J + K's Multi-coloured Swap Shop [+ giveaway].

A few weeks ago for our PostSecret challenge, rather than share our secrets digitally, Kirsty and I physically mailed each other our postcards. Yes, we used an actual pen to write an address, licked a stamp and walked, using our legs, to a three-dimensional postbox! I know!! We were positively Victorian!

While we may keep in regular contact with each other vie email and Twitter there was something appealingly personal about receiving something with Kirsty's handwriting on it! Not that I'm an amateur graphologist or any such, but it was nice - in a world of cyber contacts - to have in my hand something she'd sent. Something papery and handmade. Something 'real'!

All this led to a discussion about doing something else both 'real' and postally themed and we decided on a grand stash swap!

[If you're not aware of the 'Multi-coloured Swap Shop' of my title then you're probably not English and / or not my age -either way there's a quick history lesson for you here.]

What with Kirsty's recent house move and my recent craft-room reorganisation, we thought we'd put together a box of crafting supplies to send to each other. I've done this many times before with like-minded friends and it's always so much fun to receive a cornucopia of crafting supplies through the post.

It's online shopping ... without the exchange of money. Crafty-bartering is where it's at!

But, while one man's junk is quite often another man's treasure ....just be mindful of who you choose to swap with!! It probably won't work so well if you don't share a hobby! Who else, but a fellow crafter, would be genuinely excited by a pizza box full of your cast-offs of paper scraps, scavenged ephemera and incomplete alphabet sets? Yet, if you've chosen your recipient carefully, a bundle of your leftovers and over-purchases can make someone else's day!Opening up a packet of items which are entirely new to you [even though they may not actually be new], is such an easy and direct method of generating fresh new ideas to get you thinking, making and creating!
If nothing else it keeps the Royal Mail ticking over nicely and keeps our postmen in a job [we discovered that in the past we've both given names to our postmen Kirsty's being 'Italian Tony' and mine being 'the bald one in the van who knows me' - neither of us would win the prize for originality there!]. As Kirsty and I are both on the design team for Banana Frog we also decided to swap a few sets of Banana Frog stamp sets at the same time. This way we could both work on our August design team commitments with new products and new eyes. I knew that this would work because, several weeks ago I'd renewed my collection of stamps by swapping with the fabulous and most best Hannah Milburn - another BF design team member and I'd been inspired to use the new stamps straight away. [You can see the LO I made in the Colour Focus post on the BF blog here].

So, we've invited Hannah to join us in our logistically-challenging- summer-stash-swapping-mania and all three of us have decided to make our Banana Frog 'Projects of the Day' for August using the stamps and goodies we've recieved from one another in our swap.

Did you get all that? If not .... here's a nice colour coded list to assist you [and me!]:

Aug 9: Visit the Banana Frog blog to see Kirsty's Project of the Day using swapped items.

Aug 12: Visit the Banana Frog blog to see Hannah's swappy Project of the Day.

Aug 14: Visit the Banana Frog blog to see how I've used my 'new to me' swappy bits in my Project of the Day.

What with all this sharing we've been doing we felt it would only be right and proper to continue in our mode of reciprocation and give you, our friendly neighbourhood Copy + Pasters, the opportunity to swap with us too.

We have a brand new set of Banana Frog stamps to giveaway - kindly donated to us from Banana Frog owner Bev - and here's how you can wrest them from our hands to your own:

You: leave us a comment below, in this post, below here, here, on this post, below, here! You can say whatever you like in the comment [within reason!] but try to make it clear that you would like to entered into the giveaway.

We: will pick a winner at random on the evening of Sunday August 16th and will announce the winner ASAP after that.

Now that that's all perfectly clear [!!] I'll leave you to your comment making. I have a mound of pre-loved stash to fidget around with to create my Project of the Day from [insert image of a pig in muck here!!!].

Soon enough.
Julie :)