Nov 20th 2009 02:19:39 pm

For those of us in the USA, our Thanksgiving holiday is right around the corner. It is the busy holiday season already and the craft blogs are full of holiday ideas and projects. Here are a few that caught my eye:

• First, I must promote myself a little bit… I recently wrote an article for CraftCritique.com about Kata Golda’s Hand-Stitched Felt book. I had fun working on two felt projects for the review. Above is a photo of the supplies I used to make a cute coffee mug cozy.
• Need some ideas for holiday gifts you can make yourself? Check out Cathe Holden’s Gift Making Guide. It is a round-up of Holden’s forty-two different craft tutorials!
• Fantastic Toys has a downloadable pattern and instructions for how to make adorable, vintage-style, felt ornaments.
• If you want to make a funkier felt ornament, try Mariska’s elephant angel ornament tutorial.
• Ohamanda.com has a round-up of ten amazing advent calendar ideas.
• This fabric peppermint garland is beautiful. (Found via CraftyPod on Twitter.)
• If you need a quick card to include with you holiday gifts, why not download Creature Comforts free cupcake and teacup flat cards.
• This one is just for fun… Have you been to CakeSpy.com? It is an adorable blog all about desserts! Yum!
• For any NYC-area swappers, there are three big holiday craft fairs coming up in two weeks that I will be attending and you might want to visit them, too. They are the Holiday Handmade Cavalcade (Dec. 5th), the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s Holiday Craft Sale (Dec. 5th), and the BUST Holiday Craftacular (Dec. 6th).

No Comments » Categories: friday link love

Nov 13th 2009 11:05:15 am

Happy Friday the 13th! These links don’t have anything to do with the auspicious date, but they are cool just the same. Enjoy!

• I know, some say it is too early to start thinking about the holidays… but if you are hand-making things for the season, I don’t think it is ever too early to get started. Felt-O-Rama has a really cute and simple idea for making felt tree decorations (seen above).
• A great gift idea or just something handy for all of the holiday travel, Skip To My Lou has a tutorial for making pretty fabric luggage tags.
• You know that I am always raving about the blog, Blah to TADA! Lately, it has featured all sorts of handmade gift ideas. My current favorite is the Chocolate Spoons tutorial. Who wouldn’t love getting a bundle of those? Maybe paired with a bag of coffee… a great gift idea!
• CraftyPod has a great “upcycle” tutorial for turning empty cardboard food boxes into cool, little notepads. Clever!
• And, I found this next link via Sister Diane of Crafty Pod on Twitter: Robert Sabuda pop-up greeting card tutorials complete with PDF templates.
• Have you heard of The Toy Society? It is a growing street art project that started in Australia. The participants make handmade toys and leave them in public places to be discovered and adopted by strangers. From the site description: “The Toy Society spreads the love throughout the streets of the world. Nothing to it really just a bunch of handmade toys looking for a nice home.” Sweet!

3 Comments » Categories: friday link love

Nov 11th 2009 10:55:50 am

It is holiday giveaway time! I have three awesome Martha Stewart Crafts Holiday Glitter sets to send to three lucky winners. I love Martha’s glitter (find out how much here) and these sets have a great variety of normal super-fine glitter, tinsel glitter, and glass microbead glitter - all in beautiful holiday colors. So sparkly!

So, how do you win one of these fab glitter sets? It is easy. Simply, spread the word about all of the winter and holiday swaps taking place on Swap-bot right now. Post on your blog or twitter account about a swap that you are participating in (or just one that you think others might be interested in), then make a comment on this post that includes your Swap-bot username and a link to your tweet or post about Swap-bot. Your comment here will enter you in the random drawing for one of the glitter sets.

Feel free to link to my new international swap, the Holiday Fun Matchbox Swap, in your post or tweet. I want it to be a super-huge swap, so invite all of your friends! However, technically you do not need to post about a holiday swap to enter this drawing - any post about Swap-bot will do. Make sure to link back to Swap-bot in some way in your post. We want attract more quality swappers who may not know about Swap-bot or have been reluctant to try out swapping on our site.

More quality swappers = more swapping fun!

Giveaways Rules: Make sure to include your Swap-bot username and a link to your post about Swap-bot in your comment or your entry will not be counted. Each person can only enter this giveaway drawing one time. The deadline for entering this giveaway is Saturday, November 28th. The winners will be randomly drawn and announced on Sunday, November 29th. If you have trouble commenting on the blog, you can send me an email with your entry to rachel [at] swap-bot.com. Good luck!

UPDATE: If you do not have a Twitter account, website, or blog, you can enter the drawing by telling us one way you have spread the word about Swap-bot, whether in person or via email, facebook, etc… I want everyone to have a chance to enter this fun giveaway! We rely on our great members to promote Swap-bot to other fun, crafty peeps. We don’t have much money for marketing, so we really appreciate it any time you tell a friend about swapping on the ‘bot. Thank you!

57 Comments » Categories: Giveaways

Nov 10th 2009 09:17:42 am

You may have heard about five-year-old Noah Biorkman, a boy from Michigan who is in his last stages of neuroblastoma cancer after a 2 1/2 year battle. He is celebrating Christmas early and he loves Christmas cards. Swap-bot user, mykateyes77 is hosting a Cards for young cancer patient swap in Noah’s honor. For this non-traditional swap, all you need to do is send a greeting card to Noah and let your partner know it went out. In order to get the cards to Noah asap, the sign up and send deadlines are very soon, on November 13th. You will not get anything in return for this swap except the knowledge that you helped make a child’s Christmas wish come true.

No Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

Nov 9th 2009 08:38:13 am

Did you know that AIDS has taken the lives of more than 25 million people since 1981 and more than 33 million people are living with HIV? In 2007 alone, 270,000 children worldwide passed away due to this pandemic.

Swap-bot user Polymath is hosting a great swap in honor of World AIDS Day on December 1st. This international mail swap brings attention to the cause of AIDS research by combining a craft component with a charitable donation component. Each participant in the swap will send a handmade craft (a greeting card, ATC, bookmark, matchbox, etc) in the theme of the AIDS awareness red ribbon to their one partner. They will each also make a donation of any amount to amFAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. The swap elebrates love, generosity, and fellowship while bringing awareness to an important cause.

The sign up deadline for the World AIDS Day Swap has been extended, but it is still VERY SOON on November 17th, so go sign up now and show your support for this important cause.

No Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

Nov 6th 2009 12:53:02 pm

Wow. It is November. Are you ready for the holiday season to start? I’m not, so for this week I have NON-holiday links for you. Please add links to any of your own fun, crafty finds in the comments section. Happy weekend!

• Do you still have candy left over from Halloween? CraftGossip.com has a Round Up of Leftover Halloween Candy Ideas.
• Have you seen the Craft In America television program on PBS? I have watched a few episodes and I think it is amazing! It is so refreshing to see people who are so dedicated to their craft and who are making beautiful things. You can watch full episode online here.
• Creature Comforts (such a pretty blog!) has a new PROJECTS & FREEBIES section with lots of free tutorials and printables.
• Check out this detailed video tutorial for how to make glass tile pendants and rings using your own artwork on CraftStylish.com.
• My most important link: Swap-bot user Polymath is hosting a great swap in honor of World AIDS Day on December 1st. The swap elebrates love, generosity, and fellowship while bringing awareness to the important cause of AIDS research. The sign up deadline for the World AIDS Day Swap is VERY SOON on November 10th, so go sign up now and support this important cause.

No Comments » Categories: friday link love

Nov 3rd 2009 08:30:26 am

Swap-bot was down for about twelve hours last night, but it is back! We are very sorry for the inconvenience. The flu has hit Swap-bot HQ.

2 Comments » Categories: Announcements, site updates

Nov 2nd 2009 11:19:40 am

This week, I am featuring a swap that will help you get ready for the winter holiday season in a small way… The featured swap is the Handmade Winter Holiday Card swap hosted by coolbaker5. For the swap, you create one holiday greeting card by hand, and send it blank with a coordinated envelope to your one partner. So, your blank handmade card and its blank envelope will be sent in another outer envelope… Your partner will then be able to use the greeting card during the holidays. (It is a little different from other holiday greeting card swaps in that you are sending your partner a blank card they can use instead of sending them a filled out card.) The sign up deadline is November 14th and you must send your card out before December first. The Handmade Winter Holiday Card swap is USA-only… but I would love to see a similar swap created for international swappers, too!

**UPDATE:** coolbaker5 has now created an International version of the Winter Holiday Card swap. Yippee!!

3 Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap