How To: Fill Your Mailbox With Love

Forgive me for another thrifty posting.

After I finished my previous posting here at The Femme Guide I realized that I left out another thrifty thing that I do: I swap. I’m a long-time crafter, maker, sewer, artist, thing-doer kind of lady, and these swaps really inspire me, teach me, and make me feel really happy. You know at holiday time when we swap gifts and secretly you’re always more excited to give than to get? Swapping is like that, but, (get this) it is year round.

And, people swap all sorts of things. I’ve participated in swaps for pink things, handmade dolls, handmade ornaments, handmade monsters, paper goods, cool thrifted items, mix CDs, handmade dammit dolls, aqua and blue vintage cards, and even, a vagina themed swap.

Swapping works like this:

1. You find a swap you like online
2. You contact the swap coordinator and ask to join
3. You are –usually randomly- assigned a swap partner (sometimes partners)
4. You make/find items for your partners (this is a lot of fun)
5. You ship these items by a deadline
6. You wait
7. You receive awesome goodies in your mailbox from your swap partners!

My two favorite swap sites are Swap-Bot and SwapDex. Swap-Bot requires that you join the site (free) and all swaps are hosted through the site. You are able to search, by category, a pretty exhaustive list of swaps. Once you receive goodies from a swap partner you can rate the quality of these goodies. The rating part sounds a little weird, but in actuality it insures that people don’t stiff one another etc. SwapDex is a blog that lists swaps that other people are hosting through their own personal blogs. Usually, the SwapDex swaps are a little bit more specific, and a little bit more tailored to specific tastes.

Here is an amazing swap I found out about on Swap-Bot that celebrates International Day Against Homophobia. (Oops. I just realized the hyper-link will not work because you must be logged in to swap-bot to view swaps.  So, after you get a login, use this link http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/22010 to view the swap)

So, I was thinking, why don’t we have a little Femme-tastic Swap here at The Femme Guide? Let’s swap awesome “femme” themed items with one another. And, hey, this is open to everyone, not just femmes!

In order to participate:

1. Comment below and list three fabulous things about yourself (these can be about your appearance, stuff you own, your attitude etc.) along with your blog (if you have one).
2. Leave me a way to contact you (you can write out your email address to protect yourself from bots, or email me directly at hinterland.femme@gmail.com). I will contact you for your shipping information which will only be shared with your swap partner.
3. I will match you up with another amazing reader
4. Make/buy/thrift something femme-themed for your partner inspired by the fabulous things they listed about themselves. Keep your purchase/creation under $10
5. Mail your item(s) to your swap partner.
6. Wait and receive some swap love in your mailbox
7. Post pictures of the items you send/receive in The Femme Guide Swap Flickr Pool

You can continue to join the swap until October 10^th, and let’s ship our items by October 31^st.

Other posts by MsHinterland

• How To: Wear Red Lipstick - February 7th, 2009
• Down and Dirty, Super Cheap, Easy and Fast to Make, Holiday Office Party Gift - December 17th, 2008
• Gifting Giving and Wonderful Handmade Goodness - December 4th, 2008
• How To: Make A Cupcake Pincushion From A Bottlecap - November 26th, 2008
• How To: Make Your Unearned Femme Privilege Work For You At The Hardware Store - November 24th, 2008

Tags: swap, thrift