Swap a doodle doo

may swap 1, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

May is my third month participating in the Color-iffic Swap-o-Rama. My partner this month was a bit elusive. She didn't fill out her likes/dislikes in the forums. So I had to dig around. She blogs and posts photos to Flickr. Although her blog posts are pretty infrequent (not that I can say I do more) and she doesn't post photos of herself and her family. I had a hard time trying to connect to her. Last month, I felt like I really got to know Gabriela/loca_bandoca. And she doesn't even blog in English!
Due to this feeling of disconnect, I was down to the wire on making a handcrafted item. My parter doesn't read much so one of my beaded ribbon bookmarks is out. Magnets seemed too small of a gift. I considered a tote bag or one of my photos framed. Then I got the idea of doing a tray decorated with childrens illustrations. I quickly realized there wasn't enough time to paint and seal the several coats needed. I was all out of sorts. Luckily, I went to four rummage sales last week. Out of the seemingly unconnected finds, I pieced together the perfect idea. I know my partner likes tropical music and children's books. I put a piece of tropical yellow material around the cardboard insert of a lucite frame. A wonderful book of stories published in 1966 has wonderful illustrations. I chose one that featured bits of orange, held my breath and tore the page out of the book. That has hard to do. Then I just cut it out. Put the frame on the table upside down and positioned the cut out facedown inside the frame. Then carefully insert the fabric covered insert. On the back, I taped down the fabric edges but it looked messy. So, I cut out a portion of the story the illustration came from and glued it to the fabric, covering all the fabric edges.
In just a few hours, I made something that should appeal to her tastes. I really hope she likes it.
Since I started swapping just a few short months ago; I've learned a few things. Shipping can be really expensive . High enough to make me not want to play. That's not fun. So I am trying to keep in mind the size and weight of items as I gather them. On Sunday I was at a rummage sale and picked out a small rectangular hinged tin. As I walked around the room, all my small items went in. I was amazed at how much I stuffed in there. A new group, Pack It Up Small, will focus on themed packages that can fit into a small Global Priority Flat-rate Envelope. Shipping is only $5.25. I'm still not ready to shrink down to an envelope, so I'm going to sit this first swap of theirs out and see what the others swappers send.

Color-iffic is using the Swap-Bot site to administer the swap. (Don't be confused by the bootleg US only swap there. The real deal is private. Join the Flickr group first to participate.) Swap-Bot takes away all the hard work of matching up and notifying parters by doing it automatically. Lots of other open swaps are listed there. I wanted to join the Kitchen In A Box swap but it's end date collided with Color-iffic and I just didn't have the time. I couldn't resist the Pretty Birdsswap. I collect birdie items, so I couldn't say no. It's been hard shopping for this swap because I want everything for myself! This swap doesn't require a handmade item but I may include some anyway.
Another site that I came across recently is Swap Thing. It's like ebay for swapping or bartering. They charge a transaction fee of $1.00 which is reasonable.

Now it's time to swap my blogger hat for my editor hat and get to the office.