bright eyes + blue eyes

Kids' ATC Swap : Link Party & Giveaway

{blog button design : Angie Gubler of Blonde Designs}

 

Well, you have a few more days to register for the Kids' ATC Swap.

 

As of now, we have participants in over thirty US states and five countries.

 

The registration deadline is Monday, April 4th.

 

If, like me, you're curious which states are not yet represented, here's a list. As of about 24 hours ago, we had no participants from:

• Alaska
• Arkansas
• Delaware
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Montanta
• New Hampshire
• New York
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Vermont
• Virginia
• West Virginia

I'd like to thank the following bloggers for helping me spread the word about the swap.

 

Erin : House on Hill Road

 

Blair : Wise Craft

 

Angie : Blonde Designs

 

Elizabeth : A Swoop and a Dart

 

Jill : A Little House by the Big Woods

 

Ohdeedoh

 

Gabrielle : Design Mom

 

How about you? If you've posted about the swap, please share your link below. It'll be nice to get to "meet" other swap participants.

 

Instructions for linking up:

(1) Write a blog post that includes info about the Kids' ATC swap. Please link to the registration page in your post. Please include one of the ATC Swap blog buttons if you so desire.

(2) Share your link below. Please share the specific link to your post, rather than your general blog address.

 

Giveaway:

One of our swap participant moms, Corinne, is offering a giveaway. Hooray! This giveaway is open to anyone. In other words, if your family isn't participating in the swap, no problem-o. You can still enter your name in the giveaway.

Corinne is offering five ATC kits. Five readers will receive one of these delightful kits, which is filled with blank ATCs, images for collaging, a glue stick, and more. (Click on the link to see a photo.)

 

To enter your name in the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post. Here's the question to answer: What is your favorite flower, bush, or tree this time of year? What do you see blooming in your neighborhood that gets you excited about spring? (And why? Often times it was a relative's favorite flower, or perhaps you enjoyed climbing that type of tree as a child. There's usually a story!)

 

I know that question doesn't directly relate to ATCs, but it IS a question that has been on my mind. I love hearing what other people are drawn to. My very favorite, this time of year, is the Dogwood Tree.

Ok, I'm signing off. Please let me know if you have any questions about the swap, the link party, or the giveaway.

Registration: Kids' ATC Swap 2011

 

For background information about the Kids' ATC Swap, please click here for the introductory post.

If you'd like to display our blog button, please click here to see the button choices.

Registration details for the 2011 swap:

(1) To register, please send an email to katcswap2011 (at) gmail (dot) com

(2) In the subject line of your email, put your child's age. No extra information.

(3) In the content of your email, put your child's name and mailing address.

*update* Please compose & send a separate email for each child who will be participating. If you are signing up three children, please send three separate emails. Sorry for the trouble--this will only help make sure no child's name slips through the cracks.

*update* Registration deadline has changed from April 1st to April 4th. The deadline is now April 4th. 

(4) Registration deadline is April 4, 2011. That should be easy to remember-- 4/4, right? I love awesome dates like that. Q: What is the coolest date this year? A: 11/11/11. I'm going to plan something special for that date.

(5) If you have any questions or comments, please email us at ellieandabbie (at) gmail (dot) com. Please do not submit comments/questions to the registration email account. (katcswap2011) That account is going to be used for participant name/address information only.

(6) Tentative mail date is April 18th. (That date will be confirmed soon.) All participants are asked to wait to mail their ATCs until April 18th. Feel free to go ahead and make your cards at any point, but it's better for us all to mail them at the same time. (As a sidenote, the 18th happens to be the first day of Screen-Free Week.)

(7) Minimum age is 4. (Must be 4 by April 4, 2011.)

(8) This is exclusively a children's swap. No adult ATCs, please.

(9) Children will be grouped into teams of 6. That means your child will have 5 cards to create and mail out.

(10) Participants should be encouraged to do their best work. Take your time! Enjoy the process.

To re-cap, your registration email should look like this. Very simple. No extra information, please.

Email Subject: age 5

Email Content: Joe Smith, 125 Maple Street, Anytown NY 12345

A few things to note:

(1) You don't have to have a blog to participate in this swap. What are the basic requirements? An email account (to register) and a mailbox (to receive ATCs.)

(2) Your contact information will not be shared with anyone except the other members of your swap group. At the conclusion of this swap, the entire email account (katcswap2011) will be deleted.

(3) Some groups may have international participants. Fun and exciting! When you register for the swap, you are indicating that you're willing to pay postage for five ATCs--regardless of whether your group members are domestic or international. (It'll be fun to get out the map & locate your group members' cities!)

(4) We'll set up a Flickr group soon and let you know when it's up and running.

(5) *update* If you are in the last bunch of people to sign up, you may not have a full group. If I've put all the 7 yr olds into groups of six, and then I have four 7 yr olds remaining, those four children will be grouped together and will have fewer cards to create/mail.

Please send an email or leave a comment if you have any questions.

Have fun!

*updated*

You might find it helpful to see some ATC examples. Here are some photos of ATCs my children created back in '09. My daughter was 4 at the time; my son was 6.

Just remember: the ATCs can be created using ANY medium. The sky's the limit. Here's the Flickr Pool for the 2009 swap if you'd like to browse through additional cards.

 

 

Completely optional: Catslife Press offers a collection of ATC-related rubber stamps. We used one of their stamps for the back of our cards.

Catslife Press ATC Stamps (keep clicking "next page" to see the entire selection. There are four pages of ATC stamps.) 

 

*update 4/1/11 : We're having a link party for swap participants. Would you like to share yoru link? Find out more here.

Kids' ATC Swap 2011

A couple of years ago, my children participated in a ATC Swap hosted by House on Hill Road and Wise Craft.

What is an ATC Swap?

ATC stands for Artist Trading Card. An ATC is a specifically sized card, upon which a small work of art is created. All ATCs are 2.5"x3.5". Watercolor paper, Bristol Board, or illustration board may be used.

Any medium can be used on the card. Watercolor, Collage, Pencil sketching....the list goes on and on.

Basically, you can think of an ATC as a tiny blank canvas.

In the swap, each of my children was put into a group with other children his/her age. Superboy made five ATCs and mailed the cards to the other children in his group. Same with Pumpkin: she mailed one of her tiny masterpieces to each of the other kids in her group. 

Here are a few additional links which will give you more info:

General info on ATCs here: Artist Trading Cards

Erin's original post about the '09 swap: House on Hill Road, Kids' ATC Swap 2009

Blair's original post about the '09 swap: Wise Craft, Kids' ATC Swap 2009

My post about our participation in the '09 swap: Bright Eyes + Blue Eyes, Kids' ATC Swap 2009

Flickr Pool for '09 participants: Flickr, Kids' ATC Swap 2009

Thanks to the swap organized by Erin & Blair back in 2009, my kids were able to create little works of art & mail them off to other children around the globe. What fun it was to receive ATCs in our mailbox from children of the same age.

With Erin & Blair's blessing, the Kids' ATC Swap is going to be hosted by Bright Eyes + Blue Eyes this year. Erin & Blair (I feel like I should come up with a combo name...Blerin? EBla? ha ha) have allowed us to replicate their design for the swap. I still have their old emails. With their permission, I'm going to use quite a bit of "copy and paste" to get this swap going! Just wanted to make it clear: lots of thanks goes to "Blerin" for blazing the trail on this.

 

Also, a big thanks goes to Angie Gubler, of Blonde Designs Blog, for designing the blog button we'll be using for the 2011 ATC swap. 

Click here for the post offering four button sizes & more information about Angie and Blonde Designs. Thank you, Angie!

Interested in signing up your kids for the swap?

Click here: How to Register for the 2011 Kids' ATC Swap.

Blog Buttons: Kids' ATC Swap 2011

A big thanks goes to Angie Gubler of Blonde Designs Blog for designing the Kids' ATC Swap buttons offered below.
 
I really enjoy reading Blonde Designs, and always find myself inspired by all the creativity showcased on Angie & Kristin's posts. Here's a quick list of some posts I bookmarked: (list post titles, offer links)
 
Embellishing Halloween Costumes : Amazing yarn braids!
 
The Grinch Party, Part I : Love the invitation! Also love the tissue paper bunting.
 
Beehive & Bumblebee Cookies : You must try the Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie recipe offered in this post. I've made these cookies...they are SO delicious. This has become my favorite sugar cookie recipe.
 
Frosting Valentine Sugar Cookies : All you need to know about frosting those delicious sugar cookies. Great info.
 
Travel Journal : Wonderful idea for traveling with the little ones. 
 
 Angie and her design partner, Kristin Rees, design elegant invitations and stationery for their company Blonde Designs. 
 
Both Angie & Kristin are former art directors...Angie at Martha Stewart Living, and Kristin at Martha Stewart Weddings. What fun!
 
Blonde Designs also offers beautiful invitations and announcements through Shutterfly. 

  
Many thanks to Angie, who also happens to be the mother of three budding artists, for designing these classy blog buttons.

Please grab a button if you'd like to add it to your blog. You're welcome to display a button even if you don't have kids participating in the swap this year.

 

150x162 Button

 

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250x270 Button

 

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500x539 Button

 

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500x209 Button

 

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750x314 Button

 

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Other info:

Kids' ATC Swap 2011 Introduction

Kids' ATC Swap 2011 Registration

Note: Thank you, Lauren Wayne, for posting such a wonderful Blog Button Grab Box tutorial. Your instructions were so helpful!