About Us
Origins of the Craftrak concept
The idea for Craftrak was first conceived in 2006, which was actually before the creation of the company which now brings it to you! (Does that make sense?)
At that time, several years ago, the founder of the Craftrak concept (who later became the founder of La Pashe) was browsing around the online world of card making and stumbled upon some little ‘ATC’s being swapped on a craft forum.
ATC stands for Artist’s Trading Card and was used by artists as business cards.
On one side of the card, the artist would paint/draw a sample piece of artwork and on the other side, put their contact details.
Because these business cards were effectively miniature pieces of art, they became highly sought-after by non-artists and so the whole concept of the exchanging and collecting of ATCs was born.
Crafters started making their own ATCs, using craft materials to decorate the front of a 3.5” x 2.5” piece of card and putting their name and e-mail address on the back. Once made, the cards are exchanged with other crafters via ATC swaps organised in online forums.
The discovery of ATCs intrigued our intrepid founder, who thought that it was a very nice idea for crafters to make miniature cards and exchange them with their fellow crafting friends.
However, although ATCs seemed to cross over well from the art world into the craft world, they had some major limitations, mainly caused by the fact that they were originally created to be used as business cards.
These limitations have now finally been addressed with the launch of Craftrak in 2010.
ATCs must measure exactly 3.5” x 2.5”. Why? Because that is the standard size of a business card.
Handmade greeting cards, on the other hand, follow paper sizes – A4, A5, A6 etc.
Therefore, we made Craftrak cards A7 size. We kept them small because small cards are quick and easy to make, plus you can use all your scrap pieces of paper and card on them!
ATCs consist of just one flat piece of card – an ATC doesn’t open like a handmade card does, and if it doesn’t open, you can’t write a message, greeting, sentiment or verse inside.
Therefore, we made Craftrak cards look and open like a handmade card.
ATCs are swapped/exchanged/traded with other crafters, which is really great fun, provides inspiration for new ideas and allows cardmakers to share ideas with each other.
But once you have given your ATC to someone else in exchange for one of theirs, you have no idea what happens to your ATC. Where does it go? Who has seen it? Who has it now? Wouldn’t it be great to know…
Yes, so Craftrak cards are Trakkable!
And finally, ATC swaps are time-consuming to organise and it is almost impossible to get large numbers of people involved.
Therefore, we made Craftrak an automated system. It does all the hard work of organising the card exchanges, so you don’t have to!
This is the story of how Craftrak came to be.
We hope you enjoy ‘Craftrakking’ as much as we had fun making it all happen!
