Embellishment Swap?

[ditzyscrap]

Col's post from the other day about how she's TRYING to use up her flowers but even then isn't able to...and the fact that we can ALL use a little bit of everything...I was wondering if anyone would be interested in an embellishment swap?

For those that have never participated in a swap before...what happens is you sign up to send in something (enough for all those participating), package it up, send it to the hostess (in this case, it would be me) with a few dollars to cover shipping back to you, by a certain date. Then the hostess "swaps" everything, so you'd get one of your item back plus one packet from each person participating.

LOL, if that's not making sense, the swap I'm suggesting is a color swap...so we'd have groups for each color group (blue, red, pink, etc). Inside each group there would be 5 slots, so it would be set up like this:

BLUE
large flowers (10)
small flowers (20)
ribbon (3 yds - 1 yard each of 3 kinds)
buttons (20 - assorted sizes)
surprise - BREE (hostess)

So then, if you wanted to be in the blue group, you'd say "I want to do ribbon for the blue group", and I'd drop your name in there. Then you'd be responsible for sending in 15 yards of ribbon to the swap hostess (me)...5 yards of 3 kinds of ribbon. Then when I send the swap back, you'll get back 10 large flowers, 20 small flowers, 3 yards of ribbon, 20 buttons and a surprise, all in the color blue.

Making sense? Anyone interested?

And, since I didn't OK this with Robin...I'm just looking for interest...this is in NO WAY endorsed by Robin, Sweet Shoppe Designs or any of it's staff (other than myself as a hostess). I will be doing it likely through a Yahoo group or similar. :)

[ColleenSwerb]

I was thinking of starting something like this too, lol. Since, you know, I'm a hoarder.

I think that doing it by separate color might be a bit much though. Why don't we just have slots for ribbons/flowers/buttons and everyone sends in an assortment? I mean, I have a lot of Primas, but they are all assorted colors. Same with ribbons. I def don't have 15 yards of just blue ribbon, you know?

So someone could say I want to send blue ribbon, and then sends 15 yards of it, and then no one else can send blue ribbon, they have to pick a different color. Or just do an assortment of colors.

I dunno. I hate organizing swaps, lol.

[ditzyscrap]

I've done them both ways, back when I was a swap whore...err...yeah. So I'm good with whatever everyone wants. Maybe we could do 3 colors/group...so like blue/green/red, brown/black/white, and pink/purple/yellow? What colors am I missing, lol...orange?

[ColleenSwerb]

yea, however ppl want to do it is fine with me. You can just stick me wherever you need ppl :p I'm easy like that :D

[Mandy]

The only thing I have a lot of is brads so I doubt I'm going to be able to play. LOL!

[ditzyscrap]

Well...I orginally had "fasteners" as a category, but didn't want them to be HUGE groups of like 10 or anything...I also had fabric. Back when I was a paper scrapper, this company came out with "frazzles" I think...they were strips of frayed fabric...you can make your own by just snipping the top and pulling really hard, lol...I was in a LOT of swaps for those.

What other sorts of categories would you like to see?

[stayawake]

you could do two colour categories - like neutrals/earthtones/heritage and brights... and I think adding fasteners is a great idea too! I don't think I'll be able to play, since I havn't 'hoarded' enough (never was a paper scrapper!!!) and all my embellies are salvaged from weird places (I've been known to cut off rhinestones off a gift card someone sent me with a craft knife, or dismantle artificial flowers used as gift embellishments for hybrid cards!) but I am about to buy a collossal bag of assorted craft buttons... hmmm...

[Amber1279]

I am SO on board for this!!

[Angie4b1g]

I can do ribbon in any color I think. LOL

[ditzyscrap]

LOL

I won't be having sign ups for a few days at least...but just wanted to put that idea out there to see if there was interest. If there's lots of interest, I have no problem opening up more than one group. :)

[kscwgirl]

I'm in. :)

[scrapmonkey]

I have tons of paper supplies, so count me in on any swaps - love the idea! Usually when I was in swaps, there would be a general theme. Maybe we can tie it in somehow to the monthly Hybrid workshop theme?

[ditzyscrap]

Leslie, I'd like to do it by color so that everyone gets to build up their stash a little bit...just opens up the options because we can use these supplies for whatever we'd like! :)

[FireWolf]

I'm in if you don't mind me being overseas.

[mrs_jb]

I wanna play! LOL! Count me in!

[ditzyscrap]

I'm in if you don't mind me being overseas.
Nope, don't mind at all. You may have to send in a bit more for shipping, but while I'm at the PO, I'll ship anywhere! :) I already will have to fill out customs forms for everything since I'm in Canada, so no biggie! LOL!

[kscwgirl]

Bree, since you are in canada, how expensive is the shipping going to be back and forth? Any idea?

[ditzyscrap]

The packages should be pretty small, so it won't be much, I don't think. Postage rates HAVE gone up since last time I swapped, but usually girls would include $5 in their envie and I'd give them change - most of the time that was for large envelopes, though, that were stuffed.

Before we start an official swap, I will take an envie stuff with random embellishments and have them weigh it and tell me how much it would cost to send it, both surface and airmail. Surface is usually cheaper, but sometimes not by much, lol.

I send books all the time and it's usually a bit less than $10...but again, it's a larger envelope and they weigh more than a few embellishments would.

[stayawake]

so we would pay different shipping based on where we were, though, right? I'm in Canada too... so you shipping to me wouldn't be nearly as much as shipping to the US. Are you thinking of sticking with the one-colour theme or colour categories?

[ditzyscrap]

Yeah, I would only charge you what Canada Post charged me. :) You'd send me whatever amount of dollars and I'd probably just paypal the change because they frown on you sticking the change in the envelopes after they've weighed them, lol.

And we'll probably do categories, though I haven't fully decided yet. :) Like I said, this is just putting feelers out there...I'll get an official swap going soon. :)

[wildblueeyez]

I seem to get ignored over here quite a bit :D LOL but I posted this week or so ago:

Once we all get a huge stash built up, we need to do a traveling box of goodies. We all sign up and someone volunteers to fill a box with their excess stuff/left over project stuff and the list of participants. They mail it to the next person on the list who takes out what they want but they also then put in their excess stuff/left over project stuff and mail it out. It's a great way to get some new and unique stuff while getting rid of the stuff you've used before that you don't want to use again.

I've done this twice before and got some really cool things! We just listed what we took out of the box by our name on the list in the box and then listed what we put in (I think we did that to keep it honest)

We could call it the SSD traveling box of candy! LOL....

[wildblueeyez]

Oh, and we always posted in a thread that we received the box and when it went out to the next person so everyone waited in anticipation!

[ditzyscrap]

Ahh...we're not ignoring you! LOL! I didn't see that post at all, I'm sorry!

I've done those before and they're a lot of fun! :)

I've also played a game called "Fast Friday" where everyone shows up on a forum at a certain time on Friday, lists what they have to trade, and then start asking for stuff from other people. But it's not called "FAST Friday" for nothing...it's SO much fun, lol! :)

[wildblueeyez]

Ahh...we're not ignoring you! LOL! I didn't see that post at all, I'm sorry!


It's all good! I've got strong shoulders LOL.... it actually got buried in another post hehehe.....

Fast friday sounds FRIGHTENING! LOL....

[mrs_jb]

Both ideas sound really neat! I'm not a paper scrapper, so I've never done anything like either of them! Count me in for whatever we decide to do!