ATCs originated in the US about 10 years ago, by artists wishing to exchange contact details but not use a normal boring business card.

So these little cards evolved, combing all the usual details (name, phone, email, web address etc) and also showed a sample of the kind of artwork they produced. For this amount of information the usual business cards were too small, but baseball cards (ATCs were designed to the same measurements) were just big enough without being cumbersome. This meant that cards could be stored in commercial and easily available baseball card holders. ATCs have now caught on in a big way, and are an independent art movement: easy to make, quick to finish, these can be drawn and watercoloured, rubber stamped, collaged, machine stitched, hand sewn, quilted…. the only limit is the imagination.

Collections can be kept in loose-leaf albums in sectioned plastic sheets (the ones made for baseball cards), in tins, cigar boxes, niches cut into altered books, little handmade albums or individual glassine or cellophane envelopes.

These are made to a strict format:

1. Size: 2½ in x 3½in (the size of an American baseball card)

2. They must be original works of art (not photocopies)

3. They can be given away, traded or swapped (NEVER sold)

ATCs can be made individually for one-on-one swaps, or in a numbered series (all on the same theme, but each a little different) or as an edition (all handmade, all as identical as possible – but numbered, eg: 1/10 – which would mean this card is the first one of a series of 10).

You might decide to number all your cards – so No 627 would be the 627^th ATC you have made – an interesting way of keeping score of how prolific you are. Don't forget to sign them!

As these cards are tiny, you don’t need a lot of detail: just three elements...

1. Create a background

2. Add a focal point

3. Add one or two embellishments

This will give you a nice, clean, unfussy work of art. Use small scale patterned papers, or create your own with rubber stamps.

Play with layers: try vellums for mystery, transparencies for extra detailing. Print words or phrases and cut them out, or cut out of vintage dictionary pages. Glue them onto the ATC to tell a story, add a little humour.