LB How 2s: LTCs

Ok, hold on tight! This is going to be a long one with TONS of pictures to help!

In this How 2s I am going to explain how to join an LTC tracker and begin your journey on making some LTCs. For now this is going to be the basics. There are many advanced things that I have yet to do when it comes to creating these cards.

To start off, what is an LTC?
"Short for Letterboxer Trading Cards, an offshoot of Artist Trading Cards (ATC), which itself is an offshoot of traditional trading cards such as baseball cards. Letterboxer Trading Cards must be 2.5"x3.5", or 64x89mm, with a base that has the thickness and consistency of card stock, and typically incorporate your signature stamp in some way" (AtlasQuest Letterboxing Glossary).

Signing Up

Before you start making any cards we first need to join a swap you would like to do.

Go to "My Page" and click on "Trackers."

 

 Next, look at the "Available" row and choose LTCs.

A huge list should then appear of what LTC swaps are available.

Click on a listed tracker that you may be interested in.

 



We are going to "join" this tracker for this tutorial. This is how the tracker will look before you join.
 

This tracker is currently open so you can join. You will also see that it has a max sign up of 15 people. Before you join you need to consider if you will make the deadline. In this case, the red arrow pointing to September 22, 2012 means that the host needs to have your cards by that date.

If it has a green arrow after the start date, that means you HAVE to send your cards on that date at the latest.

Now, join the tracker!!

 

 Now that you have joined, the screen should look like this. The host usually puts their address in the "Post" section that appears after you join. The host will have all the info you need for the swap listed in the description.

For this tracker, the deck of cards indicates that it is an LTC swap. The pyramids, indicate that it is a themed swap. For this tracker, the theme is "States."

 

 

Making LTCs

Now that you have signed up for this LTCs swap, it is time to make the cards themselves.

An LTC must be 2.5"x3.5", or 64x89mm. It also needs to be made of card stock or something with the consistency of card stock. I use not only regular card stock, but also card stock-like scrapbooking paper.

I recommend, if you have one, using a paper cutter and not just scissors to cut out your cards. It gives them a nice straight, smooth look to them.

This link shows the best way to get the most cards out of one sheet of different sized paper:

Cutting Templates 

 Next, you need to Hand Carve (Coming Soon) a stamp. For an LTC it is required that the stamp is hand carved. Once the stamp is carved, stamp it onto the cards that you cut out earlier.

Now that all your cards are stamped, you need to label the back of the cards.





 

The top of the card needs to have the name of the LTC you have made. At the bottom right corner you will put the number out of ___   i.e. 1/15, 2/15, 3/15, 4/15, ect.
You have a choise of making the card single, limited, unlimited, or not specified. Most cards are limited and will have the 1/# on the bottom right corner. If you are making an unlimited card you will just place one number in the corner like in the picture above.

 

After all the cards are done the proper thing to do is put them in trading card sleeves.

Not everyone who is hosting an LTC swap will require that you have sleeves. Most people put the LTCs in trading card Binder Sheets so the cards don't end up staying in the sleeves. Having the cards in sleeves are useful when doing single trades or trading at letterboxing events. Yes, you can trade your cards outside the swap you joined. If you join a swap that has a max of 15 people you can make more than that to trade with people outside the swap. Keep in mind, these are trading cards.

 

 

When all is done and you are ready to send your LTCs out to the swap host, you need to make a Self-Addressed Envelope. Now after you have created your self-addressed envelope don't just dump all your cards into the envelope. To minimise cost of sending your LTCs here is how you should put them Inside the Envelope.

When you send the cards for the swap send all that are needed. If 15 people are in the swap, send 15 cards. Yes, you will be getting back of your own cards because it is part of the set in the swap you joined. It also makes it much easier on the host to sort out cards.



After you send the cards to the host it may be awhile before you get your new cards. The host needs to receive all the cards and then make sure everyone gets one of each card.

And don't forget to include enough stamps for the host to send the LTCs back to you!

 

Hope this helped any one new to LTCs!

 

Check out some LTCs here:

Geometry Junkie's Blog

Dixie's "Art In Hand" Blog

CCL's Blog

 

Also, you can check out more on LTCs on atlasquest regarding some more advanced thing you can do with LTCs and other things. You can also join the LTC board on atlasquest to ask questions and see what's new in the LTC world.

 

If you have any questions feel free to ask me and I'll try my best to answer them!

 

 

~Catchow