Anatomy of a swap & Give-aways!

I've had the pleasure to be involved in two swaps this week. I made 24 of these cute little gift bags (see below - they measure just 4" x 8") in the past few days.

1. I wanted to share with you what exactly a swap is.

2. I wanted to give away a "Christmas is Love" gift bag filled with papercrafting goodies to one lucky reader. (and there just might be some of Steve's famous fudge in it!) Just leave a comment!

3. I want to give EVERYBODY this "Christmas is love" digital image FREE! I designed this for WCMD (World Card Making Day) last year. Just email me and I'll send it to you.

Besides my treasured card group I've been participating in for over 10 years (love ya gals!), I also host PC Pro swaps for Papercrafts Magazine on their website every few months.

This month I hosted a Christmas packaging swap and finally got around (my aching tooth) to swap it all out. Here are a few pictures of how I do this.

First, I patiently wait for all the packages to arrive. 12 participants (I'm one of them). Once they all in-house, I start by making piles of each package; the BEST part is getting to see what everyone made! I Check for return labels, ziplock bags (for protection), extra postage and the little goodies I often get as a hostess (cute little tea bag gift, gum, chocolate and other little scrapbooking gifts...yes, I really SCORED this time).



Carefully, counting more than once, I make sure each person gets one of each, re-package everything, weigh and make sure there is enough postage. Sound easy? Yup, it really is! Would love to have you join any of our many, many swaps we post at the Papercrafts website. A big THANK YOU to everyone who participated...you should be getting your packages by the end of the week.

So, this was my choice for both of my swaps. The challenge with swapping is finding a cute idea without being bogged down with too many steps or time consuming techniques. Digital images are perfect for swaps...let the printer do the work! Add simple embellishments (jingle bells) or texture (Pop pieces up & glitter and Glossy accents to the heart).

What is it about making many of something that makes me smile. I feel SO productive!

I looking forward to the 'productivity' ending though and the 'relaxing' to begin...yeah, like Dec. 25th after dinner, as usual!

New on-line swap at PaperCraftsmag.com

Everyone few months I post an on-line swap at PaperCraftsmag.com.

I just finished posting my next swap and I'm pretty darn excited about it. It's a bit of a stretch if you're used to doing card swaps, but this was created out of NEED. Two of my greatest PaperCrafting needs as Christmas approaches is Tags (for all those gifts) and Packages.

You know, for all those little gifts you want to give during the holiday season. For teachers, neighbors, friends, the postman, hostesses etc... It's great to have fun & festive packages to fill with your latest culinary treats (in our house is Steve's fudge...recipe to come soon, if he allows me, lol) or other little trinkets.

Of course, some of the limits of these packages is they need to lay flat for shipping. This mini gable box (Nov/Dec issue) is a great example, as it can fold flat easily.

Another easier example is this little pocket I created for last year's Holiday Cards & More issue. Perfect for some peppermint chocolate bark, candy canes, or a set of tags, which was what it was originally designed for.

Can't wait to see what everyone creates and I'll be sure to share it with you here on my blog.

If you'd like to participate (only 12 spots!) please visit my group page and sign up! Deadline is Friday, Dec. 5th. Plenty of time to get your packages back with 2 weeks before Christmas to spare.

Recent Studio 5 segments

I was just sharing this link with someone who was asking about card swaps and thought you might be interested as well.

I've been doing monthly segments promoting PaperCrafts Magazine for a local Salt Lake City TV morning program called Studio 5 for 1 1/2 years now. I've had so much fun doing this program and continue to learn so much from it. Besides sharing my passion for papercrafting, I've been able to do several cooking segments (my favorite was a trio of brie appetizers...will have to share those with you soon) and also having my daughter, Savannah on air with me...although I will have to say, this was just 2 days after we got home from our 3 week trip to Europe and I think you can see how jet-lagged we seem.

So, now that Studio 5 is posting their segments on the internet, I can share my 'tv' experiences with friends and family. This first one is my most recent and is all about on-line swapping. Unfortunately, the timing was a little off, as we're in the middle of changing to a new website and it's all a bit confusing. Once things are settled and I know what I'm talking about, I will let you know how to swap on our new website. This was a different kind of segment for me as I didn't create a thing! We taped part of the segment in advance at the office (yes, I got to pretend that was my office...it is NOT!) and I got to sit on a stool! I know that's silly, but I was pretty excited about mixing it up a bit. Now, I just have to get on the couch!! LOL

This was my June segment with Savannah. It was to promote our Papercrafting with Kids special issue (which is just awesome by the way). Both Savannah and I were kind of out of it, but we managed to get through it. Unfortunately, it only shows half of the segment and not the cooking segment we did.

Here's a picture I remembered to take at the very last minute to take for Savannah's scrapbook.