This week's prize for originality goes to quillian - I don't think anyone else has posted a snake story on here!

Actually, I think it looks great for a first effort.  If I'm trying out a new craft, I generally reckon on at least 3 projects before I feel the work is good - the first one is to learn what goes where, the second one is to try do it right this time, and the third one is usually good.  After all, you get better at almost anything by practising, right? 

Keep up the good work!

A few ideas about "problem" supplies: - that cheap acrylic yarn for example.  You could use it to learn a new technique, like tablet weaving for example, and it wouldn't matter if your first example was a disaster, as it's basically "junk" yarn anyway.  Or you could donate it to the girl scouts or whatever.

As for the "too good to use" fabric, why not make up a trial garment in junk fabric - an old sheet for example - to learn how it's done, then make it up again in your good fabric once you are confident - this is an old dressmaking technique, used to check fit and hang on clients before chopping up the good stuff - it's called a "toile"  (TWAHL)

Just a few ideas from my many years of crafting (hangs up grey beard, retires to bed with bottle of sherry).

Our nearest and dearest can sometimes be very crushing about our projects, but don't let it get you down.  Just be your wonderful creative self and eventually they will wake up and realise how lucky they are to have you around!  And even if you don't get a very fair return on your time, at least you will recover the cost of the yarn you used.

If you go to my very first post which launched the swap

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=123382.0

you will find all the instructions.  You are more than welcome to copy the entire idea for a US swap, but you might want to space out the posting dates a little more, given that the USA is so much bigger!  (The entire UK is the size of Wyoming).

I agree with Phizzy; I also dislike having rings in the middle of a spread I'm doing, but I didn't see why I should ban others from using that kind of book if they wanted to - it didn't cause me any major problems.  The only kind of binding that was problematic was glued bindings - like watercolour pads - which tend to come apart pretty easily, especially if people use bulky things to decorate the pages.  Some of the books had very thin pages - like typing paper - and I preferred to glue two together when I did spreads in these, or glue another paper over them as a background.  My own book was just 4 large sheets of watercolour paper folded in half and simply sewn into a cardboard binding - took me about 10 minutes to make, and included the exact number of spreads needed for the swap, so that it came back FULL, which was wonderful!

Phizzy, just remember to forward the previews to your beloved co-organiser! 

Now does that come under weird people, or weird pets? 

That may depend a bit on just how busy I am at the time, but it would be very interesting to do a combined RR with our US collaborators/fellow maniacs.

I've completed my initial post - all the work is now scanned and posted, a complete rainbow!  Go look!

If you'd like to see what some of us have been up to recently, check out our gallery
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=146405.0