[ONGOING ATC SWAP--FEBRUARY 2013]

Welcome February swappers!  We are going to have a cat-tastic month!  Check out these wonderful cat themed ATCs from our last round.  From left to right we have ATCs by Mountains and Clouds, blupaisan, pilarfarmer, jillybeans, and La Chapa.  Yay kitties!


ONGOING ATC SWAP--FEBRUARY 2013
An uber-addicting swap that runs all month long!

Welcome fellow Craftsterers!

Up and running again, here is the amazingly addicting, completely irresistible Ongoing ATC Swap! YAY YAY!  (You know you want to join!)

So, come one, come all!  You, too, can have "envelopes o' fun" in your mailbox!  (giggle)

This is a simple and easy swap, with your level of participation determined entirely by you.  People of all levels of ATC-making are welcome.


Discussion Thread -Questions and discussion can be posted here.
 
Swap FAQs -Everything you need to know about swapping.

ATC FAQs -Everything you need to know about ATCs.

-Please post pictures of your cards here.


Very basic swap info:
Swap name: Ongoing ATC Swap - February 2013
Craftster member who is organizing this swap: jillybeans
Sign-up date range: Today until February 28th, 2013
Date to send item by: 2 weeks after you claim (look at the date on the calendar, it is the date that is directly 2 rows down)
Limited to a certain number of people? (optional): NO
Additional Age requirement? NO
*International shipping is required*
*DC #s are not required, but you will have to resend if the ATC is not received*

Swap Organizer himself/herself meets these conditions:
- Has fully read the Swap Info Guide: YES
- Has successfully completed two swaps as a participant: YES
- Is not organizing more than three swaps right now: YES
- Will recruit a co-organizer or give all details to a Swap Moderator if this swap has more than 25 participants: YES (gozer)
- Is at least 16 years old: YES

Swap Organizer will check each participant to make sure they meet these conditions:
- Has been a member for at least one month: YES
- Has posted at least 15 times: YES
- Has completed one swap successfully before signing up for multiple swaps at a time: YES
- Is not currently signed up for more than five swaps: YES
- Does not have any negative feedback: YES
- Participant has agreed that he/she is at least 18 years old: YES



QUESTIONNAIRE TO ANSWER Please send to jillybeans, and include the words "February ATC Swap--Request to Join" in the email title.

*Name of swap:  Ongoing ATC Swap - February 2013
*Craftster username:
*Email address:
*Your real name:
*Mailing address including the country (written as it would appear on the envelope):
*Would you be willing to ship to an address outside your own country?:
*Confirm that are at least 16 years old or, if not, that you have moderator approval(YES/NO):
*Are you a Friend of Craftster?:
*What is the exact size of an ATC?:
*Do you have access to a camera or scanner so you can post pictures here of what you receive? (if not, you need to tell anyone who claims you, so that they are able to take pictures before sending):
*Are you aware that if an ATC is lost in the mail, you are required to resend?:
*Have you read the entire swap information for this swap?:
*When sending send/receive notifications to the swap organizer, there are four juicy pieces of information that must be included about each ATC.  What are they?  (Scroll down in the swap info under this questionnaire to the area "Once you have sent or received a card"; the answer is in red.):


*Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join this swap!  Sign-ups are open all month--YAY!  PM me the above questionnaire to get started, and please wait to be accepted into the swap before making any claims. **Please make sure you are not late or flakey in any of your other swaps, and that you have good communication.** This is a super-uber-amazingly-stupendous swap, So Have Fun!  



HOW THIS SWAP WORKS:

Claims are made throughout the month.  You have two weeks from the time you make a claim to send that claim.

You can make as many (or as few, as little as 1) claims as you want throughout the month as long as you never go over your allowed amount of outstanding claims. (An outstanding claim is a card that has not been received; when that card is received your number of outstanding claims goes down leaving you open to bring it back up to 7 or 10.)

Posting pictures of received ATCs is required for this swap.

CLAIMING

1. Claims are made using the following procedure:

Person A (the swap organizer) will begin the swap by posting a list of themes in this swap thread.
Person B will choose a theme from one of A's themes and make a claim by posting his/her own list (see below for formatting of post).
Person C will make a claim on one of B's themes and post his/her own list.
Person D will make a claim on one of C's themes and post his/her own list etc...
This continues through the end of the month, when the swap organizer makes the final claim and closes out the claiming part of the swap.

2. How many claims can be made by each individual:

The number of claims each person is allowed depends on the following criteria:
*Friends of Craftster: 10 claims
*Those who aren't Friends of Craftster: 7 claims
*First time swappers (whether Friends of Craftster or not): 1 claim.  Once the initial claim has been sent, and its new owner has reported it received, the first time swapper is free to make more claims, either 7 or 10 dependent on being an FOC or not.

3. How to make a claim:

A claim post should include the following information:
1. The theme you are choosing and who you’re sending it to.
2. Statistical info about your current swap claims status:
Claims = Claims currently outstanding (ie., how many not yet received by their new owners.) (This number goes down each time a claim is received, and up each time you make a claim.)
Sent = anything currently in the mail.
Received = the cards received by the people you've sent them to.
3. Your location.
4. Your personal preferences.
5. Your list of themes


SAMPLE CLAIMS POST:

I claim GenericFabulosaSwap per for heffalumps/weasels ATC.  

3 claims, 2 sent, 1 received

I live in Massachusetts, USA.  I would prefer not to receive anything violent, political, or religious.  

My themes are:
1)   Balls of Yarn
2)   Curious Kitties
3)   Mice in Disguise
4)   Cats Doing Un-Cat Like Things
5)   In a Cat's Dream

ONCE YOU HAVE MADE A CLAIM:

1. Send a personal message to the person you have claimed and request their address
2. You have 2 weeks to complete each card, and have it in the mail to its new owner.  

ONCE YOU HAVE SENT OR RECEIVED A CARD
1. Please PM the organizer when you send or receive a card.  (It's also good to notify the person you received from or are sending to.)  Feburary ATC Swap--Sent[/i] or February ATC Swap--Received (Be sure to include the month, since I generally run multiple months at a time)
3.  Be sure and include (1) the "send by" date, as well as (2) the theme and (3)who sent it to (4)whom, in each message to the ATC swap organizer, when you're referring to sent or received ATCs.  (That's four juicy pieces of important information that make my life as a swap organizer OH so easy!) Easy as pie!

For example, you could use this format:

I sent some ATCs today!  

DUE DEC 16:
MeCraftsterMemberBl oop --> YowzaSwapper (fantasmic theme)

DUE DEC 17:
MeCraftsterMemberBl oop --> WowwieSwapper (stupendous theme)
MeCraftsterMemberBl oop -->WooHooYeeHawSwapper 07 (yet another fascinating theme)

PLEASE REMEMBER TO INCLUDE THIS IN EVERY PM!!!

This lets the organizer easily access the swap info, so it can be updated.  

POSTING PIX OF ATCs RECEIVED
It is OH so important to post pictures of the amazing cards you receive!  This is the best way in the world to let it be known how special it is that you've received a wonderful treasure of someone else's creativity!  

Please post pictures/scans of your received cards in the gallery (or make arrangements with your partner to do so).

FEEDBACK
Positive feedback will be given when all of the cards you sent have been received.   Good communication is always cool!  And be sure and post those pictures in the gallery!

ANY QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions please post them in the discussion thread or PM the organizer, jillybeans or gozer.  This thread is specifically for claims only.

Wow, I'm behind on posting!  LOL!  Anywho, here are the ATCs I made for November's Ongoing ATC Swap!







Thanks for looking!  ^_^

I saw some awesome chalkboard wine glasses in my researching of wine glass markers.  Instantly, I thought, "I can make those!"  So I did!  ^_^





I ultimately ended up making four sets of them.  I bought 4 boxes (set of 4 wine glasses) for around $6 and then the chalkboard spray paint.  I already had the painters tape.

Now, here's a little tutorial on how to make these:


Gather your wine glasses!  They can be any wine glasses; new, used, whatever!


Apply your painters tape, trying to get as straight a line as you can on the bottom.  This is the hardest part of this all, but it just takes some patience, and sometimes smaller pieces of tape.  Make sure to wrap up the entire stem, so you don't accidently spray it with paint.


Find yourself a good place to spray paint, preferably outside.  If its really cold out, spray your stuff, wait a minute, and then bring them inside to dry.  You will want to do an even spray, but not too thick.  Just enough to cover.  Wait for it to completely dry and then do your next coat.  The can of spray paint recommends at least 3 coats for glass.


Once it is completely dry, and you have all the coats you want to do, peel off your painters tape.  If you have little blips, they are easy enough to scratch away with a fingernail.  Then you have your new wine glasses!  I would suggest hand washing these babies and using a soft sponge on the chalkboard part, so you don't scratch the paint.

Thanks for looking!

My sister mentioned that she wanted beer markers, so that people could distinguish their beers from each other.  I finally decided that mustaches would be an awesome idea, and so classy!


Each mustache is attached to a loop of elastic, so you can slide it over the top and it fits snuggly half way down.  This was stash busting, since I have a lot of felt on hand, and really only needed the elastic.

And, I happened to take progress pictures along the way, so here is a tutorial so you can make your own!


To start, draw and cut out a mustache to your liking, in the size that you want.  Find a large enough scrap of felt that is big enough to be folded over and still fit your design.  Pin your design to the felt and cut it out.


You should now have two pieces of felt in the shape of a mustache!  Next, you will need a small length of elastic.  Measure around your bottle to the desire length and snugness, making sure to leave like a 1/2" overlap.  I measured the first one and then a cut a bunch more elastic using that first as a guide.  Pin the loop of elastic to just one piece of the felt mustache.


Using a zig-zag stitch, go back and forth over the elastic a few times to make sure its very secure.  Take out your pin and snip your threads.  Then pin your other piece of matching felt to the top of the other with the elastic loop.  This second piece will hide your stitching on the other piece and give it a little more sturdiness. 


Next, grab yourself some matching embroidery floss.  Tie a knot in the end of it and push your needle through the inside back piece of felt.  This will hide your knot between the two pieces of felt.  Stitch your two pieces of felt together and tie it off.  Then, tada, you have an awesome new beer marker!  Weeee!

Thanks for looking!

Last fall, my hubby was hanging out with his friend wearing this Star Wars Achievement Badge Zippy.  His friend was so in love with and lamented about it to his wife when he got home.  She then contacted me and commissioned me to make a sweatshirt for him, but Game of Thrones themed, with the house crests.  In exchanged for wine, I happily accepted.  Yes, that's right, I've now become a hobo in the crafting world and will craft for booze.  Bring on the wine!

So, here is the finished sweatshirt:





And the badges before they were attached to the sweatshirt.  Each is made from wool-blend felt and embroidery floss.  All was hand stitched.  For some of the bigger areas, I used felt to fill in, but I did a lot of embroidery on these, more than normal.  Like on the buck, his antlers are entirely stitched.  All in all, I'm very happy with how it turned out.  She gave him the sweatshirt for Christmas and he loved it.  <3  It was definitely fun to make!

Thanks for looking!

Please post the wonderful ATCs you've received this month here!  Yay yay ATCs!

Somehow I stumbled across a picture of girl in here very own dwarf helm and beard.  The helm was crocheted and the beard was yarn.  It was AWESOME and sent my brain a-reeling!  Though crochet is currently oh of realm of crafting abilities, I settled on making a beard.  My BIL's birthday was coming up fast, so it was the perfect time to whip one up for him just for fun.  I bet he never expected to get a dwarf yarn beard from me, but that's what he got!  In my research phases, I found a totally amazing and wonderful tutorial on how to make a beard like this, and that can be found here:  http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Grow-Your-Own-Epic-Dwarf-Beard-In-One-Eveni/

This girl has changed my life!  I see my future bright and full of beards!  Not that I'm not surrounded by them in my everyday life from my husband and other BIL, but these are much more EPIC!


Here he is modeling his new beard!  It was so super fun and easy to make!  And the beard is so so soft!!!  My BIL wore his all night long and even drank his soda out of a straw so he could continue wearing it. 


Here it is all laid out.  Sorry for the super crappy picture.  I took it with my phone and was to much of a dummy to remember to take a better picture later.  Oh well.

My other BIL was super jealous and sadly looked at me in his best pouty face said "Jill, I want a yarn beard."  How can I resist that?  I absolutely love when I get crafty requests!  It gets me pumped and excited.  So, I went out and got new yarn and sat down and made him one, too.


His is a salt 'n pepper one.  ^_^  Still super soft.  He liked it because he thought it looked wiser.


Here it is all layed out.  Though its hard to see, there is a blue bead attached to the gray band in the middle of the beard.  That was my hubby's idea.  ^_^


And here's what the back looks like.  If you didn't take at look at the tutorial, you basically start by cutting up all your yarn the length that you want.  You then cut the plastic canvas to the size you want and attach your yarn to it, starting at the bottom, with small crochet hook.  Trust me, she has amazing instructions on there that are way indept and better than these, so you should go take a look. 

Now I need to make one for me!  I want one that has reds and browns.  ^_^  Though I definitely have enough yarn to make another brown beard and another black beard. 

Thanks for looking!  Beard on!

[A brand new year, a brand new board for all your ATC discussions this year. Lets make this year ROCK!]

A brand new year, a brand new board for all your ATC discussions this year.  Lets make this year ROCK! 

[ONGOING ATC SWAP--JANUARY 2013]

Happy New Year, everyone!  Look at all these wonderful owls there were done in previous swaps!  Aren't they great?  From left to right we have work from Sunnydawn, rosie1981, bunny1kenobi, jmiller614, pilarfarmer, Fancybutch, Robinpich, and Mountains and Clouds.  They are hootarific!


ONGOING ATC SWAP--JANUARY 2013
An uber-addicting swap that runs all month long!

Welcome fellow Craftsterers!

Up and running again, here is the amazingly addicting, completely irresistible Ongoing ATC Swap! YAY YAY!  (You know you want to join!)

So, come one, come all!  You, too, can have "envelopes o' fun" in your mailbox!  (giggle)

This is a simple and easy swap, with your level of participation determined entirely by you.  People of all levels of ATC-making are welcome.


Discussion Thread -Questions and discussion can be posted here.
 
Swap FAQs -Everything you need to know about swapping.

ATC FAQs -Everything you need to know about ATCs.

-Please post pictures of your cards here.


Very basic swap info:
Swap name: Ongoing ATC Swap - January 2013
Craftster member who is organizing this swap: jillybeans
Sign-up date range: Today until January 31st, 2012
Date to send item by: 2 weeks after you claim (look at the date on the calendar, it is the date that is directly 2 rows down)
Limited to a certain number of people? (optional): NO
Additional Age requirement? NO
*International shipping is required*
*DC #s are not required, but you will have to resend if the ATC is not received*

Swap Organizer himself/herself meets these conditions:
- Has fully read the Swap Info Guide: YES
- Has successfully completed two swaps as a participant: YES
- Is not organizing more than three swaps right now: YES
- Will recruit a co-organizer or give all details to a Swap Moderator if this swap has more than 25 participants: YES (gozer)
- Is at least 16 years old: YES

Swap Organizer will check each participant to make sure they meet these conditions:
- Has been a member for at least one month: YES
- Has posted at least 15 times: YES
- Has completed one swap successfully before signing up for multiple swaps at a time: YES
- Is not currently signed up for more than five swaps: YES
- Does not have any negative feedback: YES
- Participant has agreed that he/she is at least 18 years old: YES



QUESTIONNAIRE TO ANSWER Please send to jillybeans, and include the words "January ATC Swap--Request to Join" in the email title.

*Name of swap:  Ongoing ATC Swap - January 2013
*Craftster username:
*Email address:
*Your real name:
*Mailing address including the country (written as it would appear on the envelope):
*Would you be willing to ship to an address outside your own country?:
*Confirm that are at least 16 years old or, if not, that you have moderator approval(YES/NO):
*Are you a Friend of Craftster?:
*What is the exact size of an ATC?:
*Do you have access to a camera or scanner so you can post pictures here of what you receive? (if not, you need to tell anyone who claims you, so that they are able to take pictures before sending):
*Are you aware that if an ATC is lost in the mail, you are required to resend?:
*Have you read the entire swap information for this swap?:
*When sending send/receive notifications to the swap organizer, there are four juicy pieces of information that must be included about each ATC.  What are they?  (Scroll down in the swap info under this questionnaire to the area "Once you have sent or received a card"; the answer is in red.):


*Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join this swap!  Sign-ups are open all month--YAY!  PM me the above questionnaire to get started, and please wait to be accepted into the swap before making any claims. **Please make sure you are not late or flakey in any of your other swaps.** This is a super-uber-amazingly-stupendous swap, So Have Fun!  



HOW THIS SWAP WORKS:

Claims are made throughout the month.  You have two weeks from the time you make a claim to send that claim.

You can make as many (or as few, as little as 1) claims as you want throughout the month as long as you never go over your allowed amount of outstanding claims. (An outstanding claim is a card that has not been received; when that card is received your number of outstanding claims goes down leaving you open to bring it back up to 7 or 10.)

Posting pictures of received ATCs is required for this swap.

CLAIMING

1. Claims are made using the following procedure:

Person A (the swap organizer) will begin the swap by posting a list of themes in this swap thread.
Person B will choose a theme from one of A's themes and make a claim by posting his/her own list (see below for formatting of post).
Person C will make a claim on one of B's themes and post his/her own list.
Person D will make a claim on one of C's themes and post his/her own list etc...
This continues through the end of the month, when the swap organizer makes the final claim and closes out the claiming part of the swap.

2. How many claims can be made by each individual:

The number of claims each person is allowed depends on the following criteria:
*Friends of Craftster: 10 claims
*Those who aren't Friends of Craftster: 7 claims
*First time swappers (whether Friends of Craftster or not): 1 claim.  Once the initial claim has been sent, and its new owner has reported it received, the first time swapper is free to make more claims, either 7 or 10 dependent on being an FOC or not.

3. How to make a claim:

A claim post should include the following information:
1. The theme you are choosing and who you’re sending it to.
2. Statistical info about your current swap claims status:
Claims = Claims currently outstanding (ie., how many not yet received by their new owners.) (This number goes down each time a claim is received, and up each time you make a claim.)
Sent = anything currently in the mail.
Received = the cards received by the people you've sent them to.
3. Your location.
4. Your personal preferences.
5. Your list of themes


SAMPLE CLAIMS POST:

I claim GenericFabulosaSwap per for heffalumps/weasels ATC.  

3 claims, 2 sent, 1 received

I live in Massachusetts, USA.  I would prefer not to receive anything violent, political, or religious.  

My themes are:
1)   Your New Year Resolution
2)   Snowy Scenes
3)   "Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness."
4)   Musical Fruit
5)   In a Dream

ONCE YOU HAVE MADE A CLAIM:

1. Send a personal message to the person you have claimed and request their address
2. You have 2 weeks to complete each card, and have it in the mail to its new owner.  

ONCE YOU HAVE SENT OR RECEIVED A CARD
1. Please PM the organizer when you send or receive a card.  (It's also good to notify the person you received from or are sending to.)  January ATC Swap--Sent[/i] or January ATC Swap--Received (Be sure to include the month, since I generally run multiple months at a time)
3.  Be sure and include (1) the "send by" date, as well as (2) the theme and (3)who sent it to (4)whom, in each message to the ATC swap organizer, when you're referring to sent or received ATCs.  (That's four juicy pieces of important information that make my life as a swap organizer OH so easy!) Easy as pie!

For example, you could use this format:

I sent some ATCs today!  

DUE DEC 16:
MeCraftsterMemberBl oop --> YowzaSwapper (fantasmic theme)

DUE DEC 17:
MeCraftsterMemberBl oop --> WowwieSwapper (stupendous theme)
MeCraftsterMemberBl oop -->WooHooYeeHawSwapper 07 (yet another fascinating theme)

PLEASE REMEMBER TO INCLUDE THIS IN EVERY PM!!!

This lets the organizer easily access the swap info, so it can be updated.  

POSTING PIX OF ATCs RECEIVED
It is OH so important to post pictures of the amazing cards you receive!  This is the best way in the world to let it be known how special it is that you've received a wonderful treasure of someone else's creativity!  

Please post pictures/scans of your received cards in the gallery (or make arrangements with your partner to do so).

FEEDBACK
Positive feedback will be given when all of the cards you sent have been received.   Good communication is always cool!  And be sure and post those pictures in the gallery!

ANY QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions please post them in the discussion thread or PM the organizer, jillybeans or gozer.  This thread is specifically for claims only.

Hi there!  I originally made these bracelets for STS, but not all of them sold, so they instead went to family member's for Christmas!  Yay!  I made these on my bead loom that my hubby made me for my birthday.  <3  Eventually I'll get a tutorial up for these, but for now, you can just look at what I made!









Thanks for looking!  ^_^