Sticker Art Trading Cards

Sometimes kid’s creativity just blows me away. I brought round colored stickers to my Art Trading Card class today, thinking that everyone could make art with just circles. Then one very clever boy started cutting up the stickers to make these amazing cards, including this tiger and electric guitar.
1. I passed out 2.5" x 3.5" white cards, sheets of .75" colored stickers, and thin markers to each student. They were to use their imagination to see how many different things they could make with circles, i.e. flowers, balloons, vehicles, etc.
2. When complete, each card got a plastic trading card sleeve, which cost about a penny each.
Thanks to Luc, a talented 1st grader, for letting me share his trading card art.

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Art Trading Cards, or ATCs

Art Trading Cards are miniature works of art (2.5" x 3.5") that fit inside standard card sleeves. This type of art was started in Switzerland in 1996 and grew out of an interest in mail art. ATCs are now produced all over the world in various media, including pencils, pens, markers, watercolor, acrylic paints, collage, papercuts, found objects, etc.
I’m starting an afterschool ATC Class next week, and am working out ideas to do with the kids. I usually have a lot of really young ones, like kinder and 1st grade, so I’m trying to keep the art really simple.
1. I started with watercolor paper, and drew some simple ocean life shapes in pencil. (I actually got inspired by art from one of my favorite coffee cups.) During class, I will probably draw these on the board to help the kids get started. I plan to have a different theme for each class, so this one will “Sea Life” or something like that.
2. After my drawings were done, I traced them with a black Sharpie marker.
3. I used my favorite Prismacolor® watercolor pencils to color and paint the cards. (Sorry Crayola®, I use your watercolor pencils to stir paint!)
4. After the cards were dry, I went back with my fine point Stabilio® markers and drew some details in the cards.

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