Artist Trading Coins, a booklet and a freebie

Hello friends and welcome, specially also to my new followers!
Today I want to share my latest addiction, - Artist Trading Coins. I only very recently found out about these, when my lovely friend Jennie did a post on them on the Paper Artsy Blog, where these AT Coins are the theme of their latest challenge. It was love at first site and I just knew I had to give them a go. Years ago I used to swap ATCs, so this was just like going back in time but with a fun twist....
So far I have made 9 coins, plus a little booklet to store them in, so here goes:

Here first of all is the booklet. I made it following a video tutorial for which there was a link on the PA blog, you can find it HERE. 

I slightly adapted the size as the lady who made the video suggests, and I learnt several things along the way, but more about that in a moment. The cover of mine is made from Kraftcard and I used 45andMarket papers for the inside structure and pockets.

I used the Tim Holtz flower jar stamps and dies plus one of the bugs from the Entomology set to decorate the front of the cover and a couple of Paper Artsy stamps plus another bug for the back:

Here you can see how the pockets fit inside, the video shows a very clever construction, which was new to me.

The spine is one inch wide and I decorated it with a die-cut from one of Tim's new Dresden Trim 3D dies. The seam binding ribbon was dyed with Infusions Sunset Beach and a tiny bit of Antique Linen Distress spray.

Alright, onto the coins:

These 4 were made on collaged backgrounds and I used paper dolls to decorate them.

The next 4 were made with the help of a collage sheet I specially made for the purpose, I will share it with you as a freebie at the end of this post.

The final one I made I will show you inside one of the pockets of the booklet, so you can see what the inside looks like:

The booklet has 9 of these pockets, and this is what I learnt: The 45andmarket papers I used are very thick, they are more like card than paper. I absolutely adore them, but they were a bit too thick for this project. I also made the mistake of adhering the pockets on the wrong side of the internal structure, I should have stuck them on top, not underneath the gusset, as you can see on the photo above. (if you watch the video you will no doubt understand  what I mean).

The back of each coin is finished with these backings. My lovely friend Annie shared with me where you can get these, you can find them HERE.

If you are into making these Artist Trading Coins, or would like to give it a go, and are up for a swap, do let me know in the comments or be in touch by email. They are 2.5" in the round, so will fit the normal ATC pockets and things. You can find out much more by going to the Paper Artsy blog where there are some stunning examples!

Here finally is the collage sheet that I used as a starting point for 5 of my coins. The circles print at 2.5" on A4 paper (and I am pretty sure that for my American friends, they will print to that size on your letter paper too).

 

Well that's it, hope you are all having a good week, I am going to link to the Paper Artsy challenge and like always, thanks for taking the time to visit!

xxxxx