Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Swap?

I often come across "swaps" while I'm blog surfing on all of the fun craft blogs out there. I'm very interested in them, in participating and in doing one myself.

But.

There's one problem.

I don't know what they are. Lol. I've only gotten that people get or give away really fun stuff. Can someone tell me what a "swap" is? Here is an example. I would appreciate any info. :)

7 comments:

Sharyn said...

I did a lot of card swap when I was a Close to My Heart demonstrator, and I know my mom has done fat quarter swaps

for me..the cards were - I'd make the designated number of cards. Let's say 10. 10 of the same card, mail them to the hostess, and the other 9 participants were doing the same.

The hostess swaps them all out, then sends us 1 of each participants cards back so that we have 10 different cards.

Same with the fat quarters - my mom would send in the designated number, the hostess switches them all out, and sends them back.

The things you want to know before getting involved in a swap are

how many people are participating?
how much do you have to send for return postage?
is the hostess on the ball? If she does a lot of swaps, and people are still participating, then probably she is.
hmmm...i'm trying to remember what else I was always careful of...

they are fun if you're in a good group and getting things that you want.

When I did the card ones I would sometimes be disappointed because maybe someone didn't take time on their card and it was sloppy, or maybe someone didn't follow thru with their commitment so I got one of my own back...that type of thing.

But they can be a lot of fun.

Junkyard Jennifer said...

Thanks!! That definitely helps. If you think of anything else to be careful of, let me know...

Is it always home-made stuff or not? Because it seems like I've seen other things. And at the beginning of a swap, does that person typically put all of the info in one post?

And...um...what is/are "fat quarters"? :) I think I've heard those words before but I'm clueless. (lol! ...Once again). ;)

Sharyn said...

a fat quarter is a yard of fabric cut in square quarter yards rather than long skinny quarter yards

and swaps are definitely not always hand made stuff - they can be anything you think of, really

Junkyard Jennifer said...

Anything?

Really?

You mean like junk?

Ooooh! This could be fun! ;)

Sharyn said...

yep...you could totally swap junk.

you could say, host a swap where everyone has to send 10 pieces of junk they found for under a buck at a garage sale. lol

often tho, it works best if each person sends 10 (or whatever amount) of the same item. So it could be tricky to find 10 of the exact same piece of junk. ;)

Sharyn said...

but...then again, then there are the round robins

in the round robins, you would start it with a box of 10 assorted pieces of junk and send the box to the next person on the list. That person would take out their favorite piece of junk and replace it with another piece of junk and send it to the next person on the list. The list can be however long...but when it gets too lengthy its harder to track and it could be literally over a year before you see it again.

but when you do get it back, you'll have all new junk

imagine!

Junkyard Jennifer said...

Yeah. That sounds fun (round robin). Fun but time consuming. :) It's always something to think about though...

And with the junk, it wouldn't be as hard as one would think, keep in mind I'm a ;) professional here ;)... Lol!

You could swap linens. Vintage keys. Old bottles. Vintage ornaments. I have tons of many different things (found a dime-a-dozen at garage sales) and I know there are a lot of collectors out there who do too.

Thanks for all the info. It's definitely something I'll keep in mind! :)