Wacky Holiday ATC Jan 2016 USA

I have hosted this last year, Time for a quick sign up and a quick create time.

I dont collect holiday atc cards, it just isnt my thing, but I do collect weird and wacky holiday ATCs. They are just so fun.

For Jan you will make your partner 3 cards, from the following holidays. This is not a typo.

National Bird Day Jan 5

National Dress Up Your Pet Day Jan 14

National Penguin Awareness Day Jan 19

Answer Your Cat's Question Day Jan 22

National book month or National book Blitz Month

National Hot Tea Month

Coffee Gourmet International Month

Hot Air Balloon Week

Universal Letter Writing Week

Somewhere on the front or the back you do need to identify the holiday you have created on the ATC. Sometimes it works to add it to the front, and sometimes it doesnt. You as the artist feel free to create the card in the way that is most pleasing to you. But please put it somewhere.

There are certain general Expectations about ATCs

SIZE: cards are to be 2.5 x 3.5 inches, (64 mm × 89 mm / 6.4 cm x 8.9 cm) with straight edges. Ribbons or feathers etc may extend above the top edge, but embellishments should not extend past the sides or bottom.

STURDY: cards MUST be sturdy, not just be on a piece of paper. What does sturdy mean? A playing card, chip board from a cereal box or other food box, and 3 layers of card stock are very sturdy. If you can take the top and fold it to the bottom and it only BENDS, and does not crease your card IS NOT sturdy. A sturdy card would actually get creased and ruined if you tried to Bend it. If you can wave your card and it FLAPS in the wind it is not Sturdy.

ART work: These are called Artist trading cards for a reason. There needs to be some creativity involved. Sticker slapping is not just about stickers on a background. Please do more than glue an image on a card. You can ink it, add rubber stamps, add ribbon, fiber, paint, brads, words, eyelets, bakers twine, do layers. There is so much more. Zentangles and Hand drawn cards are an art in themselves, and therefore do not require more embellishments or art.

MAILING: This is your art. Protect it. All ATC cards must be mailed in either a plastic sleeve or a smaller envelope inside your mail envelope. You can tape it down to prevent it from dancing around during mailing, but this will vary due to the number of cards and size of envelope.

If you add gems,brads, eyelets, paperclips or other bumpy embellishments, yeah for you. Bumpy is the new black. Keep in mind, any bumpy cards must be Hand Canceled, in the USA, and taken directly to the Postal worker at the post office. This cost, at this time, is an additional 22 cents, and is worth the cost. Maybe not worth the time at the PO though. You must HAND these envelopes to a Postal worker , and clearly state," I need these hand canceled". The postal worker can put a red NON-MACINABLE stamp on your card or you can write it yourself. You can not drop them in a blue box or put them in your outgoing mail. At least this is the way it works in my city. Smaller towns you may find that the Postal workers are more friendly and helpful. I am not familiar with the postal rules of all the other countries outside of the USA. Please follow your postal rules.

ABOUT MY SWAPS

I allow any members in good standing from this group to join my swaps. I reviewed your profile before I approved you for this group. I read about your 1s and 3s. You do not need a 5.00 rating. But recent issues will need to be resolved.

I dont tolerate very well, drama. There is saying, we use with our teenage daughter, "More Queen and "Less Drama". They also say ""save your drama for your momma, and I say, "save your Drama for your PE teacher". But I am here for you, I want to know if your partner tells you they are mailing late. I want to keep track of that. I want to know if you got cards that didnt meet the swap standards.

I angel all of my swaps. Once you have contacted your sender twice and rated them a 1, I will gladly fix this with some angel cards. I will even angel a 3 rating, if the swap didnt meet the requirements. Not if the the swap is mailed late.

Mail on time. Dont over commit yourself. If you are planning to have a country song dedicated to you, please plan accordingly. If you plan to have your lying cheating ex, steal all your mail, flood your basement, and run off with sister and your dog, and this lands you in the hospital by which you had to travel by kayak, then please dont join right now. Oh wait I covered this in the Drama department. Ok real life happens when we try to create art: Illness, and power outages, deaths, and divorce, cancer and just the flu. But if your life continues to be a soap opera, and makes you a candidate for the Jerry Springer show, well you know please think again joining too many swaps.

I host both a USA and an INTERNATIONAL SWAP. USA players may join both versions. But you must understand that there is a rare chance that you might get in the USA and INT swap the same USA partner. To be fair that partner deserves variety and different cards. It is rare but it does happen. So if any USA players joins both versions, you must make different cards for that partner. You may mail the swaps together to save on postage.