Summer break

Wishing you all a very joy- and artful summer! There is a quick swap for all those who can't get enough of trading with friendly artists from all over the world. It will start in July, please sign in now! The next swap is in September. I will put it up by August. Stay well everyone!

Last swap before summer break

Please sign in now for my "free spirit" Swap in June. You can collect whatever you want, as long as it is on or made of paper. Please send me an e-mail: lawendula@gmail.com This is the last swap before summer vacation in July and August. But there will be a quick swap in July. Stay tuned.

Next Swap: May 2013

Please feel inspired to sign in now for the May swap: Vintage rules.


You can exchange all kinds of vintage stuff.
Start: May, 6 2013
Use: lawendula@gmail.com for signing up.

Happy gathering!

Thanks Tammy for the vintage family photo.

The 10 golden rules for paper swaping

Here are 10 ways to make paper swap a more joyful experience for everyone!

Hier sind 10 Möglichkeiten um Paper Swap zu einer schöneren Erfahrung  für alle zu machen.

1. Always sign up via lawendula@gmail.com, not only in a blog/Flickr comment, please.

Bitte schreibt euch immer über meine e-mail Adresse bei gmail ein, nicht nur als Blog/Flickr-Kommi.

2. It’s always a good idea to start collecting papers the moment you have signed in for the swap. It gives you more time to add nice stuff and the sending will go more quickly afterwards. (Please have in mind, that sending mails to oversea’s countries can take 3 weeks or more!)

Always send something that’s typical for your country/area and can’t be bought anywhere else. (It can be anything, a magazine page, a flyer, a postcard, some of your own art….)

Es ist immer eine gute Idee, sofort mit dem Sammeln der Papiere zu beginnen, so habt ihr mehr Zeit schönes Zeugs zu finden und das Versenden geht hinterher auch schneller. (Bitte nicht vergessen, das Verschicken nach Übersee kann 3 Wochen und mehr in Anspruch nehmen.)

Schickt bitte immer etwas Regiontypisches, daß man sonst woanders nicht bekommt (Zeitschriftenseite, Flyer, Postkarte, etwas Selbstgemachtes etc.).

3. Try to contact your partner asap after you have got the pairing lists.

Avoid using the phrase „swap partner“ in the reference line of your e-mail, for it may land in the spam folder. Please check your spam folder from time to time, especially German participants may have the problem, that their accounts automatically sort out e-mails in foreign languages.

Versucht so schnell wie möglich eure Swap Partner zu kontaktieren.

Vermeidet den Ausdruck “Swap partner” in der Betreffzeile eurer e-mail oder sie wird vermutlich im Spam Ordner landen. Bitte den Spam Ordner immer regelmäßig checken, oft sortieren die Filter der Mailaccounts englisch sprachige Mails sowieso schon als Spam aus.

4. Correspond with your swap partner about how much to send, special wishes, likes and dislikes, for it may prevent both from disappointment.  It would be ever so nice if you send a quick note to let your partner know you have sent out. If you have a blog, a Flickr/Tumblr/pinterest account, please share it to learn more about each other.

Einigt euch per e-mail vorher darauf, wieviel ihr schickt, ob spezielle Wünsche vorhanden sind oder was ihr gar nicht mögt, um Enttäuschungen zu verhindern.

Besonders nett ist eine kurze e-mail, wenn ihr es rausgeschickt habt. Wenn ihr euch gegenseitig eure Blog/FLickr/Tumblr etc. Adressen schickt, könnt ihr noch mehr übereinander erfahren.

5. Never send anything, that might be forbidden in other countries.

No soil, no animal skins, no seeds, no perfume, no unknown fibers (esp. to Australia).

Please make sure that your papers are always clean and dry.

Schicke niemals etwas, das in anderen Ländern verboten ist. Keine Erde, keine Tierhäute, kein Saatgut, kein Parfum, keine unbekannten Fasern (besonders nicht nach Australien).

Bitte schickt nur sauberes, trockenes Papier.

6. Please always make sure that everything is packed up safely for what might be a very long journey. Tape it twice or more, to make sure, nothing will fall out, especially to South Africa.

I know artful envelopes are great, but mail will be quicker and safer, when it’s plain.

Bitte sorgt immer für eine besonders sorgfältige Verpackung, lieber alles nochmal mit Klebeband sichern, besonders nach Südafrika.

Kunstvoll gestaltete Umschläge sind wundervoll, aber es ist sicherer und schneller mit einem einfachen Umschlag.

7. Please let your partner know, that everything has arrived safe and sound.

Showing it on your blog or on Flickr would be a very nice gesture. There is a Flickr Group for paper swappers. http://www.flickr.com/groups/1323649@N21/

Bitte laßt eure Partnerin wissen, daß alles gut angekommen ist. Ein Foto von dem Geschickten auf Blogs etc. hochzuladen ist eine besonders nette Geste.

8. If there are any problems with anything, please contact me. We will find a solution!

Wenn es mit irgendwas ein Problem gibt, schreibt mich an. Wir finden eine Lösung!

9. Please spread the fun! Tell your friends about paper swap and send my bloglink on to them. They might love it too! Everyone is welcome!

Bitte erzählt euren FreundInnen von Paper Swap und ladet sie dazu ein. JedeR ist willkommen!

10. Please help me to make paper swap better! Write to me your opinion, ideas and solutions for problems or share your experience in general! I love to hear from you!

Bitte helft mir, Paper Swap zu verbessern, alle Ideen, Meinungen, Lösungen oder grundsätzliche Erfahrungen sind willkommen. Ich freue mich, von euch zu hören!

Last, not least: Paper Swap is no political blog, BUT, it's an international project to connect people. As such it is about reaching a hand, tolerance and political correctness.
I, myself and the things I do are strictly against racism, sexism and other disfunctional tendencies of our modern society. So I have the strong believe, that Trump voters and devotees of other right-wing politicians and groups should look elsewhere for sharing their papers and artworks. Thanks for your understanding.

Paper Swap in March

Our next topic is simplicity.



Think of paper as a basic material to be creative. Think of images that are calm and peaceful. Warm, soothing colours. No patterns. Think Zen. Think Wabi Sabi.

Sign in if you want to share some papers with friends from all over the world.

We also have a quick swap on March, 21, if you want to play the smaller version of it.

lawendula@gmail.com

The Collage Box #4 is back!

Oh what a relief! The box #4 has really made it (#2 and 3 got lost, unfortunately) all around the world and back to me!I was so happy to receive it from Tammy (adding a lovely chocolate too- thanks, dear!) on January, 12.
 
The fun has started on October, 1st 2011. 
This was, what I had put in. 144 bits and pieces to choose from.



Some in- and outtakes:

 Angelika (Germany)

 Kasia (Poland):

Michelle (Poland)

Everyone did such great things inside the sign up book too! Lovely Mini Collages!
Poland:


From South Africa to New York in the States:


Inside the USA:

 

And finally:
It came back filled to the brim with lovely paper stuff from all over the world.
 

So thank you, everyone, you really did a great job!!!

You can read more about the start of the project here.

Crazy Swap 2013

Time for the annual Crazy Swap. 

And this is how it works: Take an envelope and go through your house from room to room. Look thru all the papers you’ve got and collect everything that could be fun and turned into art. Think crazy! Look at food packages, flyers, spam mail, newspapers, scraps and cut off from magazines and catalogues, receits, bills, tickets, ephemera of all kind, old school books, vintage stuff from the attic. Be wild! Be eccentric! And enjoy!

Any questions? Send me an e-mail!

Wanna sign in! E-mail me!

January Swap in 2013

You can already sign up now if you don't want to miss the fun in January!



The theme is "Small treasures", all kinds of inchies, small pix, details of art, stamps, vouchers, tickets, scraps, bits and pieces, paper ephemera of all kinds.

Join the fun at:
lawendula@gmail.com

I wish you all a very happy Xmas season and a great start of the new year!

Yummy Papers

For December we have a lovely topic: yummy papers!



Think of great food pix from books and magazines or maybe your own photos?! Great kitchen pix and recipes. Vintage cookbook pages. Nice wrapping papers with fruits and sweets. Food packages that are special. And add something "real" like tea bags, chewing gum, chocolate bar, whatever you like.

You can sign in during the whole November. Send me an e-mail:
lawendula@gmail.com

Happy arting and hunting for yummy things....

The junk journal swap

I am happy to introduce my junk journal, made only of the paper "junk" my paper swap partner Karen has sent to me. This was so much fun!

For larger view, please klick on the show and see it on Flickr. 

Thanks a lot, Karen!


 And what about you? Let me see yours, if you have been in the project!

Swaps to come in 2013

It's 3 years now of continuing swaping and it still is a great fun.

So here are the new swap themes for 2013.


January 2013 Small treasures (Paper Inchies, small pix, details of art etc.)

February 2013 Crazy swap

March 2013 Simplicity (less is more, images and papers that are plain and beautiful)

 April 2013 Put a smile on my face (papers that make you smile, happiness in papers)

 May 2013 Vintage rules (all kinds of old paper stuff)

June 2013 Free spirit (choose whatever you want)

 Summer break

September 2013 Eyecatcher (sensational papers and “wow” stuff)

October 2013 Love is all you need (all around love)

November 2013 The great 4 (Seasons, elements etc.)

December 2013 Birds, Bees and Butterflies  


Changes maybe likely!

If you want to be in, just send me an e-mail. You can also sign up for the whole year. 

Paper Swap November

We had cards three years ago and it was so much fun. So here is another one- hope you will enjoy it all the same! It will start on November, 5, you can sign in whenever you want in October or now. lawendula@gmail.com Questions? Just let me know!