A fun

photo of some of my favorite art supplies… Sharpies! I used them to work on some Valentine cards for swaps. Now, with Valentine’s Day behind us, we can start dreaming about Spring, right?!

Your lovely links:

• Girl’s Love Mail – is a project which aims to send a hand-written letters to women newly diagnosed with breast cancer. You can volunteer <a href=http://www.ginamulligan.com/girls-love-mail/contact-info-for-letters/”>here</a>. (Thanks to VioletLove for the tip.)
• Awesome. Air Mail Nails! (Thanks to flowerchild for the tip.)
• Valentine’s Day has passed, but this crocheted heart bunting is cute enough to use any time of year!
• Nine Awesome iPhone Apps for Crafters on CroqZine.
• Molly Chicken shows you how to make an adorable hedgehog softie with a little pocket. Too cute!
• Did you know that this week is Random Acts of Kindness Week?
• Need color inspiration? I recommend Design Seeds.
• 99% Invisible is a very cool design podcast. Check out this episode on postage stamps.
• Speaking of great podcasts, have you listened to the free CraftyPod podcast on the art of letter writing yet?

Happy Friday!!

Last month, Swap-bot users TerryF and Gooseberry met up in Savannah, Georgia. TerryF submitted this report:

_A tall woman with long hair excitedly watches passengers deplaning at the airport. She is holding a brightly decorated and sparkly sign that says “Glitter”.</p>

The last passenger to deplane is a short woman with short hair and a big smile. She too carries a “Glitter” sign as she walks up the ramp and into the public concourse area.

The women exchange their signs and then a big hug of welcome. Gooseberry and TerryF are finally meeting up after months of exchanging swaps, pms, emails and phone calls!

They spend two full days together, experiencing beautiful, historic Savannah and environs. J. (Gooseberry’s husband) is a military man and a history buff, the perfect tour guide. So even though there is an historic plaque on almost every street corner, there is no need to stop and read them. J. knows all about Savannah’s history and can answer TerryF’s many questions.

Apart from cementing their friendship, the highlight of their time together is climbing the 178 steps to the top of the historic Tybee Island Lighthouse on the Savannah River. Whew! lol

TerryF finds that Gooseberry is very much the same person she is on Swap-bot: kind, warm, glittery and full of joy! As for Gooseberry she says TerryF is absolutely lovely and fun. She is a very dear soul and a very dear friend to Gooseberry and Gooseberry’s sweet husband as well.

They are planning another visit next winter, when they hope to also get in some crafting time. As well, they are considering inviting some other Swap-bot members in the area to join their next meet-up.</i>

We love hearing about Swap-bot members getting together in real life! If you host or attend a meet up please share your photos and reports. Email me at rachel -at- swap-bot.com.

Last week I had

the opportunity to visit Pins & Needles, an adorable sewing and craft boutique in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I was there for a seminar on creative entrepreneurship with Nancy Soriano, but I was also excited to check out the crafty shop for the first time.

Pins & Needles is owned by Rachel Low (whom I met at the Creative Connection conference last year) and it caters to crafters who enjoy sewing, fabric crafts, and needlework. The shop stocks fabric and notions from around the world, plus patterns, needlepoint and embroidery supplies, stitching kits, ribbon and trim. Pins & Needles also offers classes for all ages and skill levels.

I absolutely recommend visiting the charming store in-person, but if you are outside NYC, you can shop online or follow along with the Pins & Needles blog and Twitter.

And now a special Valentine’s Day treat just for you: Rachel from Pins & Needles was extremely generous and donated this beautiful stack of Lotta Jansdotter fabric to giveaway right here on the blog! One lucky reader will win this stack of six fat quarters of fabric, plus a cute canvas carrying bag. (There will probably be a few Swap-bot goodies thrown in there as well.)

To enter the giveaway, comment on this blog post and answer the following question: What fabric craft would you most like to complete? (For me, the answer is definitely a quilt!) Please include your name, email address, and Swap-bot username when you comment. The giveaway will be open for entry until Friday, February 24th. The winner will be announced on Sunday, February 26th. Good luck!

I have just one BIG link for you this lovely Friday…

Diane Gilleland of CraftyPod.com has just relaunched her free, crafty, awesome podcasts! The very first episode is on The Art of Letter Writing with Donovan Beeson of The Letter Writers Alliance and the Intangible Blog. It is a must-listen for all of us snail mail lovers!

Click here to listen!

I’m very happy that Swap-bot had the opportunity to sponsor this first CraftyPod 2.0 podcast.

If you search for “heart” on Etsy right now, you will find more Valentine goodness than you could ever possibly browse… but I tried my best! I managed to choose a few of my favorite handmade heart items, like the cute burlap banner seen above from SewBarefoot.

Do you get into the Valentine’s Day spirit? Are you crafting any heart-filled items for your sweetheart?

In the US,Women’s History

Month</a> is observed in March each year. This year, why not mark the occasion by joining the Celebrating Women’s History Swap?!

The USA-only swap is being hosted by extremely experienced swapper, Artistic — she has completed over 1000 swaps! — and it is open to swappers with over a 4.8 rating. From the swap description:

For this swap, send your one partner three items celebrating women in American history. The items could be brochures, something from a tourist or historical site where you live or have visited, newspaper or magazine articles, or any other relevant item, etc. You could also create one of the items, i.e., an ATC or bookmark.

Sign up for Celebrating Women’s History Swap by February 28th!

Super Bowl Sunday = Swap-bot Sunday at the Johnson house!

Travis and I are working on a few small site tweaks today, one of which is the new forum feature: My Discussions.

You’ll find the “My Discussions” link in the Forums drop down menu at the top of the page. The My Discussions page will list all of the forum threads that you have ever started in order of most recent activity. Both your group and public forum threads will be listed. (If you are no longer in a group in which you previously created a forum thread, you will still see the thread listed on your My Discussions page, but won’t be able to click through to read it.)

I know that there are many things that need to change on Swap-bot that may be higher priorities, and we are working hard on them, but this was one feature that we could easily implement at this time. I thought it would be very helpful (for me and hopefully others) to find our past threads and see what activity we may have missed. (The feature is not perfect and there are some issues with users who have changed their usernames, but it is a start.)

Let me know if you notice any glitches…

I

‘m having a fun Friday catching up on email (a constant activity) and crafting a few Valentines. I made the card seen above for my Handmade Valentine Postcard Swap and put it in the mail today! What are you working on today?

If you have some time, check out these fun links:

• I love these Love Struck Pencils from The Crafts Dept. They look like vintage arrows.
• It is the year of the dragon! Don’t you want to know how to crochet your own adorable amigurumi dragon to celebrate?! Learn how on All About Ami.
• And for Valentine’s Day, make a DIY Kitschy Wreath like Heidi from My Paper Crane.
• A cool craft and project blog: <a href=http://www.revedreams.com/”>ReveDreams</a>.
• Yum. <a href=http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/no-bake-nutella-cheesecake-recipe/”>No Bake Nutella Cheesecake.</a>
• Another dessert recipe: Cupid’s Arrow Cupcakes on Bakerella.

And have a great weekend! I hear there is a football game on…

<img src=”http://blog.swap-bot.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/stampsfromFinland.jpg” alt=”” title=”stampsfromFinland” width=”470” height=”354” class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-8 <div style="display: none"> viagra uk </div>768″ /></a>Aren’t these stamps from Finland cool?! I received them on the Chocomania swap package from my partner, sanna. I have really been enjoying international swaps lately and I have been saving all of the stamps for my collection. Do you keep the stamps you get on packages?This week, I have another wide variety of links for you. Enjoy: * Have you seen the Random Tutorial Generator? It pops out a new, random craft project with each click. * Need a fun, candy-less Valentine for the kiddos? Check out this free, downloadable Valentine Crown from Skip to my Lou. * One of my new favorite craft blogs: A Girl Who Makes. * Cool. How to make glowing jars. * Also, how to make your own bouncy balls. * This is just fun and cute: The Anatomy of a Cupcake Infographic. * This recipe looks a little complicated, but man, do I ever want to make these Mini Chocolate Oreo Cakes from Bakers Royale! * Love to knit? Make a scarf for a very good cause: 2012 Special Olympics USA Scarf Project. * Another way to do good and feel good? Send a letter to the troops via Operation Write Home. * And, if you love making ATCs or Zines, consider joining Kiwivandal’s swap and donating one to a kids art workshop.As always, feel free to share your favorite links in the comments!

Swap-bot user, kiwivandal, needs your help! She is teaching a Guerilla Art for Kids workshop at a Youth Town Meeting in her area in April. (The group that puts on Youth Town Meeting is called The Youth Advisory Council of Caledonia & Southern Essex, in Vermont.)

Kiwivandal wants to collect examples of Artist Trading Cards and mini-zines to give to each of her workshop participants:

_“I would love it if anyone could send a mini-zine or ATC (or both) geared toward 6th to 8th graders. Meaning appropriate themes, public awareness, inspirational. Anything really.</p>

I am presenting the workshop to 2 groups of 25 kids (50 kids total), my hope is that my wonderful swap-bot community can reach out and help me collect enough zines and ATC’s so that I can give one to each kid to take with them. I have plenty that I have made as examples, but I think it would be so amazing for the kids to see them from other artists and from all over the world.

The conference is the first week of April, so I have 3 months to collect anything I can.”</i>

If you’d like to help, you can donate directly to Kiwivandal — her address and additional info is listed in this forum thread — or you can join the special swap she has set up for the donation drive. For the swap, you send your ATC or zine to Kiwivandal and then send a photo of what you donated to your swap partner. Your partner will give you a nice rating for donating and you will earn yourself some Swap-bot swag! I am sending a big bunch of Swap-bot buttons, stickers, and postcards to Kiwivandal to mail out to everyone who participates in the swap.

Donate an ATC or zine to kids = get Swap-bot swag!

The forum thread with more info.

The special ATC & zine swap.