At past Art Unraveled shopping days there have been several people trading ATCs, Usually there is a line of people waiting to get in and we do our trading then. I was expecting things to be much the same this year so I designed the ATC you see at the left especially for this event.

The theme for this year’s Art Unraveled was “Immerse Yourself in the Magic of Art”. I thought about that for a while and while I was contemplating about how the beauty or magic of art is what you as an individual choose to take from it another thought kept popping into my head. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Now with all these thoughts swirling around in my head the design for the card started to take shape. I titled it “The Eye of the Beholder” and made 16 with this design.

I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t find very many people who wanted to trade ATCs. I actually only came home with four new ATCs. I was also a bit surprised to find people trading other things.

I noticed one woman trading pins that she made. I never made it over close to her so I’m not sure what they looked like. Another gal was trading a little silk bag filled with an ATC, fibers and several beautiful pieces of handmade paper. There were also several people trading MOO Cards. Moo cards? Yep, Moo Cards. I traded for a few Moo cards but most of my cards ended up just being given away.

I had never heard of people trading Moo cards before. My daughter had mentioned wanting to order some business card from “Moo Cards” but that didn’t sound like something people would be using as a swap item. I was more than a bit confused.The small card next to my ATC is one of the Moo cards that I received in trade from Judy D. at Art Unraveled. They are 1″ x 2 3/4″. Apparently they grew in popularity with photographers who share their work on Flickr. From there they attracted the attention of other artist who scan their work and upload the images to be printed onto these tiny business cards. There are also some people trading cards with images of art they just found and like, rather than something they created on their own.

I’m not sure what I think about the Moo cards for traders. They are cute and sharing art is always fun but I just don’t know if I’ll be jumping on the bandwagon. I think I still get the most enjoyment from sitting down with paint, ink, scissors, glue and paper to create the individual cards. A Moo card just wouldn’t give me that hands on type of satisfaction.

Do you trade Moo cards? If so, do you display your own artwork on them? Do you have some more insight to share with me about them? I’m still feeling a little confused.