Oct 29th 2007 11:26:10 am

Come join the best swap ever! (Ok, I may be a little biased since I am the one hosting this swap…) If you like making matchboxes, and you are looking forward to the winter holiday season, the Christmas (fun) Time Matchbox Swap is perfect for you! The swap is international and it is open for signup through November 16th. Each participant has just one partner to whom they send one decorated and filled matchbox. The theme, of course, is the Christmas holiday, but any winter-type themes would also work. However, you must be open to receiving Christmas items in the mail. Each participant must have above a 4.6 rating to join. I am allowing a few new users, but they have all checked with me before joining. I will ban anyone who looks questionable. (BREAKING NEWS: I plan to make a good number of extra Christmas matchboxes and I will angel for this swap starting two weeks after the mail deadline. That should still give enough time for matchboxes to arrive before Christmas.)

Some fun resources for this swap:

• The Mirkwood Designs matchbox template I use to make my matchboxes out of cardstock.
• Fun Christmas chipboard embellishments from Making Memories.
• Perfect Christmas colors grosgrain ribbon at ScrappinDaisy
• Cute Doodlebug Christmas buttons, sequins, and brads.
• Get inspired by the matchboxes on Flickr.

This should be a really fun swap and I can’t wait to get started on my matchbox!

1 Comment » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

Oct 27th 2007 06:26:44 pm

There is a cute new feature you might want to check out. We now have a selection of pre-made avatars for you to choose from. You can pick one of the avatar options by going to the Profile Edit page and then clicking on “Picture”. We plan to keep adding to the pre-made selection over time. Of course, you can still upload your own avatar from your computer, but we realized that many people were having a bit of trouble re-sizing and/or creating avatars. This makes it quick and easy for new users to pick an avatar for their profile. You can still change your avatar image at any time. Enjoy!

2 Comments » Categories: New Features

Oct 26th 2007 12:22:32 pm

Another random assortment for you to peruse:

• Ultra Kawaii, a website showcasing super-cute pets.
• Natural Historie is the just-opened jewelry shop of Jenny Vorwaller. She creates very interesting and beautiful stuff.
• For all you ATC lovers out there: check out this cool Artist Trading Card circular holder tree-thingy.
• I am pretty sure collectedmess posted this somewhere in the forums: Drama on These Here Innerwebs. It is a blog post by Adorkable Grrl all about understanding drama on internet forums. Very interesting.

No Comments » Categories: friday link love

Oct 24th 2007 06:07:45 pm

I just found Brenda’s Secret Agent Josephine blog via the Inspiration Boards blog via the Craft:blog. I have obviously only been reading it for the last few days, but the adorable graphics and funny stories really sucked me in. Brenda is a graphic designer and a mom of one Babybug. She mostly writes about her daily adventures. Her posts are kind of long, but they are funny and down-to-earth. Also, she has a monthly drawing for free web banners. How cool!

No Comments » Categories: blog review

Oct 22nd 2007 07:52:59 pm

Another ATC swap for this week. I chose the Sharpie ATC swap, hosted by ClareyFairy, because I love Sharpies and I am always interested in spreading the word about how great they are for all sorts of projects. They come in every color, including metallics and white, and they write on just about any surface.

For the swap you make two ATCs for each of your two partners, for a total of four ATCs. The only medium you can use on the cards is Sharpie markers. The swap is open for signup through November 10th. You must have a 4.6 rating to join. New users and other can message ClareyFairy for exceptions.

No Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

Oct 19th 2007 09:13:19 am

I’ve got some wild links for you this week:

• Check out Martha Stewart’s new attic craft room. It is a little TOO organized for my taste… but I would take it.
• This to That is a glue calculator. It tells you what type of glue you should use for different craft projects. (found via Craft:blog)
• A hearty, healthy fall cookie recipe from hogwash. (found via not martha)
• This is crazy: a Hello Kitty assault rifle! (found via Boing Boing)
• MindBites is a new website where you can watch and share video tutorials on how to do almost anything! Most of the tutorials cost, but you can earn credits by adding your own lessons. (found via CraftyPod)

1 Comment » Categories: friday link love

Oct 18th 2007 06:20:29 am

A solid article about Swap-bot by Tonya Froemel for Associated Content, and another by Marina Otin on How To Keep Your Swaps from Overtaking Your Life.

No Comments » Categories: press

Oct 15th 2007 10:46:59 am

You all know that Artist Trading Card swaps are popular, but this one has a bit of a twist. The With One Palette: Harvest Colors swap was created and coordinated by linpengierhody (who, btw, has 104 hearts!). You have three partners in the swap, to whom you send one ATC each. “You will use ONLY Orange/Brown/Red/Yellow (although a little bit of white or black in addition to the 4 colors is acceptable if it’s part of a piece you are adding to the card).” The twist is that even though you will use harvest colors, the cards canNOT have a harvest theme. No Thanksgiving imagery!

With One Palette: Harvest Colors is open for sign up through October 31st (Halloween!) and items must be sent out by November 12th. You must have a 4.85 rating to participate. If you are new, message linpengierhody with information about yourself.

Have fun exploring harvest colors!

No Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

Oct 12th 2007 12:26:27 pm

A very random assortment of links for you today:

• A bunch of people have asked for this, so here is the template from Mirkwood Designs that I use to make matchboxes out of cardstock.
• I know we have a lot of cat lovers on Swap-bot, and if you do not already know about the site ICanHasCheezBurger.com you are missing out on the best LOLcats. So funny!
• Liquid Paper’s pom pom pumpkins tutorial is just too cute for words. I am not sure what you do with the mini pumpkins when you are done, but I don’t care.
• My partner in my christmas (fun) time matchbox swap is definitely going to be getting some of these adorable Making Memories “Deck the Halls” chipboard buttons in their matchbox. I love those things!

Have a great weekend! xoxo

No Comments » Categories: friday link love

Oct 11th 2007 06:55:46 pm

We have created two new swap categories: Kawaii and Handmade.

User request was strong for these two groups, and they seem to make a lot of sense. Are there other important categories that we are overlooking?

2 Comments » Categories: New Features