ACEO stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals. The only requirement to be categorized as an ACEO is that it be 2.5" x 3.5' in size, a form of miniature art.  It can be any medium- paint, fiber, paper construction, colored pencil, ink, graphite, clay, metal, etc.  People love collecting them and will either mat and frame them for their walls or preserve them just like baseball cards in plastic sleeves and albums. ACEOs are a great way to inexpensively collect an artist's work.  They're derived from Artist Trading Cards also known as ATCs. ATCs have been around for a long time, and are traded- never sold. Artists traded them among themselves or sometimes they gave them to special clients as a thank you.

ACEO as an art form was started on eBay, in 2004, by artist Lisa Luree (known as “bone*diva”, on eBay).  ACEOs were a clever way to sell the ATC size and get her work in the hands of the general public. ATCs are generally original pieces whereas ACEOS can be either print or original. If you go to eBay and search for ACEOs you will find an astounding number in the thousands, with almost any subject matter you can think of. ACEOs sell on EBay for anywhere from around a dollar to one hundred dollars and up.

I discovered them for myself last year and I love doing them! It satisfies something in me that's left over from my childhood. I had forgotten how much I loved tiny things when I was a child.