The Great UK Round-Robin Journal Swap! SIGN-UPS HAVE NOW CLOSED

[Stephen Weaver]

Swap name: The Great UK Round-Robin Journal Swap
Craftster members who are organizing this swap:
Phizzychick, assisted by Stephen Weaver
Sign-up date range:by 21 October 2006
Date to send item by: First sendout by 23 October, then every two weeks - see below
Limited to a certain number of people? Maximum 12 - serious commitment required!
Restricted to people who all live in the same country? YES
If so, which country? UK - all corners!  Feel free to copy this idea if you want to do it in another country.

All ages allowed? Or 18+? yes, but get parental permission if under 18!

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

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 at least one swap successfully before signing up for more: YES
- Is not currently signed up for more than five swaps: YES
- Does not have any negative feedback: YES

Details of swap:
We will be EACH be sending round a journal/notebook/altered book and each participant will do at least a two-page spread in EACH journal.  At the end of the round-robin, your own book will return to you with loads of wonderful artwork in it!

How it will work.......

1. Sign up by sending the questionnaire to Stephen Weaver AND Phizzychick
2. Once approved, find the journal/notebook/altered book you want to send round.  It should be fairly sturdy, between A4 and A6 in size and preferably NOT incredibly heavy - add the granite cover slabs once it gets back to you!
3. If you want your book to be themed, start writing some clear guidance notes to go with it - keep the theme general, other participants may not know anything about your favourite pop group/football team/railway line/anteater
4. The signups will close once we get to 12 participants - if we have 3-7 people, we will work this as one group, 8-12 I will split into 2 groups so that no-one has to do more than 6 spreads.  If we don't get to 12, signups will close by 21 October.  Please be serious about committing to this - it WILL involve a fair amount of work.  I'd hate to turn someone away because we were "full" and then have folk drop out.
5. I will arrange your addresses in order and send them out by 22 October.
6. On 23 October Person #1 sends their book to Person #2, Person#2 to Person#3 etc etc, and we all have 2 weeks to work on the first spread.  First Monday in November, the books all move on again and we start another spread.  This will repeat every 2 weeks, always posting out on a Monday (so we have the weekend to finish up).
7. Phizzychick will be monitoring the progress on the books once this starts, Stephen will handle the signups and first sendout..
8. Feedback will be left monthly for each participant and noted how many times they sent.
9.  This swap is UK ONLY simply for postal reasons - speed and economy - and to help UK crafters get to know each other better.  Feel free to copy the idea for the USA or elsewhere.

There could be loads of PM communication on this swap, so keep it going between yourselves  - best way to end up with a book you love!  This is going to be FUN!!!

The nature of the swap is such that dropouts could seriously mess things up, so please commit seriously.

This will be an ongoing swap, and might change in terms of structure in order to keep it going smoothly. I will keep an ongoing list of who is sending to whom and the sendout deadlines. Feel free to PM if you have any suggestions! For now, let's try it and see how it goes!



If you want to participate, information to send to organizers (Stephen Weaver AND Phizzychick):

QUESTIONNAIRE TO ANSWER:
Name of swap
Craftster username
Email address
Your real name
Mailing address


Any comments?


IF YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE, REMEMBER TO SEND YOUR INFO TO ORGANIZER VIA PRIVATE MESSAGE AND NOT TO REPLY WITH IT HERE.


Also remember to read the Swap Info Guide to find out how to ship your item and other details about participating in a swap.

SIGNED UP:

Stephen Weaver
Phizzychick
rhicooqui
pinkangel1979
uluru
bushbaby
Jill-of-all-trades

[Phizzychick]

Thanks for starting the journal ball rolling Stephen.This is going to be a fabulous and creative swap!

Just a reminder again that you MUST send me a PM when you send and receive, and if there are any delays or problems. Keep good communication! If you fail to keep me updated it will be noted in your feedback.

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Round 1 - Complete
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Round 2 - Complete
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Round 3 - Complete
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Round 4 - Complete
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Round 5 - Complete
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Round 6 - Complete
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Round 7 - Complete - all received & fabulous!

If any of the sent/received information is incorrect please let me know and I'll update. Please make sure this is in a PM as I might not catch it if it's posted in the thread.

A reminder of the Send out dates:

23 October 2006
6 November 2006
20 November 2006
4 December 2006
18 December 2006
8 January 2007
22 January 2007

[rhicooqui]

Sent.

Stephen are you on Craftermath? Just wondered if we had a "boy" yet

[Stephen Weaver]

I've poked around a bit on Craftermath, but it wasn't running properly that day - will give it another look.  Glad you've joined this swap!

[teraspawn]

Aww, I wish I had enough time to commit to this one

I shall be lurking!

[suzeeannie]

I've bookmarked this one, it looks really interesting.

I'll have to wait and see if I get other swaps out of the way first.

[Phizzychick]

Yep, you're okay to join.

One thing I would look out for if this is your first swap is that this will take a considerable amount of time to complete. 6 journal entries at 2 weeks per entry is a commitment of 12 weeks. This would tie you in for your first swap for that time as you would not be allowed to join another (one swap rule for first time swappers).

I had the same commitment for my first swap and although I loved the swap there were others I'd wished I'd joined that were done in a matter of 2-3 weeks.

Just something to consider, not meant to discourage, just to help you decide

[jMi]

Hey guys, I just wanted to say that its great to see you using the co-organizing option!
Stephen, I hope you get a hang of organizing from this swap and we see you going more after this!

[pinkangel1979]

I'm looking forward to this swap- just need to find a suitable journal to send around. 

[Stephen Weaver]

Angel, feel free to be as imaginative as you like with the journal - I plan to bind mine myself - as long as it's between A4 and A6 in size, and reasonably sturdy to withstand the postal service.  It could be landscape or portrait, square or even round if that floats your boat!  There are some very imaginative tutorials on here about binding, and it's really a lot easier than I thought, comes down to working neatly and following instructions.