If you are interested in participating please send me an email at kimberlee (at) beadsofmercy (dot) com, and put ATC swap in the subject. Anyone can join in and definitely the more the merrier.
- Please mail your cards to me postmarked by Friday, November 5th.
11/3 Edited to add the following update: We have had a great response to the swap! Many more adults are participating this time as well, which is fantastic! As some folks are just finding out about it, and also people have been very busy with All Saints Day activities, I am happy to extend the deadline a bit. If you can't get your cards mailed until next week that is fine. And I definitely hope to make this an annual swap, as well as the Marian swap in May. Thanks to everyone who has helped spread the word!
If you have a blog, please feel free to spread the word and you can grab this button if you like:
Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you!
Happy drawing and painting For All the Saints!
