Ideas For Framing Artist Trading Cards.

Artist trading cards (ATC's) are miniature works of art measuring 2.5 x 3.5 inches; Art Cards , Editions and Originals (ACEO's) are exactly the same thing but are designed to be sold rather than traded. This art format is becoming very popular since it is so easy and inexpensive to start your very own art collection.

The thing about matboard is that you usually buy it in large sheets of 2-3 metres square. If you frame your own paintings then you will use two or three large pieces and cut out the centres of these to display the paintings. Then you will use these pieces to mount smaller paintings and so on. You always end up with lots of small pieces which are really too expensive to throw away but what can you use them for.



I have used them for boards for pastel paintings or acrylic paintings with suitable primer or for drawing, but what a waste. they are not ideal for any of these uses but you do not want to throw them away. As a painter who creates ATC/ACEO artworks, I can use up the central off-cut portions to quite small sizes. And because I find myself framing paintings for exhibitions I often have many different colours/sizes of off-cuts left over.



The easiest thing to do is to cut the mount to the size of a suitable frame and then cut an aperture to a size suitable for an ATC. I.e. just a little smaller so that the ATC can sit behind the mat board. In fact this photo shows a double aperture, mounting two ACEO's in the same mat:



Rather than matting my ATC's by this method, I now often simply lay ( adhere) the art card on the surface of the backing. Sometimes if the frame is relatively large I will also use a second piece of mat board as an additional framing device within the actual frame. I will show how these ideas look when used in the following modules.

OK, the first and simplest method is to cut a mat to fit the frame. Select the colour to match or complement the ATC to be framed. Then simply lay the ATC onto the mat until the edges of the mat give borders which seem to be alright. Once the placement is OK, I use a doubled over piece of low tack tape to make something like a stamp hinge to adhere the ATC to the board. You can of course use any means you have available, the board will probably be damaged but could be used again as the damage is hidden from the front of the frame.

You can use frames which are not of the same ratio of width to height as the ATC but be careful how you position the ATC. The bottom border should be wider than the top, to give a stable appearance. The top border should be at least equal to the side borders, which should of course be equal to each other. This is a rule which seems to have stood the test of time so it is well worth considering this. Examples are:-

.......and........

These look very effective, even tho I do say so myself. You can however take the idea a few steps further.

It is possible to add a second board with an aperture somewhat larger than the ATC if the frame size is much larger than the ATC. If both boards are the size of the frame aperture then there should be no need to adhere the two together.

This technique also has the benefit of keeping the ATC from contacting the glass in the frame if you have 3-D elements on the ATC, such as buttons or charms, etc.



The size of the mat board frame is of course entirely up to you and may be chosen either for convenience ( a scrap piece waiting to be used) or to your own requirements ( do you want large or small margins around the ATC)

Of course you may decide to use the second frame element simply for effect and then you can mix and match the colours to work with the ATC:


and

If your ATC actually becomes quite bulky because of the embellishments, then consider using a deep frame or "shadow box for your frame. Similar considerations apply as to the previous examples.



In this example the ATC could not be described as very bulky but the button and the flower did provide difficulty framing it in a conventional manner.

I have been writing as if you have a vast stash of spare mat board as I have in my loft studio. Maybe you don't frame your own work or don't collect all the off-cuts. Well, no problem!

Simply use any old card that you have around. A piece of corrugated card faced with a sheet of card from a breakfast cereal box would be great. You can cut to size ( to match the frame aperture and then cover with craft paper. Or collage it with scraps of issue or paint it with acrylics or................. the list could go on and on. Simply glue the facing paper to the front ( the ceral packet) or prime the front with household primer and paint it. Use your creativity.

Here are a couple of ways of mounting an ATC using a marbled paper and a lace doily ( or at least an image of a lace doily over paper with text on it).

and

Have fun with this technique, I would love to hear from you if you do.

It is now quite common to see small stretched canvasses in all sorts of shops from artist supply shops to those £1 shops which now proliferate. Why not use one of these to mount your ATC. The canvas can be painted or decorated in any way you can imagine. it is really up to you. A 6inch X 4inch seems to be a good size but they do do oval shapes and this starts to suggest other craft projects could be treated in the same way. Here is an ATC placed quite simply on a 6x4 rectangular canvas:

Would you leave it like this? Or perhaps you might decorate the canvas in some way. It could be painted quite simply, a dark colour or a complementary colour. What about a subdued abstract? Or maybe a collage using images that extend the size of the art work. The whole gamut of artistic techniques is at your disposal, the choice is yours.