Thursday 30 October 2008

Kiwi Handmade Christmas Ornament Swap

For the last few years, a couple of craft bloggers in the US have run a huge handmade Christmas ornament swap. I found out about it too late to participate last year and have been thinking about signing up this year, but the cost of international postage has made me a bit reluctant to join in.

I mentioned this to Nikki last week at the Juniper craft night and she suggested I should run a New Zealand based swap instead. I’m hoping that there are some more of you out there who love handmade ornaments as much as me and want to participate.

Here are the guidelines:

1. Sign-up by sending me an email to luubeeluu at gmail dot com. You need to include your name and snail mail address, plus your blog if you have one. Signups will close on Friday 7th November. Sorry, but to limit postage costs, this swap will only be open to New Zealand residents.

2. I will assign you into a small group of 6-8 people and send you the addresses of everyone in your group. I will not send your address to anyone else.

3. You need to come up with an ornament design that you can easily replicate – it can be crafted however you like (knit, sew, crochet, embroider, print, gocco, paint etc), but it must be handmade.

4. Make enough ornaments for your group, and post one ornament to each person by Friday 12th December.

5. Sit back and wait to receive some wonderful handmade ornaments in the post just in time for Christmas.

If you need some inspiration for ideas, have a browse through the flickr group for the 2007 US swap.

This is the first swap I've run, so any swap veterans out there please let me know if I've missed anything.

Edit: Sign-ups now closed. Thanks for all the interest. I will email out the details for your group on Sunday 9th November.

20 comments:

Nikki Elisabeth said...

Yuss! Count me innnn :D

Miss Smith said...

Wow! Cool idea! I will join in too.

Anonymous said...

Oh go on then, twist my arm ;) I'm in.

Sharonnz said...

I was SO tempted to do this but had to pull back from the madness when I looked at my list of stuff I need to make for Christmas;-) Would love to do a mid-winter one - hint, hint!

Little Miss Flossy said...

I love this idea, I usually do a couple of US based swaps so this will be a much better plan... save heaps on postage. In with a grin :-)

Anonymous said...

Yes - im totally in - cos i love it when i get a little parcel n the post!

Kiwi family on adventure said...

I am keen - will be buying our first xmas tree so what a great way to kick start the decorations for it! I'll have to turn on the creativity now.....

Mary Nanna said...

What a great idea! Any chance that you could do an extra small group? Like just one of 4 so you only had to make 3 things? Anyone else think that's a goer?

Mary Nanna said...

woops .. I see that it's a xmas ornament swap not a xmas present swap.. oh dear.. no chance I can participate then.. sorry ..but what a lovely idea!

Ruth @ Camellia Rose said...

I was browsing through the swap dex blog when I saw the link to this swap. Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it was just for NZ-ers! I'm emailing you now to sign up :)

Anonymous said...

What a great idea! I'd love to do this.

Anonymous said...

Hi Louise
Have sent you an email. Would love to sign up for the Christmas ornament swap. What a choice idea.

Ellie

sewfunky said...

I love the idea! :) Now to think of a cool thing to make!!

styler said...

So excited
YAY!

Bronwyn Mason said...

Good plan! I hope I can come up with a worthy ornament idea! :)

Unknown said...

Ooo, me too, me too!

jasmine t said...

Yay!! I have emailed you also! This is awesome!! something for the kiwi bloggers!!

Anonymous said...

Wow I have just found your blog and I am too late to participate but what a great idea to cater for kiwi bloggers....i have run a few ornament swaps on my NZ yahoo stitching group over the years...nothing recently though.

Jacoline said...

Love to do it next year. sounds like fun!!!

Mayapandit said...

wow, your handmade christmas decorations ideas were really cool, I think that this time, I will also try to make some of them.