ATC Folders

Good evening.  I hope you have had a good week.  It's been hot, as usual, but uneventful. That may be about to change.  We are keeping an eye on 3 systems in the tropics.  Danielle will miss us, and hopefully Earl will, too, but we will be tracking the one after, which will be Fiona when she's named.  But that's at least a week out, so we're good.

I make a lot of ATC's (artist trading cards, 3-1/2" x 2-1/2"), They get lost in card envelopes, so I have made a little folder to put into an envelope to mail them.  So the recipient gets an ATC and the decorated folder.  To mail them I use the 6-1/2" x 3-5/8" envelopes.

Here is a sample:

To start, I use a half sheet of 8-1/2 x 11 cardstock for the base.  I cut it so I have 2 pieces of 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" cardstock.  On the long side, I made 2 scores, one at 3-1/4" and one at 6-1/2". When you fold on the scores, you turn the 2" piece up and put a little glue on the side edges only, so it makes a little pocket across the bottom of thee cardstock.  When you turn the top scored piece down, you now have a nice little folder with a pocket.  You can embellish them in any way you choose, but I like to keep it kind of flat so I don't have a lumpy envelope or embellishments that get smashed or broken.  The pocket and flap will also help protect your ATC embellishments.  On the above folder I used decorative paper, then stamped the flourishes. I heat embossed the shell, then used distress inks to make it look like a real shell. I just attached it to the folder with adhesive.

Here are some more samples:

This one had flowers and leaves stamped, colored and cut out, then adhered to the folder. Some of the flowers have pop dots behind them. I used a scallop punch on the bottom so some of the pocket layer shows.

This one has a sand dollars stamped, heat embossed, cut out and adhered to the front.

I stamped this fellow, colored and cut him out, and adhered him to background paper that matches the background of the folder.  I cut out the 2 layers with a nestability die.

I stamped the dragonfly and cut it out. Then I stamped it again and just used the wings. I adhered the wing section over the bottom dragonfly so that the wings are dimensional.

I cut out the pink circle, stamped the dragonfly, then put stitches around the edge and used a white gel pen to put white dots in the circle.  I used glitter glue on the dragonfly.

I used the Cricut to cut out the medallion and the white background behind it. Then I stamped the image and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder.

I stamped the flower, colored it and cut it out and adhered it to the background paper. Very simple. And last, but by no means least,

I stamped this guy on the background, then stamped him again and cut out the bottom part, which I adhered to the stamped image.   I colored the flowers with markers, which didn't show the background behind them.

So, as you can see, you can do a lot of different things to jazz up your folder.  And it will still protect your ATC and keep it from getting lost in the envelope. You can make your own background papers instead of using patterned papers, and you can add more stamping.  I just used what I already had at hand.

I hope you give this a try. If you do, please share your creations with us, via a link in the comment section.

Have a great weekend!