I just did a fun swap of ATCs and paper goodies with Steph of
Steph D's Art & Stuff (formerly
Paper Cuts and Lemonade). Steph's work is always bright, colorful, and graphically interesting, and I was so happy with the additions she provided for my own collage stash:
We communicated ahead of time to give each other a sense of our styles, likes, and dislikes, and Steph did such a great job including the kinds of things I love, while being sure to include some great new colorful items for my supply. (In searching for things for Steph, I decided that I am much in need of more COLOR in my collection!)
Looking over Steph's package to me, I thought of all the things I learned in just our one exchange:
1. It is helpful to share your style ahead of time with your swap partner, but it's equally important to include the things YOU love, too, so your partner isn't just getting more of the same as she already has.
2. I tend to send my swap items in a standard envelope, and then "dress it up" with duct tape, papers, and stamps. I thought it was very clever and fun of Steph to "think outside the envelope," and use a Trader Joe's grocery bag as her mailer:
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| I used smooth stones from a recent trip to the beach to cover up our postal details! |
3. I love the way Steph used a regular blue name tag label, and made it more decorative and "air mail" style with a red pen. I've already used this technique for those of you who will be receiving
my bookmarklets at the end of the week!
4. And a final great lesson I learned from Steph's package is to GO BOLD! I love Steph's bold and confident handwriting here, and it suits the bright and graphic nature of the papers, labels, and tags she included in her package.
Here are the two ATCs Steph included for our swap:
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| Fun timing, as I just started reading the book Loteria by Mario Alberto Zambrano. |
Here are the two ATCs I sent in my package to Steph:
To see the stash of papers and goodies I sent along with them, check out
Steph's Tumblr post.
I have a trip to make to the PO with
my bookmarklets, but I'll have to wait for this "snowpocolypse" to pass us by!
5 comments:
I saw on Steps blog about your swap, such fun papers from both directions! Let me know if you feel like doing a swap with me!? Maybe in feb? :)
I'm glad you liked everything, Andria! I definitely was a fun swap - I'd be happy to do it again...and I can probably cure you of not having enough colorful stuff, haha ;D
I learned something from this too: stop being a wallflower and get acquainted with my "neighbors" more - they're great people! Swapping like this is a good way to get to know people and learn about their creativity first-hand.
so smart to give your likes and dislikes ahead of time. While I love getting surprise random ephemera tucked in an envelope, I sometimes suspect that we are all just passing the same handful of items around the world. If it arrives and it's not something I typically use in my art (or already have a ton of), I'm likely to pay it forward. But what if that person doesn't like or need it? Does she send it along to someone else? Pre-arranged stash swapping with preferences is a great way to go!
FUN FUN FUN these are some great tips for swaps!!
Ooh, lucky you! Wonderful goodies indeed. I like the atc's you made for Steph as well, so I guess she's lucky too.
And I'm so jealous of your snow!
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