So, the first thing you might be asking is, “what the heck is a Swap-Bot?”, so let me clue to you in!
Swap-Bot is this nitfty site where crafters can…um…swap.
Let me try again. That is, some one says, “Hey, I’m having a ball making these wintery ATC’s. I would love to trade with another artist/crafter!” So, you’d click on over to Swap-Bot and they can set that up. Here’s what they do, in their own words:
Do you like sending and receiving snail mail? Do you like writing letters, making crafts, or putting together fun packages? You should try swapping! Swap-bot is a online service that organizes group swaps and a community of creative individuals. Swap-bot takes the hassle out of participating in group swaps by organizing all of the participant information and doing all of the partner assignments. On Swap-bot, you can host swaps, join swaps, and chat with other swappers from all over the world. Give it a try!
While I personally have not used Swap-Bot, I have been a participant in some swaps on a Yahoo Group I belong to, and I’m always thrilled to both send off my goodies for swapping, and then awaited the magical day when my crafty goodness arrived in the mail. It really is fun to share your creativity with other like-minded crafters!
SO, that brings me to their blog. This is cool because they’ve taken their swapping one step further, and the blog features real-life swap meet ups, news and notes, and now, crafty blog reviews. What a clever way of connecting crafters and building communties. LOVE it!
I was honored to be their featured blog on December 3, 2009. You can read the full article here. I was especially flattered that they recommended me to y’all’s blogrolls. Nice!
That gets me to thinking….we might have to launch a CraftTestDummies swap in the new year. Whaddaya think? What should we swap? Hm…..
- NYC Studio Update (Sept. 2016) - September 26, 2016
- Embossed Watercolor Card featuring Colorburst - September 22, 2016
- Testors Acrylic Craft Paint - September 19, 2016
- Art-C Groove Tool Review and Demo - September 13, 2016
- New Back-to-School Craft for Kids- Tie-Dye Notebooks! - September 12, 2016
- Crafty Field Trip: Manus X Machina at The Met NYC - September 7, 2016
- Mixed Media Fun: Shaving Cream Paint Demo - August 5, 2016
- New Craft Studio: Part 2: Ceramcoat Chalk Paint Spinner Makeover - August 4, 2016
- NYC Michael’s Craft Haul- July 2016 - August 3, 2016
- Recycled Drink Lid Jellyfish Craft - August 2, 2016
Congrats on the swap-bot feature! I’ve tried swap-bot, and I personally think it’s about the best way there is to do swaps. I’ve done a few swaps elsewhere where an individual swap hostess was involved, and I got really soured on that idea after one hostess completely bailed and kept everybody’s stuff. Similar things have happened to me with one-on-one swaps through sites like Flickr. Swap-bot gives a nice feedback system, so you can be fairly sure that folks aren’t gonna bail. It also eliminates the need for one hostess to collect, organize, and re-mail everything (which can be a *lot* of work).
I’ll be looking for that CraftTestDummies swap… Course, things are a little busy round here til my book deadline in early March. Would love to participate after that, though!
Forgot to mention, there’s a Polymer Clay Swappers group on swap-bot. Not especially active, but it’d be a good place to advertise any swaps you start that are polyclay-friendly:
http://www.swap-bot.com/group/a19f19cf12b2228bfba60647b2e703dd/about