May 18th 2012 08:29:20 am

Sunshine, swaps, and lots of links 4 life!

• What a fun craft: How to make wind-up butterflies (seen above) on You are my Fave.
• Speaking of butterflies, check out all of the lovelies made by Swap-botters for the Holocaust Museum Butterfly Project Swap.
• Make yourself some pretty polka dot flats.
• A huge round-up of paint chip crafts on Dear Miss Modern.
• You’re different (and magical) just like everyone else.
• Two sweet recipes: Snickers Cake and Nutella Cupcakes.
• And, one savory: Seven Layer Dip Roll-ups

I have an epic Brooklyn weekend planned… how about you?!

No Comments » Categories: friday link love

May 14th 2012 08:00:53 am

!!!!! 5 years of Quotecards !!!!!

Spinjenny, one of Swap-bot’s original members, is hosting the 60th edition of the Quotecard Postcard Swap. This postcard swap series was originally started by Nicole and has been running consistently for five years. Wow!

For this “sender’s choice” postcard swap you are invited to share a little zinger of wisdom/humour/etc with each of your three partners. Your postcards can be handmade or printed (commercially or otherwise) but you must include a quote on the back of the card. Please say where the quote is from or give the credit where it’s due. You may use quotes in languages other than English, but if you do, please include a translation for your partner. Do not forget to include the swap name and your username on the card!

Sign up for this special Quotecard Postcard Swap by tomorrow, May 15th. New users and experienced swappers with a 4.9, or higher, rating are welcome to join.

Looking for a good quote resource? Check out these sites:

• The Quote Garden
• Think exist
• Quotations Book
• Quotations Home Page
• Quoteland
• The Quotations Page
• The Quotations Archive
• TCPN Quotations
• WikiQuote
• goodreads

What is your all-time favorite quote?

No Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

May 11th 2012 12:01:59 pm

Happy Mother’s Day on Sunday to all of the moms out there! This is a photo of my sweet and beautiful mother with me in 1981. She is the best.

• For Mother’s Day, Craftzine has a nice round-up of crafty presents you still have time to whip up before Sunday. Or, how about customized Mother’s Day cookies?
• Need a little whimsey and color in your office? Or maybe in a child’s room or nursery? Erin Loechner (of Design for Mankind) has a quick tutorial for how to create a neon dino garland over on the HGTV blog. Wacky-cool!
• Need more decor? Jordan Ferney shows you how to make an upcycled water bottle chandelier. Very fancy!
• Funny – check out this small, two-suitcase-sized Rube Goldberg machine that “makes” postcards!
• A healthy recipe: doesn’t this Green Goddess Grilled Cheese look delicious?!
• I guess I am on a health kick… this free, printable fruit & veggie serving checklist by Wild Olive is too cute! It makes me want to eat my veggies!
• But I’m not ALL healthy! Your S’more of the week: Indoor S’more Bark.

Any other good links out there that I missed?

2 Comments » Categories: friday link love

May 8th 2012 06:23:25 am

This week’s featured swap is an easy, international, paper craft swap: Heart Shaped Bookmarks. The swap, hosted by Noale, was inspired by the bookmark tutorial on the lovely blog, Craft & Creativity.

For the swap, you will have three (3) partners. You will send each partner two (2) heart shaped bookmarks (for a total of 6), that you have made and decorated using the blog tutorial. The tutorial is in both Swedish and English and shows you how to make sweet, heart shaped, corner bookmarks.

All international swappers with ten (10) completed Type 2 & 3 swaps and a rating over 4.97 are welcome to join. Sign up before May 23rd!

1 Comment » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

May 4th 2012 11:40:07 am

Happy Star Wars Day, fellow Jedi! Also, Feliz Cinco de Mayo!!

Lots of links this week:

• For Star Wars Day: Check out the round-up of Star Wars crafts on Craftzine, including the adorable Chewbacca softie pattern from DrawPilgrim. (Seen above to the left.)
• For Cinco de Mayo: I will be extremely impressed if you make these very beautiful, very fun, but very complicated Pinata Cookies. (Seen above to the right.) They are sure to be a hit at any party, but man, they take a lot of steps to create!!
• Or, if you are going to be watching the Kentucky Derby this weekend, why not make some mint julep gelato?!
• For more yum, make these Mint Chocolate Chip Nutella Sandwich Cookies.
• And your S’more of the week: S’more Toffee from Created by Diane.
• Get luxe DIY tutorials on the blog, How Did You Make This.
• I like this very cool neon necklace tutorial on Creme de la Craft.
• What Does Making Things Mean? – the new free podcast from Sister Diane of CraftyPod.
• Why not join fellow postal mail enthusiast, Jessica of Miniature Rhino, in her Month of Mail project?!
• Flower arranging is a craft that seems to rise and fall in popularity. It must be on the rise now because Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP site just did this fairly extensive and very pretty tutorial on arranging flowers by vase size. Lovely.
• Oh noes… zoo lions trying to eat babies?!
• If you are in NYC, come check out the Spring Handmade Cavalcade in Brooklyn on Saturday. It is a local craft show with tons of great artists. (Plus, Swap-bot is a sponsor!)
• Only one more day to get signed up for the National Postcard Week Swap!
• And one more Star Wars Day craft: an ADORABLE mini Ewok from Wild Olive. So cute!

Have a fantastic weekend!

No Comments » Categories: friday link love

May 3rd 2012 07:01:05 am

Next week, May 6-12, is National Postcard Week. Want to celebrate this fun postal event? Join the National Postcard Week Blast Swap hosted by druideye.

For the swap: You’ll be given ONE partner, to send FIVE postcards to. Sender’s choice, please send every postcard naked and written on (meaning no envelope). Put the first one in the mail on Monday, May 7. Second on May 8. Third on May 9. Fourth on May 10, Fifth on Friday, May 11! Please be sure to have ALL cards mailed by Saturday, May 12.

This fun, USA-only postcard swap is open to users with a 4.9 rating. Sign up by May 5th — that is this Saturday!

For international swappers, check out the many other postcard swaps happening now!

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Did you know that Deltiology is the practice of collecting postcards? Learn more about the history of National Postcard Week here.

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No Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

Apr 27th 2012 08:26:57 am

This is the wacky and wild matchbox that I made for my Spring Matchbox Swap. Sometimes I can’t stop adding things to my crafts! What swaps or projects are you working on today?

How about a few links to explore today?

• Eleven very cool DIY necklace tutorials.
• I just discovered this lovely cooking blog: Our Best Bites.
• Thoughts on painting.
• Make your own glittered glass ornaments or jars with these tutorials from Plum Adorable.
• Free, downloadable, vintage postcard images.
• Your weekly S’more: these Peanut Butter Cup S’more Bars look incredible!
• If you want to do a paper craft for a good cause, come join the Houston Holocaust Museum Butterfly Project Swap.
• Learn about using Pinterest to promote your website and hear me talk a bit about the ‘bot in the most recent episode of the IndieBizChicks podcast.

Go out there and enjoy yourself this weekend!!

No Comments » Categories: friday link love

Apr 23rd 2012 07:51:18 am

One and a half million children perished in the Holocaust. In an effort to remember them, Holocaust Museum Houston is collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies. The butterflies will eventually comprise a breath-taking exhibition, currently scheduled for Spring 2014, for all to remember. The Museum has already collected an estimated 900,000 butterflies, but they need more!

To contribute to this moving project and exhibit, TerryF is hosting her second Holocaust Museum Butterfly Project Swap. All Swap-bot users are welcome to join and send as many butterflies as they would like to the co-organizer, Leashah. To complete the swap, you will also send a postal mail letter to your assigned partner in the swap describing the butterfly you made for the Holocaust Museum and your feelings about the project.

The handcrafted butterflies made for this project need to meet a few requirements:

• Butterflies should be no larger than 8 inches by 10 inches.
• Butterflies may be of any medium the artist chooses, but two-dimensional submissions are preferred.
• Glitter and all glitter-related products should not be used.
• Food products (cereal, macaroni, candy, marshmallows or other perishables) also should not be used.

Leashah will be photographing the butterflies she receives and posting them on Flickr here. (The butterflies seen above are ones I made for the previous Butterfly Project Swap in 2009.)

Let’s make this a huge swap and send a giant box of butterflies to the Holocaust Museum Houston!!

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The Butterfly

The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing
against a white stone….
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ’way up high.
It went away I’m sure
because it wished
to kiss the world good-bye.
For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don’t live in here, in the ghetto.

~ Pavel Friedman, June 4, 1942
Born in Prague on January 7, 1921.
Deported to the Terezin Concentration Camp on April 26, 1942.
Died in Auschwitz on September 29, 1944.

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2 Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

Apr 22nd 2012 10:14:39 am

Happy Earth Day! The Friday links were a little delayed this week, but I have some good ones for you today… and today is a good day to think about recycling and crafting and trying to do our best to be good to our planet, so it all works out. Enjoy!

• Perfect for Earth Day: Creative Reuse and Crafting podcast from CraftyPod.
• You’ve probably already seen this adorable video about 9-year-old Caine’s Arcade, but if not, watch it. You’ll love it. Plus, it is a great story about upcycling trash into fun via imagination!
• And in similar news… Reasons for Optimism.
• Love knitting and animals? Knit and donate blankets for foster dogs at the Battersea Dog & Cat Home.
• A very cool art swapping project: discard.
• The best NYC craft stores according to Time Out New York.
• The easiest, sweetest paper dots garland how-to from Oh Happy Day.
• Just for yum: Rolo Cheesecake Bars from Bakers Royale.
• We have the awesomest, kindest members! I LOVE this swap!

Have a great end to your weekend… live it up!

1 Comment » Categories: friday link love

Apr 16th 2012 02:57:11 pm

Spring!! Hello! (I know, only in the Northern Hemisphere, but I hope you Southern Hemis will excuse my flower obsession right now.)

Are you feeling flower power inspired? Do you want to make some fun mail art to brighten you post person’s day? Join the Decorate an envelope for May Day Swap!

For this May Day decorated envelope swap, hosted by Tia, you decorate one envelope for one partner. Decorate the envelope in any way you like — drawings, stickers, glitter, stamps, whatever — and fill it with a little note or card, then drop it in the mail!

Sign up by April 20th and mail your decorated envelope by April 29th, so that is will hopefully arrive by May Day on May 1st. This Type 2 swap is USA only and open to new users and to experienced swappers swappers with a 4.0 rating, or higher. Spread some swappy spring cheer!!

3 Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap