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Hey all you themed swappers!! You know who you are!

I am starting to think about next year and would appreciate any ideas you might have for themes or changes you would like to see in our swap. I would love to see a little more participation each month. We seem to be squeaking under the wire for full swaps lately.

One of the things I was thinking about was changing from cards to other tradeable art for some of the months or even for all of the months.

Here are some of my ideas, still keeping with a theme each month:

Inchies, Twinchies or Thrinchies-- as in you would choose which size you would make following the theme and then you might get back a variety of these depending on the participants. (a piece of art someone would like to put on the front of a card)

ATCs--pretty self explanatory

4x6 (or 5x7 or 6x9) Scramble--like the one Pam did last year

I'm open for more ideas too! This is just what I've been thinking about.

If you have an idea for either the format or an actual new theme to try, please post here, so I can compile and come up with a list.

thanks, everyone!

I like the card swaps... I just need to make myself participate every month! Ideas... hmmm... humorous cards? cards using glitter of some sort? How about misted cards... lots of us have Glimmer Mists, Shimmer Sprays, Memory Mists, etc. that can be used on a card. And seasonal cards.... one for each season.... I've got a ton of stamps for those. Maybe some color combo cards.... like the challenges Christy posts? Or ones using embossing folders or dry embossing with stencils?

Monica

I think the variety would be interesting.........I also like keeping cards in once in a while....just do a little mix up........learning new things would get me out of my box of doing the 'same ole safe" cards

Thanks

I'm a cards-only participant. Since I'm not doing much with paper, I don't want to make/collect more bits, KWIM? I love the card swaps and have really enjoyed seeing everyone's work IRL. Ideas, hmmm ... sketches, specific type of embellishment, patterned paper, also embossing sounds good.

I just did a challenge where the host posts a photo from a design magazine - participants have to use the photo for color/style inspiration. It was fun and definitely challenged me!

I like Beth's ideas, especially the sketch, I find I like challenging myself with sketches! - and the one Pam suggested with a photo.

I think by next year I should be ready to participate - this year I felt over-whelmed and so haven't swapped much.

I'm liking all the ideas I'm getting. Keep 'em coming!

How about something like 4 celebration cards ... Then everyone gets one card for each of the 4 named celebrations..
EG: Christmas, Easter, Valentines Day, Birthday

Sharon, great idea!

How about cards inspired by famous paintings? Or places? Or eras?

these all sound good! I will compile a list the first week of December and if we have more than 12 new ideas we'll do a poll and see what we like best.

So, keep the ideas coming, 2 months to think about it.

I know the two cards I'm always in need of are Kids B-Day and Mens B-day.

Another thought could be a free for all. Just design someting and send it. It may be interesting to see what is created.

I think I'd tend to go for Beth's idea about sketches......and Sharon's idea about holidays......

Diana

I'm with Jenni on needing man-cards. Kids, not so much.

I agree about masculine birthday cards. I don't celebrate all of the holidays that were listed, but if there is enough interest, I will just skip that month and try to get ahead for the following month!

I think the sketches idea was also good. So were the other ones re glimmer mists (I have them here somewhere ). The idea of humorous cards intimidates me - there is a wide variety in different people's sense of humor. Maybe I am overthinking this? When I need a funny card, I usually buy it.

Sadly, lately, I have needed quite a few sympathy cards - for parents of friends, etc. I'd definitely like to build up a stash of those as it is hard to get motivated to make them.

One other idea - that I think we did on this board way back when - or maybe it was just last year! LOL. We had to make a card with an ATC on it.