Last weekend, a group of Swap-bot friends gathered in Ohio for a fun in-person meet-up. The occasion of the gathering was a visit from RyeRye, who lives in Florida and is the founder of the Crafting Queens group.

Swap-botters came from far and wide, including lepapillonvert who came down from Canada, dkay and pandessa who drove ten hours from New York state to get there, and MzPatti, izohgore, and Chavve from Ohio. The two-day event was hosted by lilspotteddog. (RyeRye and lilspotteddog are together in the photo above – love that hat!)

Here is the official fun times report from lilspotteddog:

_People came on Friday evening and we ate BBQ pulled pork sammies, nachos, cheesecake, artery-clogging brownies made by RyeRye and topped with everything but the kichen sink, then we trundled down to my basement craft area to share things we had made and to play a little before piling into the beds around 4:00 AM. We were back up around 9:00 AM to hit the road headed off near the Cleveland/Akron area to meet up with izohgore and Chavve. </p>

We had lunch at the Macaroni Grill where a most generous someone picked up the entire check (wasn’t me!) and then went on to Hollo’s to browse through that paper crafters’ dream. After asking random strangers to take our pics all day, we drove home with more shopping on the way.

Saturday evening we had a salad bar and more desserts and traded prezzies back and forth. Without knowing we were doing that, everyone had given each other goodies. RyeRye and I had done up a little bucket with an apron, ruler, chocolate, and some little drawstring bags she found. The New Yorkers brought gorgeous packs of nice bright cardstock for all. MzPatti spoiled us all with profile themed how to books and fabric charm packs. Cat gave everyone a piece of her gorgeous artwork, and lepapillonvert brought yummy glitter-sprinkled cupcakes topped with handmade picks commemorating RyeRye’s group, the Crafting Queens. Although we did not have time for the make and take activities we had planned, everyone managed to get a little creativity going on. Lepapillon made some ATCs, RyeRye made the items for two swaps she is in, and pandessa got the journal constructed for an altered journal swap she is in.

I am charged with taking the cupcake pics made by lepapillon and turning them into a commemorative medallion for the occasion and then sending them off.

We had a blast, but the best thing was meeting the person behind the name. It has added so much more dimension to our online interactions.

Thanks to SB and you Rachel, for the enrichment this site has given to my life.</i>

It sounds like almost too much fun was had! What a great meet-up! You can read more about the fun in this forum thread. Also, to all the attendees: please add more details in the comments! I’d love to put usernames with faces in the group photos above.

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Like always, I LOVE to hear about Swap-bot gatherings. Please let me know about any that are happening and take photos to share on the blog!