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still with the wannabe craftyblog

Scrapbook swaps. I just discovered them in November. What are they? Somebody hosts one, decides on a theme, a deadline, and what it will be -- a border, a page kit, a border plus a title, etc. People sign up (I so far have done all mine through a couple of yahoo groups), and you make one for yourself and each other person in the group (so if five people sign up, including you, then you make five), and you send them in with an SASE. The hostess gets them all, mixes them up, giving every one one of each item, and sends them back out. Simple no? The theory is that it is easier to make a five or ten of one item than to make five or ten completely different ones just for yourself. Plus you get different styles, to see other people's work and so forth.

I did a couple of relatively simple ones (with strictly CM paper, the rules of the one group) that were just borders, then I joined another list and decided to take the plunge, and so signed up for a page kit swap. For TWO GROUPS of the same page kit swap, seasonally themed. Because I'm a little extreme. Though in my defense, I didn't really understand the extent of the involvement. Each page kit consisted of a title, a journaling block, and two other elements (borders, or whatever). But the group was ten people in the first, and eight in the second. Which is a heck of a lot of kits to make for someone who had only done five of a simple border in a group before. But hey, I'll be getting a bunch of rocking stuff back.

And now here, courtesy of the lovely lady who hosted the swap and took pictures of them all, because otherwise I fear I would be way too lazy, is my work:



This is the first group, with (obviously) a summertime theme. Like how my journaling "block" is actually a set of circles, meant to be a hidden journaling thingie? I am such a rebel. (It also fits in the middle of the circle title. Ha!) I used this border in mini calendars that I made for the grandparents, and I loved it SO MUCH that I had to make it, large version, for this. (The stripy paper goes on the bottom.) The rectangle is a photo mat.

Then there is:



The hostess said really lovely things about both of my kits, very reassuring for my first "real" swap, but this one she said, "It's a good thing it was bagged in plastic, or my husband would've drooled all over it. He loves the fall colors." Very amusing.

The quote/title says: "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf's a flower. -Albert Camus"

tags: scrappy