Manjigirl

I have been addicted to crafts for more years than my cupboards can bear. For me the process of mastering a new craft is very important and satisfying. I tend to get busy with one area and then move on to another, continually adding to the things I need to collect and do! Swapbot is great for broadening my creative horizons. I am loving the challenge of making something I otherwise would not have thought about and seeing other people's efforts. I now have a whole new perspective on my stash.

I prefer to enter swaps where I can complete the project before the actual sign up date as I find this suits my need to be on top of things and guilt free! My other favourite swaps are profile based or private. preferably with a larger number of cards needed for the swap. I always read my partners profiles and aim to send something that they will be pleased with. I send and rate promptly and always give the host a star because, hey, they went to the trouble of making a lovely swap for me to join!

Having been active for a while now I have prioritsed my collecting and now only keep items in the themes listed below. I have quite a few lovely ATC's to trade on. Will happily set up a 2 for one trade... send me one you made in my theme and I will send you two I no longer require. PM me! My themes are: vintage women and children; christmas; things with wings; fairytale and nursery rhymes, steampunk. Even though it is a fairly small selection I still have great fun and get tempted into trying out new themes!

I also reuse, regift, reinvent and recycle. It has been an interesting journey to discover I get more excited over an 80 year old postcard, photo or postage stamp than a recently purchased and pristine designer paper!

Love things you can work by - Robby Williams and Rob Thomas to get the creative juices going, Neil Diamond for finishing the details, Shakirra for mopping the floor!

I am a loyal reader - Jane Austen and yep Harry Potter! Mostly though I love to look at the pictures inspirational craft books... I am a visual learner and rarely read the instructions unless forced too!!

I have my favourite comfortable movies - Jane Austen and Harry Potter again, generally light hearted escapist stuff!

With TV I like mysteries ie tv with a plot. I love trying to guess who 'dunnit' before all is revealed. I also love shows with aliens in - star trek, stargate, star wars!

Altered art, folk art, patchwork, scrapbooking, card making and creative machine embroidery. Basically you could summarise my interests as anything that uses paper, paint or fabric!

I love really busy, textural, creative pieces probably because my own work is often a bit neat and minimalistic!

I collect ATC's and art journal pages only in certain themes now and am always happy to receive something related to their creation. My themes are pretty simple:

1. Vintage and steampunk.
2. Anything with wings especially altered victorian women and children.
3. Flowers.
4. Children's books and nursery rhymes.
5. Christmas.

I am happy to receice anything related to their creation such as:

• vintage items, lace, buttons, papers, game pieces, tickets, handwritten letters, postcards

• fairy tales and nursery rhymes, children's story books

• my favourite colours to work with are sepia, rose, black & white. Or the brighter tones like aqua, mandarin, marigold.

• things with wings including but not limited to fairies and angels, altered women and children (sorry guys!),

• Did I mention I love Christmas? Santa, green, red and gold, trees, angels, madonna, kids with presents. Love it all!

Usually I wake up my stamp collection once every 10yrs or so and add a bit and move on. I have been really happy with the swappers I have met here. Now I am really making progress so much so that I have now restricted my collection to themes that make me happy!

I collect stamps by the themes of:

1. Festive - covers Christmas, valentines day etc.
2. Flora and fauna - who doesn't love nature!
3. Famous - to cover things like Disney and movies / movies stars, the British Royal Family (only).
4. Can't help myself when it comes to numbered stamps and old ones.

I no longer collect stamps in the themes of sport, marine, transport and politicians / scientists etc. I also have several FDC's in these themes which I am happy to pass on as extras to people who like them.

Everything left over I collect depending on whether I want the stamp for arts sake! Generally the more colourful the stamp the better!

There is not much I don't enjoy receiving really.

• I guess work with little artistic pride invested would be the main one and messy work, you know the type of thing - a sticker on a background picture, copies, crooked cutting and glueing, stuff falling off etc.

• I am not into modern 'cutetsy', spongbob or halloween. I don't do pink often either.

Being in Australia there are certain items that you must not send:

seeds or other plant materials (pressed leaves etc.); shells; soil & sand; tea with fruit pieces; incense; dried/pressed flowers; raw nuts/seeds; any animal products such as raw hide; feathers, etc.; any wooden items This is not as restrictive as you think! I have only had one swap opened to date and it passed quarantine. I fully support our quarantine laws.