As you may already know, mail is my most favorite hobby.

I’ve sent letters and postcards, but my most recent mail adventure has been involving artist trading cards. What are they? Well let me tell ya.

An artist trading card is a bite sized piece of art, 2.5 by 3.5 inches, or the size of a standard sized playing card. it can be painted, collage, sewn, anything you want that represents your art style as long as it fits the size requirements.

Here are some of my cards for reference; watercolor is my main medium!

These little cards are perfect for just practicing your art skills, and in the end you can trade them for someone else’s work. I’ve swapped cards with dozens of amazing artists since this past summer, and it is a big source of inspiration for my next cards and for my creative mind in general.

Most of the cards that are swapped are collaged, so it is really fun for me to add something a little different to the mix, however I do send out collaged cards as well!

For example, here are some cards I’ve done where I drew some of my Fall 2021 professors and then collaged the background:

Where do you find people to swap cards with? Swapbot.com !

There, you can find swaps that are themed or free style, and/or regional only or international! Like Postcrossing, it is really easy to sign up and is a secure website with many people who love to send mail, because it is not limited to artist trading cards!

One of my favorite swaps on Swapbot is the Chunk O’ Cardboard swap, where you take any clean cardboard you have laying around and up-cycle it into a postcard to send to your partners.

There’s letter swaps, postcard swaps, artist trading card swaps, book swaps; if it has to do with sending mail, it is probably a swap on Swapbot.

If you love snail mail and have no idea where to start, join Swapbot! It is such a fun way to find a new hobby and come across some awesome and kind people who love it just as much as you do!

I will definitely be spending a portion of my summer making and painting artist trading cards. As you start to collect cards from all over, you will develop a mini art gallery of your own, and I hope that after reading this you feel inspired to delve into something as rewarding as art through mail.

Get creative!

Katelyn