Sunday 24 October 2010

The Homemade Christmas Card Swap sign-up post!

ETA, Sign ups now closed! Thanks to everyone for taking part x.

OK, people. Let’s do it. Let’s have a Homemade Christmas/ Yule Card Swap.
People send me cards. I squirrel away the shiny ones
 (This isn’t only to encourage me to get off my behind and make my own cards this year, I promise, but, you know, that will be a happy side-effect. We can encourage each other! I can post links/ ideas that don’t involve buying something very peculiar I saw late the other night on QVC which melts powder to emboss cards, and which burnt the woman who was demonstrating it quite seriously!).

You’ll be sending one homemade card out to one other person, and receiving a card from someone else. (ETA, I meant a card with a greeting in it, not a blank one for someone to reuse). My definition of homemade is quite loose: whatever floats your boat, from a hand-embroidered Yule-themed art postcard to a bit of glitter stuck on a card from Primark. Basically if you’ve had a hand in making/ altering it and you like it, then we’d love to have it in the swap. (It strikes me that we all celebrate different things these holidays – Christmas, Yule etc – I think rather than tailoring cards so that they cover everything let’s just send a December Greeting in the way we would normally do it, and take the ones we receive as a greeting as they were intended, i.e. I’ll happily receive Winterval, Yule, Kwanzaa cards or whatever anyone wants to send me. But let me know if you feel strongly another way).

Anyway, here’s the serious bit. These are the Roolz:

  • To sign up, leave me a comment below, saying that you’re in. Then email me your postal address (to uselessbeautydesigns [at] gmail.com), and also tell me your commenting name (so I can cross-reference), where you’re willing to send a card to (because it’s just a card, it should be cheap to send it anywhere in the world, but if for some reason you’re restricted by location, no problem, just let me know, and I’ll match you up accordingly).
  • I’ll leave this post up until 5th November to try and guilt as many people as possible into signing up so people have enough chance to see it (no pressure ;-) ). Then I’ll email everyone who’s taking part over the weekend following, and let you know who to send your card to (who you send to will be different to who sends to you – that way it will be a surprise!).
  • Send your card out by 10th December (that gives us 5 weeks to get something together), and let me know when you’ve sent it by dropping me an email so I can keep tabs on where we are.
  • If anyone doesn’t receive a card due to their sender forgetting, having a personal crisis possibly involving the installation of a new bathroom, or the postal service exploding, I will send you a card to replace it. So it’s a risk-free swap!
  • It would be lovely if you would blog about what you receive (or send me a pic and tell me to blog about it), because I’d love to see what people get! I’ll link to all posts.
And, as a special bonus, because I have been frantically making lavender bags this weekend for my craft fair, using a sack of lavender I got from Long Barn (highly recommended – it smells amazing):
Lavender! In a sack! Smelling delicious!
I’ll draw a winner (using the random number generator) from one of the comments on this post after I close comments next Friday, and I’ll send them a couple of the lavender bags as a bonus prize. These aren’t wimpy little lavender bags that hardly smell of lavender, I want you to know:
Obviously I will trim the threads before I send them to you. Obviously
They are hardcore. The entire house is lavender-scented. They are knocking me sideways. You will like them, I promise.

OK, I think that’s everything. I hope it makes sense – if not let me know and I’ll make something up clarify ;-). Happy swapping, people. (Excited. Hope someone signs up. Eeek!).

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok, so we only have to make one card, for one other person, right? I'm totally IN then. How easy can that be?!

Kath said...

I am in! *dances*

Anonymous said...

Oooh I so wanna be in :)
I love getting cards!!! And would love to make one too. Shall email you my address in a mo

Kath said...

I think in my excitement to join up I forgot to say in my email who I was from Blogger - so yeah, the sorcerersapprentice email is me!
*grins sheepishly*

gradschoolknitter said...

I want to, but i'm not that crafty. I mean, I am. but I'm not. I knit, but really suck at all the other stuff.

Oh, fine. I'll do it!

Marushka C. said...

Count me in too. It may be the only card I make all season, but I will definitely get it done!

Mrs Bent said...

I'm in, I really need to get myself into gear so this perfect

kibbygirl said...

Count me in to! I love crafting so this will be fun, and one card is not too much. I also love lavander... :)

resa said...

Yay! swap. I'm totally in for this.

Amy said...

I would love to swap a card and chance to win a lavendar bag.

Julie said...

You bet I am in! And I LOVE lavender ;-)
Julie
www.theletterwritingrevolution.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Ooo me too, I am in!

Alittlebitsheepish said...

I am in. And the lavender bags are so very pretty!

ina said...

I like to join this swap.

Anonymous said...

I love making cards, and getting them so count me in please. Best wishes, Eileen.

Oh Miss West said...

I'm in- squeaking in just under the wire!

Anonymous said...

I want to take part, too please =) hope it's not too late

Mumma Troll said...

I'll take part too, it's a great idea. xxx