Artist trading card swap!

So there was a reference somewhere on the forums about doing these, and there probably should be a topic just for this!

Artist Trading Cards (hereafter referred to as ATCs for the sake of everyone's typing hands) are pretty much exactly what they say on the tin-- artists create some original artwork on a piece of card paper, and then mail it off to someone else in exchange for an original card drawn by the recipient. The sizes of the cards are predetermined but otherwise, everything is open; medium, subject matter, colour or b/w, etc.

I started doing these for the first time thanks to a thread on another forum I hang out on (you can browse it for all kinds of examples as to what people do), and it proved to be super fun, so having a topic for them over here could be fun too. (:

THE SPECS: 2.5x3.5" piece of paper, any brand (so long as it's got some weight to it)

THE HOW: after two people have agreed to make cards for one another, whoever finishes first PMs the other and they swap addresses; you can send out the card right away or wait until the recipient has finished theirs as well, so that both participants receive theirs at the same time.

It's also pretty fun if you don't post any scans or photos of the card until it's been received, so that it can be a surprise. :B

Ooh yes I love these :U

I'd be willing to do a trade with you, if you want Dusk!

Also anyone else who wants to with me. Although I apologize in advance for my low-quality since traditional is isn't my strong point when it comes to art XD;

ok sure! any characters you're particularly keen on seeing? (I like art of all my characters so... pick whoever you want!)

Nope, I'm fine with anyone as well! :3
(Or I'm always a sucker for fluffs but that requires two characters - are you allowed to do more than one characters for these trades? Or is it usually always just the one character?)

This seems so cool. I really want to try this too! I'm in Canada though, I hope that wouldn't be a problem.


I'm same as Sky, traditional isn't my strong point at all, though I've been doing a lot of it lately... it's just so fun and I got new inks I love playing with. XD

I saw one card someone got that had like... 5 characters or something xD so yeah definitely no limit; it's all how small you're capable of/willing to draw to fit all those people in! (and I've done a 2-character card before, hahaha)
the only requirement as far as I know is the size/dimensions of the card.

Canada shouldn't be a problem at all C: (unless anyone's in a country with really awful postal service it's not generally a problem to mail internationally, since you can send them in ordinary letter envelopes. It's not like you're shipping large/heavy/weirdly-shaped packages or anything)

I also am in Canada, so I sure HOPE it isn't a problem 8T;;;

Oh, duh, good point. XD I forgot you were in Canada too, Varethane! I only worried because I recently knew someone in the states who refused to mail to Canada because she said it was too expensive, even for a letter? Made me wonder... but ah well, guess it shouldn't be a problem them.

Too expensive....? I think the rate for sending a letter across the border is pegged around $1.50. (That's what it cost for me to send an ATC to California, anyway)

Yeah, I did think that was strange. I mail letters to the USA all the time and never cost much more than a dollar in stamps. But I wasn't sure if it was different and maybe somehow more expensive going the other way. ^^; I don't know why that person said that then... maybe they were mistaken or maybe a couple dollars is too expensive for them. XD;

(Actually I've mailed letters to Australia too and even that's not very expensive... so I don't know why I was worried.)

Anyhow, no worries then, sorry for bringing this off-topic!

Okay! No character limit, good to know! XD

And yeah - I'm worried about shipping to Canada though! Someone sent me just an envelope from Canada and for some reason it took MONTHS to get to me. (Or they lied about their shipping it out time hahah)

And I sent them a RETURN letter and..! I haven't asked them about it because I wanted it to be a surprise but... I haven't HEARD anything about it from them either though so hrm XD; Although I took the chance of just putting two stamps on it hoping that'd be enough from what I read on google and sent it out via my mailbox. But ahhh if it's a $1.50 maybe that wasn't enough stamps! (But then it should've come back to me then hrmphrmp)

THIS time I'm going to go to the post office though to send these to my Canadian friends XD Hopefully things go smoother.

To all the USA friends who want to do this with me though, I'm excited because I happen to have ordered a bunch of custom stamps I've been dying to use hehehe 0u0

custom
stamps
wheredidyougetthose

(man the one card I already sent to canada hasn't been confirmed as arrived yet and I'm worried because what if the stamp wasn't enough... but then the recipient mentioned being out of town, so it's probably fine xD;; )

zazzle.com 83 a site I've mentioned here before hahaha I ... love zazzle to death. They're my favorite custom everything.
(The best part too was the $20 stamps were FREE cause they gave me a $20 off coupon for messing up one of my other orders haha XD)

And oh gosh yesss.. just in case though - this time - post office! XD Going right up to the desk and asking the post office person even, no aut-... well..actually... MAYBE automated machine still... those machines are pretty convenient and usually have no lines. >>
(It should still be fine XD)

Hi everyone! I've been gone a while but I occasionally stalk the new posts (especially during this time of year).

I can offer a bit of insight for Sky in terms of postage to other countries and their shipping time. I mail letters practically EVERYWHERE (actually, I take that back, I have never mailed stuff to Africa).

This is shipping from the U.S.
Basically, as we know within the U.S. is a forever stamp (whatever that is currently :U)
And outside of the U.S. is $1.10. It doesn't matter if it's Canada or the UK, the postage for international letters is $1.10.

It takes about a week for a letter to arrive in the UK/Europe.
It takes about a week (sometimes a couple days more) to arrive in Australia.
It takes less than a week for letters to arrive in Canada unless there was a snag somewhere--shipping to Canada has its fair share of problems. XD

Don't worry if your postage on a letter isn't worth enough.
Two things can happen in this case.
The mail carrier knocks on the door of the recipient and demands more money.
If they are not home, the letter will then be sent back to the original sender (I'm not sure if they still knock on the door to demand the monies).

Edit;
Also, I'm pretty busy these days but I'm totally open to do some 2.5x3.5" cards to unwind in my spare time. So if anyone wants to do ATC swaps, I'm down for it. o:

That seems to pretty much bear up my experience. The ATCs I've sent over the border (which has been all of them so far, actually XD I've yet to send one to another Canadian destination) have generally made it within 3-5 days of me sending them, and the same for the cards sent to me.

So far there've been no cards lost! Fingers crossed that this continues and that all the cards in transit are safely flying to their destinations :U

Oh thanks for the welcome back XD
Great to see everyone again.
Perhaps if I have time I'll try to post some stuff and be semi-active.

I'll totally look into ordering custom stamps once I've used up the stamps I just bought.
BUT AREN'T THEY ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE?

However, the idea of custom stamps makes me really excited OUO

So yeah, I also have no problem sending out small cards anywhere ;D
I would be willing to do trades with anyone willing to do trades with me.

This sounds amazing, and I haven't been doing enough traditional stuff. If anyone wants to trade with me I would love to, no limit on how many I'll do. Because there's not a person here whose art I don't want, I want you all. I will keep all cards in my secret treasure pile and coo over them. Or make them little covers and use them as bookmarks if they are well sealed. D:

Also, those stamps are cute.

I'd do one with you Mashi! I feel the same way, I'd treasure any I got. And I love just getting mail in general so this would be so exciting. xD

I'd actually love to do one with anyone here who wants to. I just feel bad going and asking any of you personally because I don't want you to feel stuck doing one with me, especially if you're only able to do a limited number of these... but Mashi, you say there's not a person whose art you don't want, so I'll offer, haha.

I plan on putting the ones I get in the print album for now and when I move out (hopefully soon xD) I'm going to hang em alllll on my wall \OUO/

I'd love to get one from Kynale and one from Mashi as well~

Mashi: They are exactly the same dimensions as standard trading cards (like for sports and stuff) so you can easily buy ptotective sleeves for your ATCs! Not sure if they'd be sealed enough to use as a bookmark though; I guess you could tape it closed?

thewishbunny, that would be awesome!

I was actually just thinking about those sleeves. I think I still have a few left over from my Pokemon card collecting days. XD;

I'd love to do one with you too, Selini! I know we talked about eventually doing another art trade, so maybe we could do this for something different. XD Doesn't have to be right away though, just whenever. n.n