What is an LTC?

I've mentioned before that I'm a Letter Boxer. I carve my own stamps as part of the hobby and sometimes make LTC's with the stamps before planting them in the wild. So just what is a LTC? A LTC is the same thing as an ATC, which is to say that it is an Artist Trading Card, or, in Letterboxing terms,  a Letterbox Trading Card. The only thing that truly separates a LTC from an ATC is that LTCs must have at least one hand carved stamp used on them. The artist is free to embellish the card however they want. Some cards are very intricate while others very simple.

I wanted to share a few of the LTCs that I've created with you!

"Pirates Ahoy: Captain Jack Sparrow"                                         "Disney Movies: Will Turner"

The cards shown above where made using the same techniques. I made the background papers using alcohol inks. I wanted Jack's background to be gold because, well, he's a pirate! For Will, I wanted it to look like water. I was very pleased with how both backgrounds came out.

After the paper was made and cut to size (standard LTC size is 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"), I took my hand carved stamps and embossed them onto the paper. I use a VersaMark Watermark stamp pad and detail black embossing powder. You can learn more about embossing techniques with simple searches on youtube, just expect to have to play around a bit to find what paper, ink, and powder work best for you.

Both of the cards above were made for trackers. Trackers are set up so that people can sign up and share their cards easily with others. Trackers usually have a theme and the owner (whoever set up and is in charge of the tracker) sets guidelines for all who join to follow. Everyone in the group ends up with a card from all the members.

Below are my Characters of Avonlea cards.

Gilbert Blythe                                                Anne Shirley                                               Diana Barry

These cards were not made for a tracker, but for individual trades. All three cards have info on the back about the character. I've always been a fan of Anne of Green Gables and wanted to make some LTCs with the three main characters.

Each card has three hand carved stamps. The names were carved and then embossed onto the background paper. I carved the picture frame used on each card and cut it out and glued it to the background paper. The characters were carved as well and embossed, colored with copic markers, cut our, then glued onto the frame.

I was going for a picture on the wall look. I wanted to use background paper that looked like it could be wallpaper.

I have many more LTCs that I hope to do posts about. I would like to create a LTC gallery on the blog for everyone to see.