missesdisney
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2006
- Messages
- 2,215
Since our family of swappers has grown so much lately, and the size of the swaps, number of groups and complexity of the swaps has increased as well, I felt it was important to review some of the rules for swapping with everyone.
There is a sticky thread with a swap glossary here:
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1306030
I encourage all swappers, both new and veterans to read the glossary and become familiar again with the guidelines that the hostesses have set up. Of course, each hostess provides their own specific guidelines which should be reviewed carefully for each swap and followed. These guidelines are there so that each of us receives back work made with love and effort at the quality we are putting out ourselves.
As I have just completed two swaps, I also want to mention that there were many many late packages sent for the swaps, and that this is something that all swappers need to be more respectful of. There were instances where it could not be helped, and these things happen but it seems that lately in all of the swaps it has become more of the norm than the exception. As a hostess, I schedule the sign ups and the due date when I know that I can meet the obligations associated with those, and when there are delays in receiving back the swaps, it causes exponential delays in sending out the packages since I have to wait for the complete sets to do the swapping and then package and get to the mail. As a fairly new hostess I will say it is a tremendous amount of work, which I am happy to take on, but it is a huge responsibility to have to hold up so many people who followed the rules and got things in on time because a few were late. In the case of the eat swap, the delay was weeks due to the lateness of receiving the packages because I had scheduled the dates to swap out that worked for me and then my schedule did not allow that time after the late receipts.
Another thing Ive noticed recently in both my swaps and others received is the inconsistency in following the guidelines. Now my work is not always overly embellished, or Martha Stewart quality, but I am always very careful to follow the guidelines, or if I think that the design warrants a variation, I PM the hostess to check first. My concern is not with style or design, as many simple designs are quite beautiful and meet the guidelines, however, I have received a number of pieces in the past few months that are not embellished at all, or are just plain short of what the guidelines should be. No hostess is taking a ruler to the photo mat or topper, but if the guideline for a piece says 8x2, then it should be roughly that overall surface size. It is extremely frustrating for someone who spends a lot of money on fancy embellishments or someone who spends a lot of time on intricate paper piecings to receive back a photo mat that does not have the required three layers and not so much as a brad on it to embellish it. For the basic pieces (topper, photo mat, journal box, tag) the guidelines do not vary much from hostess to hostess so those pieces should be pretty standard in quality. The more artistic pieces such as paper piecings, matchbooks, etc may have a little more artistic license and this is where a prototype with a PM to the hostess would be more appropriate if there is any question.
Last item is that with the swaps getting so large, there are a lot of people who are signing up for a lot of groups who simply are not handling the load of those groups. In my own swap, we had one swapper who just disappeared and I had to scramble to take care of the rest of the people who did a good job. She was in something like 16 groups. Some people can handle a lot of groups and do it well and some cannot. If you are finding that you are struggling to get groups done or rushing to finish and missing the details that allow the requirements to be met, or if the swaps are late because of this, then please cut back on how many groups you sign up for. In future swaps I will be limiting anyone who has not swapped with us to two groups so I can personally angel if needed and I encourage other hostesses to do the same.
I will also be reviewing the guidelines for all the swaps I participate in (I just PMd AWM with prototypes of my toppers to be sure of some things) and will also review the glossary and be sure that I am meeting all of the guidelines. After doing this for a while we all become comfortable and I think its extremely important that every swapper take the time to re-familiarize ourselves with what is expected so we can all have quality work in our books for years to come.
Please feel free to ask any questions of myself or any of the hostesses on active swaps. I am taking a hostessing hiatus for a while as the last two took a lot out of me.
There is a sticky thread with a swap glossary here:
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1306030
I encourage all swappers, both new and veterans to read the glossary and become familiar again with the guidelines that the hostesses have set up. Of course, each hostess provides their own specific guidelines which should be reviewed carefully for each swap and followed. These guidelines are there so that each of us receives back work made with love and effort at the quality we are putting out ourselves.
As I have just completed two swaps, I also want to mention that there were many many late packages sent for the swaps, and that this is something that all swappers need to be more respectful of. There were instances where it could not be helped, and these things happen but it seems that lately in all of the swaps it has become more of the norm than the exception. As a hostess, I schedule the sign ups and the due date when I know that I can meet the obligations associated with those, and when there are delays in receiving back the swaps, it causes exponential delays in sending out the packages since I have to wait for the complete sets to do the swapping and then package and get to the mail. As a fairly new hostess I will say it is a tremendous amount of work, which I am happy to take on, but it is a huge responsibility to have to hold up so many people who followed the rules and got things in on time because a few were late. In the case of the eat swap, the delay was weeks due to the lateness of receiving the packages because I had scheduled the dates to swap out that worked for me and then my schedule did not allow that time after the late receipts.
Another thing Ive noticed recently in both my swaps and others received is the inconsistency in following the guidelines. Now my work is not always overly embellished, or Martha Stewart quality, but I am always very careful to follow the guidelines, or if I think that the design warrants a variation, I PM the hostess to check first. My concern is not with style or design, as many simple designs are quite beautiful and meet the guidelines, however, I have received a number of pieces in the past few months that are not embellished at all, or are just plain short of what the guidelines should be. No hostess is taking a ruler to the photo mat or topper, but if the guideline for a piece says 8x2, then it should be roughly that overall surface size. It is extremely frustrating for someone who spends a lot of money on fancy embellishments or someone who spends a lot of time on intricate paper piecings to receive back a photo mat that does not have the required three layers and not so much as a brad on it to embellish it. For the basic pieces (topper, photo mat, journal box, tag) the guidelines do not vary much from hostess to hostess so those pieces should be pretty standard in quality. The more artistic pieces such as paper piecings, matchbooks, etc may have a little more artistic license and this is where a prototype with a PM to the hostess would be more appropriate if there is any question.
Last item is that with the swaps getting so large, there are a lot of people who are signing up for a lot of groups who simply are not handling the load of those groups. In my own swap, we had one swapper who just disappeared and I had to scramble to take care of the rest of the people who did a good job. She was in something like 16 groups. Some people can handle a lot of groups and do it well and some cannot. If you are finding that you are struggling to get groups done or rushing to finish and missing the details that allow the requirements to be met, or if the swaps are late because of this, then please cut back on how many groups you sign up for. In future swaps I will be limiting anyone who has not swapped with us to two groups so I can personally angel if needed and I encourage other hostesses to do the same.
I will also be reviewing the guidelines for all the swaps I participate in (I just PMd AWM with prototypes of my toppers to be sure of some things) and will also review the glossary and be sure that I am meeting all of the guidelines. After doing this for a while we all become comfortable and I think its extremely important that every swapper take the time to re-familiarize ourselves with what is expected so we can all have quality work in our books for years to come.
Please feel free to ask any questions of myself or any of the hostesses on active swaps. I am taking a hostessing hiatus for a while as the last two took a lot out of me.
) and embellish according to the guidelines, people are going to be happy. I know it sounds like a lot but it is swap basics.
I love swapping on this board!!!!
and I do honestly try to do things to the best of my abilityto do work you'd all use. and I'm not ashamed to say that I know for a fact I am no where even in the same ball park as most of you are. I know you are all nice and say you like what I make. But if you do ever have an issue with me please don't hesitate to PM me
