The Purl Bee is the online journal of Purl, “a shop devoted to beautiful materials and tools for knitting, sewing, quilting, and other crafts.” Usually, blogs connected to online stores are not extremely exciting – just a scattering of sale announcements or new product descriptions – but The Purl Bee is much different! It is a beautiful little blog full of project ideas, tutorials, articles, and absolutely beautiful photography. From the site description, “The Purl Bee is a resource for technical help as well as inspiration: you can rely on our illustrated tutorials and glossaries to help you navigate new crafts. Ask Purl Bee offers an in-depth response to common questions about materials and techniques from our readers and customers.”

If you are a fairly serious quilter or knitter, you will love the large number of knitting and patchwork projects. Less avid crafters will also find projects of interest, like this recent Valentine Pin tutorial . The instructions are very clear and simple, with photos to help you out all along the way. So sweet. </em>

Just in time for the holiday, this week’s featured swap is the Valentine’s Day E-card swap hosted by marinda. This extremely simple swap will get you in the Valentine spirit! All you do is send a Valentine’s Day e-card to each of your eight partners. So quick, fun, and inexpensive (read: free), too!!

Here are some resources for free Valentine’s Day e-cards:

• 123 Greetings
• Care2 eCards
• BlueMountain Valentine Cards
• Jib Jab Love & Kisses eCards
• eGreetings

The sign up deadline for the Valentine’s Day E-card swap is February 10th, and you must send by Valentine’s Day (February 14th). Have fun! xoxo

Your friendly peeps at Swap-bot headquarters are working on something special — we are planning a member appreciation event in Eugene, Oregon, on Sunday, March 1st, 2009. We thought it would be fun to meet fellow swappers in person. Plus, we wanted to do a Pacific NW event before Swap-bot headquarters makes its move to New York City in March.

All Swap-bot members are invited, but we realize that it is probably only feasible for local NW swappers to attend. We are currently planning on a three-hour, meet-up event during the afternoon that will include ATC trades, craft demos and displays, door prizes, delicious snacks, and lots of time for chatting and hanging out. However, we need to get an idea of how many people might attend before we can finalize any of the plans. Please complete the poll below and let us know if you can attend:

Thank you!

This month’s giveaway is for a Doodlebug True Love Essentials Kit . Doodlebug is one of my favorite scrapbooking brands. Their stuff is always exceptionally cute! The kit includes one True Love Sugar Coated Cardstock Sticker Sheet, one Loopy Love accent satin ribbon, one package of Ladybug colored jewels, one package of Cupcake colored brads, one 12” x 12” sheet of Valentine Argyle accent paper, one 12” x 12” sheet of Heart Strings accent paper, one 12” x 12” sheet of Ladybug Picnic accent paper, one 12” x 12” sheet of Very Cherry accent paper, and six 12” x 12” sheets of assorted cardstock.

To enter the drawing for this giveaway simply comment on this blog post with your answer to the following question:

What is your favorite handmade valentine memory, given or received? </em> </em>

Each person can only enter this giveaway once. You must have a Swap-bot account in good standing (not suspended) with a valid mailing address to enter. You must include your Swap-bot username somewhere in your comment. You must comment on or before Friday, February 20th, to be entered in the drawing. The winner will be randomly drawn on Saturday, February 21st. Obviously, this lovey-dovey kit won’t arrive to the winner in time to make Valentine’s, but it would work great for scrapbooking the holiday or making love notes. If you have trouble commenting on the blog, you can send me an email at rachel [at] swap-bot.com. Good luck! </strong> </strong>

Hi, everyone! Can you believe that the first month of 2009 is just about done?! Time is accelerating!

Anyhoo… here are some fun links for your weekend enjoyment:

• Hello Craft reports that “DIY and the Rise of the Cottage Industry” is a major trend for 2009. Power to the crafters!!
• Have you tried Polyvore ? “Polyvore is a free, easy-to-use web-based application for mixing and matching images from anywhere on the web. It is also a vibrant community of creative and stylish people. Polyvore lets you create sets composed of individual images using an easy to use, drag and drop editor.” You can use the site to create cute collages of outfits, or room decor, or really anything that you want.
• Have I already posted this in the past? Martha Stewart’s personal craft room. Drool.
• These crocheted scissors are so cute!
• If you like tea, you need to check out the tea wallet tutorial from Christy’s Creations. Very handy & cute.

Air Force One download

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest full

Jennifer’s Body buy </em>

I just created an off-site Swap-bot wiki where Swap-bot users and I can work together to compile helpful info about Swap-bot. Right now the Swap-bot wiki is being hosted and run on PBwiki.com. We have plans to incorporate the wiki into the main Swap-bot site eventually, but I could not wait to get it started. I know that you all have so much helpful info to share!! I think many of you know more about Swap-bot than I do!

So, what is a wiki? A wiki is a page or collection of pages on the internet designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content. The Swap-bot wiki is a knowledge and info center which is intended to supplement the Frequently Asked Questions and About pages. It will be a place where new and old users alike can go for current site and crafty info. Right now the wiki contains the following info ares: Frequently Asked Questions, Rules and Policies, Craft and Swap Term Glossary, and Press Room. I have only added a very small amount of info so far and we may have to reorganize it as we go, but it is a start!

Do you want to get involved and add info to the Swap-bot wiki? Just comment here or send me an email at rachel [at] swap-bot.com and I will email you an invitation to become a writer on the Swap-bot wiki. Writers can edit and add content to the wiki, and/or you can get email updates when the wiki is updated by others. I will be checking in on the wiki as often as possible and editing content, so don’t worry about messing any thing up.

Ok, so let’s get started! Let me know if you want to become wiki writer!A Cinderella Story psp

Last Holiday

We are all starting to get an idea of how crummy the economy is lately. Finding extra cash for crafting and swapping is getting more and more difficult. Well, Heather Mann (of Croq Zine fame) has come to our rescue! She created Dollar Store Crafts last September to bring together simple, fun, inexpensive craft ideas and tutorials. All of the crafts use materials purchased at dollar stores, at dollar sections in stores, or at discount stores for $1 or less. The projects featured on the site range from silly and wacky to high-concept projects that are inspired by high-end designers like Prada. New project ideas and tutorials are posted to Dollar Store Crafts each day, and they are curated from across the internet and from the site’s readers. All of the craft projects are intended to cost ten dollars or much less, but they do assume that you have some supplies on hand, like scissors and glue.

If you are ready for recession-proof crafting help, Dollar Store Crafts is the place to go. You will be amazed with the kinds of things you can make with just a few dollars!

Despite the poor economic climate, swapping can still be affordable and lots of fun! This week’s featured swap is the No-Spending Swap III hosted by Banshee. For this swap, each participant sends their one partner items that they already have on hand. From the swap description:

“For swappers who are low on cash or have a growing stash of nice but unused/not-needed swap items. The objective of this swap is to not spend any money to buy items for the swap, but to send items you already have. What to send? You will send at least 3 items, worth about US$5, to your swap partner. Examples of swap items can be, but not limited to, embroidery floss, fat quarters, assorted teas, stationery, postcards, stickers, etc.”

The sign up deadline for this international swap is February 5th and new users are welcome to participate if they have a full profile. The send deadline for the No-Spending Swap III is February 14th. This swap is a great reminder that we still have valuable things to share even during a recession!

The (randomly chosen) winner for the January Crop-a-Dial Giveaway is ArtsyAthina! She will be receiving the new, pink Crop-a-Dial scrapbooking tool . Congrats, ArsyAthina!

Here is ArtsyAthina’s answer to the question, What is one way you preserve special memories? :

ArtsyAthina on 04 Jan 2009: “I too love to make shrines, and take tons of pictures!!!!!

I also like making mini scrapbooks, for small but significant events in my life.”

Thanks to everyone who entered the drawing. I loved reading all of the comments about how you preserve memories. I have ben inspired by many of the ideas! There will be another giveaway announced at the beginning of February, so check back.

xoxo

This is a really random group of crafty-ish links for you today, but enjoy!

• Craft: magazine is hosting a Valentine’s Day Project Contest. It is easy to enter (the deadline is February 9th) and the winners receive a free Craft: subscription!
• Need to laugh today? Well, the world of handmade is not always pretty and Craftastrophe “showcases those crafts that are funny, weird, strange and make us laugh.” (Catastrophe is also nominated for best art, craft, or design weblog in the 2009 Weblog Awards. Go vote!)

• Check out the Canon Creative Park Judgment Night on dvd <div style="display:none"> I Love You, Beth Cooper divx </div>

  for tons of great paper and photo craft project ideas. </li>

  • Speaking of paper crafts, Nanibird offer free downloadable paper birdie templates. Cute!
  • One more fun link for you: If you love Polaroid photographs, you must try Poladroid, “the easiest and funniest Polaroid image maker.” You download the free software and then you can make cool digital polaroids out of any image!</ul>