ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) are one of the most popular items swapped on Swap-bot. They are small works of art the size of a traditional baseball or trading card, and they can be created either to match a specific swap theme or just to represent your individual artistic style. You can find more info about ATCs here. (Above you see three ATCs by Swap-bot user, CSNYfan. You can view more of her beautiful creations in her Flickr stream.)

There are many ATC groups on Swap-bot, but CSNYfan recently made me aware of the “Artist Trading Cards – Swap your Art” group. The group was founded back in 2009 and is unique in that it is juried – meaning that all those interested in joining must submit images of their past ATC work in order to be considered for admission. Restricting membership in that way may seem intense, but it ensures that the group is comprised of serious ATC lovers who are interested in high quality ATC swaps. People who are comfortable doing some hand drawn work and don’t rely too heavily on scrapbook elements to complete ATCs would be a great fit for the “Artist Trading Cards – Swap your Art” group.

Here is a bit more info about the group from its description:

“This is a group for people who want to ensure that they are going to be delighted with their ATC packages. You don’t need to be an expert artist to join, but you must put 100% effort and dedicate time to your ATCs, both of which will be obvious in your work no matter what level of artist you are. These requirements may seem intimidating – we are just a group of people who like to try new things, add some hand-drawn/handpainted elements and work to create things that will always delight our partners!”

The group has hosted a wide variety of ATC swaps, including copper repousse and art metal embossing, as well as ATCs made with gesso, markers, watercolor, colored pencils, weaving and collage. If you are fairly confident in your ATC making skills but still like to learn and experiment with new things, the “Artist Trading Cards – Swap your Art” group may be the perfect group for you!

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Do you belong to an awesome Swap-bot group? Have you had in-person meet-ups or do you have unique swaps to share? Please let me know! Email me at rachel [at] Swap-bot.com with all the details and I may feature your group on the blog.