2013 Marian ATC Swap

For the past few years the older girls and I have participated in the Marian ATC (artist trading card) swap that is hosted by Kimberlee and her lovely family over at Pondered in My Heart.  Since May came and went without any word of an ATC I sort of assumed that it wasn't happening this year, so I was delighted when I saw this morning that they're still hosting one for this year.  You can get all of the details here.  

I like that this ATC swap is a fun way to honor Our Blessed Mother.  You just have to make five trading cards.  You don't need to be an amazing artist to participate.  Even people like me who can't do much more than draw funny stick figures can join in on the fun.  If you can't draw or paint, think outside the box.  Last year I made cards that I decoupaged with layered tissue paper to make the Immaculate Heart.  My girls experimented with watercolors, markers, and colored pencils.  Who knows what they'll do this year.  I may even give Katie a few cards to see what she can do.  I imagine there will probably be a few other toddlers who will participate.

I learned two years ago that you can also make your own 2.5x3.5 trading cards by cutting them out of watercolor paper or card stock.  It winds up being a lot more cost effective than buying the precut ones at the craft store.  And, if you're like me you don't have to worry that you're wasting lots of cards if you're like me and the girls and you make a lot of mistakes along the way in trying to make that prefect card.  You can get about 9 cards out of a sheet of 9x12 paper.

An ATC Swap for Mary

Kimberlee at Pondered in My Heart is once again graciously hosting another Marian ATC swap.  We missed out on both ATC swaps she hosted last year between me being pregnant and then subsequently having a newborn in the house.  Ellie was really disappointed that we didn't get to join in last year.

Over the past week or so Ellie has been running around with a little note pad sketching her ideas for a Mary card swap, and asking me several times a day if the family that hosted it before would be doing so again.  She's going to be one happy girl when she gets home from school today and finds out she can start designing her cards!

These little cards are only 2x3 inches so they're not intimidating pieces of artwork.  I'm no great artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I still manage to come up with five cards that look like they were drawn by a five year old.  What can I say, I have to work with what I've got.

Why not draw a few little cards to honor our Blessed Mother and join in on all the fun.  Not only do my girls love to get cards in the mail, they also like to see if they can find their artwork on other blogs and see who drew the cards they receive.  It's a lot of fun.  

Are you going to join the fun?

This past May the girls and I participated in the Marian ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap hosted by Kimberlee of Pondered in My Heart.  The girls and I had a lot of fun creating these cards and we loved the lovely cards we received in exchange.

Now that All Saints' Day is around the corner Kimberlee is hosting an All Saints' ATC swap.  Will you be joining in on the fun?

Click on the button below to get the details.

Marian ATC Swap

For most of May I meant to post about the great Marian ATC swap that Kimberlee from Pondered in My Heart was hosting.  It seemed like some activity or minor disaster incident would crop up to distract me every time I even thought of sitting down and blogging about it.  The fact that I never got around to blogging about it in the first place irritated me.  I took pictures of Ellie carefully crafting a card for that blog post that never was.  If only time would cooperate with me sometimes.....

Before I knew it it was time to mail away the cards we had created and I took a few snapshots of the cards my girls had joyfully created [and the ones I drew up on what was my last 2 1/2 hours of child-free mom time for the school year--not counting the lovely afternoon break my parents gave me yesterday].  The girls were eager to see what cards would come in the mail for them and they were hopeful that they might even find out who got their cards. Imagine my delight when the day ours arrived I recognized one of the cards Ellie received and the name (and handwriting) of another little girl I read about online.  Even better was when I got word from one of the bloggers that her daughter received Ellie's pink Blessed Mother card. I recall that we had a little dispute about that card.  I said the Blessed Mother likes to wear blue and she told me that she thinks Mary likes pink. I backed off and let the little artist work her magic.

Ellie's Cards

Madeline's Cards

My Cards

Yesterday our mail carrier delivered our new Marian ATCs.  Ellie was delighted as she looked through her cards while she waited for me to finish making her PB&J sandwich.  She carefully inspected each card and asked me the names of the kids who made them.  She was quite excited about the cards.

Madeline was very happy to see that the cards finally arrived.  She's been asking me almost daily since the day after we mailed ours out if I knew when the cards would arrive. She was thrilled to see her new cards.  They were the first thing she mentioned to Bryan when he came home from work.  Proof that they ranked pretty high on her priority list for the day.

And lastly we have the cards I received.  I was particularly impressed by the creativity of the mom who crafted the lovely card that reminds me of a scrapbook page.  I'm glad I decided at the last minute to join in on the fun.  I had seriously doubted my ability to make a card that didn't contain stick figures and so I was resolved to not participate.  I'm glad I decided to join in on the fun.

If you participated in the Marian ATC swap please consider blogging about your new artwork and linking to the Mr. Linky Kimberlee set up on her blog.

Summer has just begun and I'm already looking forward to the All Saint's ATC Swap that Kimberlee has  graciously offered to host.  The girls and I are already excited and even Bryan is interested to see what cards will come to us to celebrate his birthday. (He's an All Saint's Day baby which is a good thing because he needs a whole communion of saints to pray for him.  In fact, he even gave the girls an idea for a card.)