Mar 28th 2011 03:45:47 pm

This week’s featured swap is the Earth Day Art on an Envie Swap hosted by greenraisin.

From the swap description:

April 22 is Earth Day! So let’s help celebrate this day by sharing Earth Day mail art with our fellow swap-botters.

Your Earth Day mail art may be done in any medium and style preferred by you.

The swap is international and you only have one partner. Sign up before April 13th!

No Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

Mar 25th 2011 06:29:01 am

What is inspiring you this week? This collection of links are the things that really caught my eye and inspired me to be creative this week… Enjoy!

• Isn’t the scene above cool? Those are 99 yarn-bombed trees in Austin, Texas. The trees were covered in knitted yarn tree cozies made by Magda Sayeg, also known as KnittaPlease, and 170 volunteers. The installation is called “Knitted Wonderland.” (See also: Yarn bombed pot holes in Paris.)
• Every Saturday is “Swap-bot Saturday” over on the blog, Prompt Me to Greatness. Last Saturday, the author shared an awesome Doctor Who matchbox shrine that she made for a swap. Very cool.
• These Easter eggs are mind-boggling: actual cross-stitching on eggs!
• I know there are some Hello Kitty fans out there… you’ll love this extravagant Hello Kitty-themed birthday party on the French and English blog, Prunille fait son show. And for slightly different tastes, check out this Beatles-themed party on Hostess with the Mostess and this Astronaut party on Life Frosting.
• Mini cupcake toppers for cupcakes?! Will this cause a rift in the space-time continuum?
• Learn how to print your own fabric on PoppyTalk.
• And, learn how to make a funky bead and wire necklace on lightbluegrey.
• With my renewed interest in quilting, I really want to attend Monday’s Mini Quilt Craft Night at Etsy. Will you be there?
• If you like online shopping, or just browsing pretty things, check out A Very Fine Thing. The site showcases a few lovely, hand-picked items each day.

Add more links in the comments! Your friends will appreciate it!

2 Comments » Categories: friday link love

Mar 23rd 2011 03:13:57 pm

It is grey and cloudy in my world today. (And sadly, there is no chance of meatballs for dinner. boo.) So, I thought I should just embrace it find some pretty, but rainy and cloudy Etsy picks, like the beautiful watercolor painting by lauraprill seen above.

What’s the weather like in your neighborhood today?

2 Comments » Categories: Handmade Marketplace

Mar 21st 2011 06:44:47 pm

This week’s featured swap is the Your Memoir in Six Words Postcard Swap hosted by AlyssD. I love the idea behind this swap: Write the story of your life in only six words.

For inspiration and examples, watch the short video above. It is the promo piece for the book, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, a collection of these short and poignant memoirs.

The postcard swap is international and open for sign up through March 30th. For the swap, you will write your memoir in only six words on the back of three postcards (of your choosing) and send one (naked, i.e. not in an envelope) to each of your three partners. Everyone, including new users is welcome in this swap.

Swap-bot’s Memoir: Sent item, got one back. Sweet.

No Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

Mar 20th 2011 03:42:14 pm

Thank you all for your amazing comments on the National Quilt Museum blog post. I loved hearing about all of your quilting adventures and memories.

I used Random.org to randomly select the lucky winner. And the winner is….. Glimmerllama!!

She will receive a mini quilt kit from the National Quilt Museum (which includes the pattern, fabric, backing, and binding needed to make a 16 x 16 inch quilt), a souvenir National Quilt Museum pin, plus some Swap-bot goodies. Congrats!

Watch for more giveaways soon!

No Comments » Categories: Giveaways

Mar 18th 2011 12:32:41 pm

The weather is beautiful in my neck of the woods today — spring is on its way and that puts everyone in a good mood! I found a bunch of fun links this week, but feel free to add more in the comments…

• Today, many people in the blogosphere are participating in For Japan With Love, a fundraiser for disaster relief in Japan. And, Craftzine.com has a bunch of craft-related Japan relief links, too.
• Spring craft: Turn pom poms, twigs and a few craft supplies into an adorable Pom Pom tree with this tutorial from Dollar Store Crafts.
• Another Spring Craft: no-sew fabric and wire flower tutorial from Between the Lines.
• For matchbox lovers, these Instant Comfort Pocket Boxes by Kim Welling will inspire you.
• Wow!! I love this Moroccan-style painted wallpaper tutorial on Jones Design Company. So classy!
• These printable paper cameras from the Mel Stringer Etsy shop are so aborable!
• Having a party anytime soon? These confetti popper invitations from Oh Happy Day would surely be a hit.
• This is actually from the holiday season, but I love these beautiful gift wrapping ideas from Grey likes Weddings. Sequins trim as ribbon – genius!
• Babble.com recently announced their picks for the Top 50 Mom Craft Blogs – Did your favorite make the list?

Have a great weekend!

2 Comments » Categories: friday link love

Mar 17th 2011 09:34:58 am

I have some GREEN Etsy picks for you today, because you know, it is St Patrick’s Day!! Isn’t that handspun yarn by MagnoliaHandspun seen above gorgeous?!

What other green things are you crushing on?

No Comments » Categories: Handmade Marketplace

Mar 15th 2011 01:24:27 pm

I love this swap idea!! I just joined the Instant Postcard Swap hosted by OverMoon. Instant postcards are a new concept for me, but basically they are Polaroids (or other instant film photographs) sent “naked” (without an envelope) as a postcard. You put the stamp directly on the photo and write your recipient’s address on the white potion of the photo. (The address info has been removed from the two instant postcards seen above.) Very cool! If you own an instant camera (and film), sign up for Instant Postcard Swap by March 21st. Then, simply take your photo and send it to your one international partner by March 25th.

For more instant postcard inspiration, check out the Polaroid Postcard Flickr Group.

1 Comment » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

Mar 14th 2011 08:15:11 am

A few small site changes were made over the weekend. Here are the details:

• We added a Type section to the Rating Overview on everyone’s profile page. You can now see the number of swaps each member has completed according to their swap Type.
  • Type 1: Electronic swaps – internet-based, email, messages, links, digital photography, etc
  • Type 2: Flat mail – postcards, letters, mail swaps that require one stamp (store-bought postcards would go in this type)
  • Type 3: Crafts & Packages – any time-intensive crafts, packages, most swaps will fall in this category

  Right now, these numbers do not have any functionality (i.e. you can’t click on them to see a list of the completed swaps), but we hope to keep working on this feature. We hope that seeing the number of completed swaps for each Type will help coordinators determine who to allow in their swaps. As for the uncategorized swaps, Types were introduced in May 2009 and any swaps completed before then were not “Typed.” However, swap coordinators can go back and “Type” their old swaps by going to the “Edit the swap” page.

• Based on user suggestions, we have now implemented a rating lock after six months. Each swap is “closed” six months after the send deadline. Previously, that just meant that everyone’s addresses were removed from view in that swap, but now it also means that it is no longer possible for any of the participants to leave a 1 or 3 rating for the swap. This change will prevent users from rating unfairly long after a swap has been completed. You will still be able to leave a 5 rating, or to choose the “I do not wish to rate at this time” option indefinitely. That means that users can still remove a low rating or change it to a 5 at any time. (It also means that potentially a 5 rating can be removed (by choosing the “I do not wish to rate” option), but I think that would be a very rare occurrence.) We still want to allow some flexibility in the rating system so that old swaps can be made up and mistakes can be changed. FYI: Users have noted that this changes makes it impossible to change a 1 rating to a 3 after six months (like, say, if a returning flaker has come back and is trying to make up swaps). I agree that this could be a problem. Join in the discussion about this new feature here in the forums. Together we can work toward the best solution.

  UPDATE 5/12/2011: We have removed the time limit on leaving low ratings. We have reverted the system back to its original functionality. You can now leave any of the three ratings at any time (except for the usual two week wait after the mail deadline for the 1 and 3).

  The six month limit on when you could leave low ratings was intended to prevent users from changing good ratings to low ratings. Unfortunately, it seems to have only caused problems with rating swappers who have returned after a long swap break and are trying to make up past unsent swaps.

  We would like to implement a way to “lock in” 5 ratings in the future, but we are still considering the best way to do it. For now, if you have problems with a user changing a previous 5 rating, contact me – rachel [at] swap-bot.com. It is a rare occurrence and I can lock ratings manually as needed.

• On group home pages we have now reduced the number of mini user avatars that appear in the bottom right column. The avatars took forever to load on groups with lots and lots of members, so now you will only see a maximum of 100 random members on the homepage. This is not a big change, but we don’t want you to worry that you suddenly lost a bunch of group members!

That is it for now. Let me know if you have any questions!

3 Comments » Categories: site updates

Mar 11th 2011 11:00:56 am

March has flown by way too quickly for my liking, but I am finally starting to catch up! I’ve got a great list of links for you that I collected over the last few weeks… there is always something new to see on the internet!

• The colorful photo seen above is an image of the house created by National Geographic that was inspired by the movie Up. The small house was suspended from 300 balloons and flew for over an hour! It will be featured on a new National Geographic television series in the fall.
• Letters From Lauren – Lauren is writing a letter a day in 2011. She might even send one to you!
• Crochet your own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!
• BookCrossing.com is kinda like Swap-bot, but it is all about sharing books. Some of the site’s members are organizing a convention in Washington DC on April 15-17th – Learn more here!
• I just discovered Print-A-Craft.com. It is a site wear you can buy and sell craft patterns and tutorials.
• Another new discovery: YourATCStore.com – an online store dedicated to selling ATC supplies.
• My love of S’mores strikes again: tiny s’more bites recipe and a fun “Scout” cookie idea from Cookie Crowd.
• Just for fun: Check out SisterDiane’s review of Kirby’s Epic Yarn. It is a video game with graphics created completely with craft supplies! Very cute!

A few links for St. Patrick’s Day, which is coming up on March 17th:

• Sheek Shindigs shows you how to set an adorable and inexpensive St. Patrick’s Day party table.
• Craftzine.com shares a tutorial for making cheery rainbow pudding cups that would actually be fun any time of year.
• I love this super-simple, pot of gold party favor idea from It Is What It Is that uses rainbow-colored licorice.
• For the adventurous, a Guinness Extra Stout chocolate pudding recipe on Sprinkle Bakes.
• Twig & Thistle has free, printable St. Patrick’s Day coaters that would help make your day festive.
• And, Penny Candy Studio has free, printable, shamrock cupcake wrappers available.

What links am I missing? Feel free to add more in the comments.

2 Comments » Categories: friday link love