With Karin McCombes providing a small article suggesting ATCs as a layout choice via her blog, I thought it time to re-assess my own approach to layouts. Mini has always been kewl in my world, and Digital ATCs are a way to quickly see some success in your designs, especially where time and effort is minimised because of other committments.

The following sample appeared on my own blog, Scrapability, in 2006, but is shared here for you also... 

Tell a Story with Multiple ATCs

Digital ATCs have been around for years now. Several digital communities / stores occasionally offer DATC challenges, or galleries, and there have been swaps organised for digital artist trading cards also.

I find the DATC format something which always supplies me with the success-factor I sometimes need when facing the reoccuring nightmare which is scrappers block. With a design of standard playing card size, you can concentrate on the design and see something happen very quickly. People like to get them, too - especially if packaged nicely together as a group.

Which is where I'd like to introduce you to a format I explored in August of 2006. I was writing up an article on Storyboard templates in digital, and also aware of the movement at the time towards more altered type projects in the digital scrapbooking community.

I combined the two. A group of digital ATCs in storyboard format, which together as a group provide a full story for the recepient.

Here's the example, a set of four digital ATCs, which individually still work (hopefully!) as a little piece of design, but together (in the right order, that is) tell a full story. The example below includes the Mermaid doll supplied by digital designer, Mo Jackson, and a proverbial British favourite take-away treat - Fish and Chips. The montage also uses photos to do with Cluedo, the board game, and some fish downloaded free from the internet.

But that's not all. Consider creating a larger digital ATC formation, perhaps in a grid format, which combined provides a large and interesting design, but where each individual card also provides a little miniature work of art worth covetting also.

A full pack of cards would also make an interesting gift - do it up in a playing card box, and the digital trading cards inside would provide some entertainment in piecing the puzzle together. For those who like wall designs including those trendy CD cases of digital designs, consider a wall display of your DATC jigsaw puzzle. And what a good way to break that creative spell, and use up some of your digital stash too.  Let your imagination run wild!

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