2013 swap calendar - interest and comments thread.

[BernardandMissBianca]

Do you like the calendar? do you not like the calendar? Does it help with organizing or is it a little to OCD?

Suggestions on how to improve would be most welcome.
Or tell me if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Anyone have ideas for the upcoming year. Bring back old favorites? See some new technique you'd like to try? Categories we can dump because they aren't the it thing anymore?

And how do you feel about the mega swaps? I don't want to burn out our hostesses because these can become very overwhelming, very quickly. Should we scale back and have more smaller swaps?

lemme know!!! This is y'alls board, so I want to make this work for all of you.

[PrincessNancy96]

I think there are some that we haven't done in the past year or so that could be eliminated...


I am getting more picky with the swap selections so I'm leaning more toward completed pages/sketch swaps...

[mommy2mrb]

I am really liking the sketch pages, letter swaps, small embellishment swaps the most instead of the mini kits, think some house cleaning of some of the older swaps is a good idea.
one thing I think would be really helpful is to have past swap threads stickied together to make it easier to find, sometimes I've had problems searching for older ones.

I'm up for hosting the MAW album swap again down the road if there is interest!

[MazdaUK]

The problem I have with completed pages is the postage Muich as I love making and receiving completed pages I really can't justfy $40+ each way now I work locally. I love the letter swaps but my Xyron is so frustrating I'm not sure I can justify that any more either.

At the risk of being restrictive, what I find most useful is a small page kit (so it does for a single page as well as a double if necessary) - one photo mat, one journal box, one topper and possibly an extra embellishment (but not necessarily paper, maybe some ribbon, flowers or something to "go with" the colours/theme of the page kit). Non-Disney for next year, as I've nearly done my vacation album and we won't be going for a couple of years now.

I love colour swaps but honestly I've got two boxes full! Next year is going to be light on swapping for me, I fear.

[morgansmom2000]

I'm a little (and that's an understatement) OCD, so I don't care for swaps that only have one photo mat. I rarely (okay, never) have just one photo and I'm too anal to make another mat (or title or journal box) that will not match perfectly and therefore have stuff I'll never use. That being said, I do have a new scrapper who is not as anal in the house.

I love love love the completed page swaps because it's mentally easier for me to find photos that work than it is it make something that won't match perfectly. That being said, postage is so expensive (even domestic!). Perhaps we could do completed page/sketch swaps that don't include the background paper? Use a sketch to make the mats, embellishments, title, etc. The hostess would email a document that has the 'completed' page pictures when the swap is done (that way if people move things in PhotoBucket, you'll still have the pictures).

I would still love to hostess a 'digital' file swap, where we make a list of titles and each person makes an SVG and a SCAL file that can be cut at home. People who sign up would email the file and a picture of the cut title (you cut one for yourself, to test it out and photograph), and I would create a zip file of all the files and photos. Everyone would get every title.

Just a couple ideas.

[PrincessNancy96]

Lisa, I kept the links active for this year's swaps on the swap calendar... but I don't have time to go back and search for years past.. so if we can start from the 2012 swaps then I'd be okay with it...

Jennifer, what about cuts in craftroom?? Could we do that for those of us that don't own the other programs?? I don't know how that works.. and I know most don't have it... just wondering if that was an option..

[PrincessNancy96]

Jennifer, I do like the idea of a completed page with no background paper but a photo of completed layout... that is a very good idea...especially considering expense of postage.

Are you considering that option for the current swap you are hosting??? May be another option that would eliminate problems with shipping costs...

[JJ&JHsmom]

I like the idea of completed pages without the background paper, just not sure I can envision how it would work.

I too have alot of stash to use up so will be limiting the amount of swapping I do.

I like the idea of a "file" swap.

[DisneyBarlans]

I like the completed page swaps & the idea of a "make your own" completed page kit. The letter swaps are nice but I'll be scaling back on those and leaning more towards completed pages or elements/mini kits.

I'll still be up for hosting the sports & activities swap in 2013 but I don't think there's enough interest for another pet swap until 2014....I'm having a hard time filling up the current one. I'm also open to hosting another non-Disney swap. I have WAAAAY too much Disney stuff to use, so I'm concentrating more on everyday, holidays, special events, and sports/activities.

[MazdaUK]

I love the idea for the DCWV swap (although its not always easy to get theri stuff here, I have found it on some UK sites on the internet - ordering from the US would make it uneconomic!)

We once did a really everyday - including things like laundry. It was great fun but then I had to specially take photos to go with swap stuff......oh, I do that anyway