This week’s featured swap is for those of you who consider writing an art form, a creative endeavor, a craft, or all three! The swap is Writing From Life hosted by Swap-bot user, junemoon. I really like how junemoon describes the swap, so I am going to quote from the swap’s description:

_“Artists draw live models and go outside to paint landscapes even if they are going to become abstract artists. Writers need to write from life no matter what kind of writing they hope to do. This is a life-writing exercise. Here’s what you do…</p>

Take a notebook and pen and go to a place where you will see people you don’t know. Spent at least 15 minutes, more if you like, writing about the people you see, describing them as well as you can in the time they are visible. Go home and think a bit about the people you’ve written about, maybe make more notes about them.

Write a short story about two of the people you described. The story will start this way: they are sitting side by side on a long plane ride. One says to the other, ‘May I tell you…’ What is the story or secret? How does the other react? Or, what if the second person says, ‘No’? Don’t quit writing if s/he does, tell us what goes through both people’s minds. Does the first tell the story anyway? Does the second get curious and ask to hear? Make our story at least two double spaced pages, longer if you want.”</i>

What a great writing prompt! It sounds like a fantastic way to get your creative juices flowing, even if you don’t consider yourself a writer!

The swap is open for sign up through July 10th, and then you have a month to complete your story and get in mailed out to your partner. The swap is international, but you must have a high rating with no flaking. Remember to read the full swap description before committing to the swap. Happy writing!

I am running behind schedule this week, so this is a rare Saturday Link Love edition. Enjoy!

• The image above is from a free tutorial offered by Heather Bailey for creating a Mini Notebook. The PDF tutorial is worth downloading for the beautiful photography alone!
• Omg! These Secret Invites seen on Twig & Thistle are brilliant!! I love the mini file folder!
• The Holocaust Museum in Houston is collecting 1.5 million paper butterflies to represent each of the children killed during the Holocaust. Anyone and everyone is welcome to send in a butterfly which will be included in the Spring 2012 exhibit. There are a few rules (like the butterflies must be 2D and not contain glitter) so make sure to read The Butterfly Project site before sending in your butterfly.

• Wanna see something cute and delicious? How about these cupcake kebobs!
• A free downloadable PDF project for the 4th of July from Elle’s Studio.The PDF provides instructions and printables to create a cute banner to carry in a parade or stick in a potted plant as a holiday decoration.
• I am pretty sure I am going to Monday’s Etsy Labs here in Brooklyn. Give me a shout out if you are planning on attending the open craft night too!

A little self-promotion this week… The featured swap is the Cute Dessert Matchbox Swap hosted by me (racheljohnson). I have been drawn to the cupcake-themed swaps I’ve seen around the ‘bot lately, but I always feel like I need just a tiny bit more wiggle room on the theme…. so…. I created this simple, fun, cute dessert matchbox swap. For the swap, you simply create or decorate one 32-count matchbox (2 x 1.5 x .5 inches) in any way that has to do with dessert, and fill it full of tiny dessert-themed items. You can include cute kawaii-style food goodies, but the swap is not limited to kawaii. Any dessert is fair game: cake, candy, ice cream, cupcakes, pie, fruit, mil

kshakes, cookies, popsicles… any dessert you can dream of! I know it can be hard to find enough items of a specific theme to completely fill a matchbox, so there can be some freedom on what you include inside the matchbox. If some things simply follow a candy-coated color theme, that is fine by me. Just think delicious and cute!

If you want to create your matchbox from scratch, I have two free downloadable PDF templates that you can use here and here. You can also view lots of examples of matchboxes on my Flickr Swap-bot set.

The Cute Dessert Matchbox Swap is international and all participants must have over a 4.8 rating with a strong swap record. Each swapper only has one partner and you must get signed up before July 4th. Come swap with me!!

Lot of fun finds this week – everything from Father’s Day to fun in the sun. Enjoy!

• Time is getting short, but here are the Round-Ups of Father’s Day projects from Craft: and Make: magazines.
• CraftyPod always has excellent crafty podcasts, but I especially like this week’s topic “Why Do You Make Things?” SIster Diane interviewed crafters at the Maker Faire and also reads some Twitter responses to the question. Twelve minutes of fun and inspiration!
• Check out CraftGossips’ picks for the Top Ten Craft Blogs on blogs.com. Do you agree with the picks? What are your picks for the top craft bogs?</li>

Two new crafty resources that I just discovered: The Craft & Hobby Association’s new website, craftplace.org and Craft Leftovers, a fun and helpful blog with a companion print zine.</li>

• Lastly, two fun in the sun summer projects: Floating Beverage Barge from Instructables and Summer Fruit Punch Bookmarks free download from Jinjerup.</ul>

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads!! xoxo

Check out this little cutie! It is a very small rock (less than an inch on its longest side) painted with Ernie the envie. It was sent to me by <a href=http://www.swap-bot.com/user:FOOF4E”>FOOF4E</a> as a little extra in a swap package and I absolutely love it! This photo is actually much larger than its real-life size. It is miniature!

Do you have any craft projects that are Swap-bot themed? We would love to publish a photo of your creation. Email rachel [at] swap-bot.com for more details.

Living and Loving the pretty and the good.

pretty good is a a beautiful and unique photography blog maintained by Mary Swenson. Mary takes wonderful photographs and adds words to them in creative ways using Photoshop. The blog is an inspirational and very quick daily read that I highly recommend.

Over two years ago I featured a Magic Yarn Ball swap here on the blog as the very first weekly swap, and now I am repeating history! This week’s featured swap is the magic yarn ball SUMMER swap

hosted by honeybknits .

What is a magic yarn ball? It is a skein of yarn wrapped into a ball around tiny treasures like candy, stitch markers, trinkets, etc. As your partner uses the yarn in their knitting or crochet project, the little presents will fall out for them to enjoy! The magic yarn ball SUMMER swap obviously has a summer theme. All of the trinkets and treasures contained in your yarn ball should have some connection to summer. The swap is international and you have until June 19th to sign up, but be sure to read the full swap description. There is a short list of questions on the swap page that each participant must answer in order to participate. Happy swapping!

</a>We randomly chose the winner of the Twitter Giveaway for the Brother P-Touch label-maker, and the winner is Deedrey! Congrats

She re-tweeted the giveaway announcement: New giveaway for a Brother P-touch label-maker. Tweet to win! Details on the Swap-bot blog: http://tinyurl.com/rd4blw.

Thanks, Deedry! Your label maker will be mailed out tomorrow! Thank you to everyone who entered this giveaway and tweeted about Swap-bot. Stay tuned for more giveaways!

I don’t have a large number of links for you today (trying to accomplish too many things at once only leads to nothing getting done!), but there are some good ones! Have fun!

• First: if you still need ideas, check out these handmade Father’s Day gifts and cards at MarthaStewart.com.
• Tips from Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching on how to run a crafty business on Craftzine.com.
• Lots of info on how to make soap at home on Whip Up .
• Do you have a Facebook account? Did you know that tonight (well, actually tomorrow morning) at 12:01 am you can choose your own facebook username/domain? Read more here .
• Don’t forget to enter the current Swap-bot giveaway for a Brother P-Touch label maker. Tweet to win!

I am currently in the Matchbox Backpack on a Dotee swap and decided I wanted to try something a little different for the matchbox – something that would work well as a tiny backpack. I referred back to a beautiful matchbox sent to me by ScullyB for the Punch It! matchbox swap back in 2007. The matchbox she sent had a seemingly intricate cover that worked something like an envelope for the little matchbox drawer inside. You can see photos of that matchbox in action above.

I decided to make something similar for my backpack matchbox and thought I would share a downloadable PDF template with you. (I don’t quite have my dotee and backpack complete, but I promise to post photos when I do!)

The inner drawer of this matchbox is exactly the same as my original Matchbox Template, but the outer wrap differs significantly. I constructed my outer envelope wrap a little differently than ScullyB, but it gives the same effect. The final matchbox constructed with this template will be about the same size as a standard store-bought 32-count matchbox – approximately 1.5 x 2 x .5 inches.

Download the Envelope-style Matchbox Template PDF here.

Here are the basic instructions that are printed on the template:

1. Print out template on cardstock at 100%. Do not “fit to paper size” or your matchbox will not be the correct size.
2. Cut along all black lines; score and fold along all grey lines.
3. Apply glue to the light grey areas of the inside drawer.
4. Fold the sides of the inside drawer in on themselves (they will be end up being double thick) while tucking the tabs into the folds of the shorter sides of the drawer.
5. Fold the outside wrap around the inside drawer while folding in its bottom and tucking in the tabs. (I suggest test folding the outer wrap around the inner drawer at first, then removing the inside drawer and doing the final fold with glue. This fold is a little tricky as you must tuck in the tabs and the final side.) Glue it in place.
6. The flap on the right side of the outside wrap template is the matchbox’s envelope closure. Fold it over the top of the box and secure it with a seal or ribbon.
7. Decorate your matchbox!

Writing the instructions is the most difficult part of making these templates. I know they are confusing, but try printing the template on regular paper and practicing a few times before tackling the real deal in card stock. Let me know if you have any questions.