Star-shaped ATC





Artist Trading Cards do not have to be chipboard thin and 1 dimesional. The whole idea with Artist Trading Cards is to allow self expression, and sometimes the expression needs room to explode! Thus is born the Star ATC.



what you need What you need to start a Star ATC:
  • 2 - 2.5" (6.35cm) by 3.5" (8.89cm) pieces of heavy cardstock, 1 plain and 1 decorated
  • 5 - 4.875" (12.38cm) by 3.5" (8.89cm) pieces of thinner paper, decorated or plain (doesn't all have to be the same)
  • 5 - 4.5" (11.43cm) by 3.5" (8.89cm) pieces of thinner paper - vellum, plain, decorated, rice paper, etc.
  • 1 - 7" (17.78cm) piece of thin ribbon or fiber
  • Not shown - rubber stamps, rub-ons, printed images, etc. and adhesive.
folded pages Fold the larger (4.875" by 3.5") paper pieces in half width wise. Your paper will now measure 2.4375" by 3.5". These pieces will make the base of the star.
Do not fold your smaller pieces yet, you may want to do something to them before making a crease.
attaching smaller pieces There are different ways to attach your smaller pieces to the larger folded pieces. Tape, glue runner, glue dot strips, sewing, eyelets, brads, etc. What you want is something that is no larger than .25" (.64cm) wide. Any wider and you could spoil the star effect. You want the adhesive to run down the 3.5" side.
Here I am using vellum tape, cut in half length-wise, since I am attaching vellum to this page.
vellum Here I have taken a quote on vellum, folded it in half and lined up the outside edges. You will have to flip your page to line up both sides. You could just line up one side, then close then together to attach the other side but the adhesive might stick in the wrong place.
stamping example You can stamp and emboss on the smaller pieces, ink them, draw on, put rub-ons, whatever you would like to do. Just remember that the more you add to each page will add to the bulk of the finished ATC. Thick embellishments may not do the best thing for the inside on this project.
cut out You can also cut out or punch shapes in the smaller paper to create "windows" to the larger pages.
Here I made a simple rectangular cut out, inked the edges, attached the window to the base page and then glued two cut out images to the larger page.
finishing inside Finish all and assemble all of your wedge shaped pieces.
attaching ribbon Take the 2.5" by 3.5" pieces of cardstock and the ribbon/fiber. Cut the ribbon in half (you want to make sure you have enough ribbon to tie the card open) you can trim at a later step. Use a sturdy adhesive to attach the ribbon to the backside of both of the cards in the middle of the cards. I find it is best to have the ribbon cover over half of the width of the card, it wouldn't do for the ribbon to pull out at a later date.
all glued together Next you glue all of your wedge shaped pieces together, covering the whole backside of the paper with glue. Make sure to line up the edges along the side that will open and that all of your images on the inside are right side up.
star atc outside Once all your wedges are glued together you can attach your front and back cover to your card. Align the inside segment to the top and bottom and center side to side with your covers.
first page Now open your card so the front and back of the card touch and tie the ribbon together. This is the time to trim your ribbon if you think it is too long.
from the top Now you will see why it is Star-shaped!
front of card To finish your Star ATC just decorate the front of the ATC however you like. The finished dimensions of the card are 2.5 (6.35cm) by 3.5 (cm) by .375 (.95cm). Yours may be thicker or thinner depending on that you do on the smaller pieces of paper.



Variations:


Here is a Star Book ATC Holder:
cover inside outside

This particular version can be used to hold 12 ATC's. But you could add more pages if you wanted to hold more.

What you need: (basically follow the instructions above, no cut outs and add the small band at the bottom)