October 31st: Hi everyone, I have decided to take a little break from swap-bot. I am starting back at work full-time on Monday after a year off so any time I have left will be dedicated to the baby and my husband. I will still be doing some private swaps (Ebony!!) and will check in from time to time. I have all of my swaps sent out and I am still waiting on a couple of swaps to arrive. I will rate my partners when they arrive so don't worry! I just feel like lately I haven't been giving swap-bot my full concentration like I used to and I have a few other online swapping groups, as well as my etsy and youtube to keep up with. Anyway, hopefully I will be back soon. Those of you on my friends list can still contact me on facebook.

Louise xx

I am married to my wonderful husband for 2 years now and I gave birth to our beautiful baby boy on April 9th 2009. Finn is his name and he is the light of our lives. He is growing bigger and cuter everyday and his big gummy smiles just melt my heart. When i'm not crafting or swapping, i work as a theatre nurse which i love.

I'm a girly girl and a tomboy all rolled into one. I love to explore different theories, religions and ways of life. My dreams vary from day to day, from living in luxury to giving it all up for the simple life (south american tribe anyone?). I don't make friends too easily as is takes a special person to get me.

I'm not easily shocked or offended... so be not afraid..

Thats my intro for now so feel free to pm me if you would like to do a private swap or just want to say hello!

Ps. I love to recycle mailing supplies like boxes and padded envies. I also use the cardboard boxes i get a work for my bigger packages. I am a nurse so they are medical supply boxes. T hey are always clean and covered in extra brown paper wrapping but if it is a problem for you, you may not want to swap with me.

THEMES I LOVE:

• Zettiology
• sea/nautical
• retro
• vintage
• colour combo's from my likes list
• rainbow
• winter
• Owl's
• Paris
• Shabby Chic
• Kitsch
• Asian
• Gothic

• Bird (not cutesy, I like ravens/crows)

• I love bright colours and working with golds, silvers, bright and pastel pinks, orange, lime green, red, purple, blue and yellow.

• I just discovered art journaling and it has absorbed me! I'm completely obsessed and love working in my journal so far.

• ATC's and Skinny's- I love to make and receive ATC's. My favourite themes for these are Vintage, Zetti, French, Owl and Oriental. I am new to Skinny's and am addicted to the larger base thanks to dBowie!!!

• Altered Art- I love to alter the things i use like journals, albums, pen holders etc..

• I love to bake and cook. I like to try new recipes especially anything sweet or spicey. I collect recipes and cookbooks from all over the world.

• I love to make Paper Bag albums and Mini Albums in a variety of themes.

Hopefully there is enough variety here to give you some ideas of what I like to use:

• Bottlecaps

• Stickles

• Any small found objects that I can use for embellishing or as charms.

• Clear acrylic sheets, tags, fragments, charms, albums. Anything!

• Aileens Collage Pauge

• Collage sheets all themes

• Teeny tiny glass/plastic bottles, I can't find these anywhere.

• Stayzon ink pads, all colours.

• Clear embossing liquid daubers or screw top lid..

• Clear UTEE is a huge wish for me, I can't buy it in Ireland so I stock up when I am in the USA.

• Large shipping tags

• Unusual and pretty glass beads.

• Metal chain for hanging charms.

• Jump rings

• Chipboard frames, all sizes and shapes

• Diecuts of small wings, crowns and hats in all colours/patterns for using on collage work/atcs.

• Empty tins/boxes for altering.

• Ephemera- I love to receive old book pages, maps, vintage images, tickets etc...

• Raffle tickets in all colours.

• Lace in all colours

• Metal embellishments and hinges for using in altering.

• Ultra fine sharpie pens in all colours but I would especially love black. Again i can't buy any here, only regular sharpies.

• Anything French themed, i have an obsession with all things Paris right now!!

• Cookbooks and recipes on recipe cards. I would also love some blank recipe cards. I am working on an altered box to hold them in right now. The cookbooks I am looking for include an Elvis cookbook, Asian, Indian, regional USA, Carribean, Soul Food, BBQ, Italian, Vintage, Retro. I am looking for those regional USA cookbooks that are printed out i think by local churches? Also those magazines that are near the checkout stands in the grocery store.

• Things for journalling like prompts, journalling squares/tags etc...

• Charms, the small flat-ish metal ones

• Mounted Rubber or unmounted clear stamps and ink pads in all colours, even the small ones. I don't like the cutsey rubber stamps. I use rubber stamps by tim holtz and basic grey. I have the entire visual artistry collection. I would love owls, keys, flourishes/accents, keyholes, patterned backgrounds etc.

• Craft books, magazines or just pages on different techniques, can even be printed from the internet. Anything on altered art would make me so happy!

• Scrabble tiles, dominos and other small game pieces.

• Chipboard!! I would love squares for book covers and letters or shapes, plain or decorated welcome.

• Candies: I love gummies, Tim Tams, Twinkies, white chocolate, milk chocolate, peanuts, caramel, milk duds. I love orange and chocolate together!!

• Prima Flowers all colours

• I would really appreciate paper lunch bags for making paper bag albums. All sizes welcome in lots of 6. It would help me out big time!!

• Broken jewellery, old watch parts.

• Embossing pen and embossing powders.

• Alcohol ink all colours

• Anything i can use for distressing papers.

• Metal rings for binding together pages.

• Eyelets in all colours. Not the fancy shapes though, just plain old round ones!

• Modge Podge

• Supplies for my art journal e.g. acrylic paints (tubes and fluid), watercolour crayons or water soluble oil pastels, Gesso white and black, paint brushes, collage sheets, semi-gloss gel medium, texture gel mediums etc....

• White paint pens

• Black pens that will write on anything!

• Tim Holtz/Ranger: I love and use almost anything to do with this range. Distress inks, distress tools, mini misters, alcohol inks, grunge board, salvage stickers, any of the metal embellishments, perfect pearls, distress re-inkers, crackle paint, glossy accents adhesive, clear fragments and all of the metal embellishments from the idea-ology range.

• An etsy fave or something inspired by it.

• Gemstones and bling. A huge bonus if these were already self adhesive.

• Anything by 7 gypsies e.g. papers, journaling tags, Tags, pockets, embellishments

• Anything by Maya Road, Heidi Swapp and Graphic 45.

I don't want to seem fussy or ungrateful but I would rather not receive:

• Stationary.

• Cartoon characters other than Hello Kitty and Kawaii. No disney, diddle, high school musical, hanna montanna etc...

• Items for the home, hair or body.

• Teacher/reward stickers

• Things that are badly used, dirty and torn. You would be suprised at some of the things i have received!

• No teas, dark chocolate or liqourice flavours.

• Things that are too cutesy

• I will always send on time if not early as i like to be organized with my swaps so if a swap does not reach you please mail me asap so i can re-send .

• Communication is very important to me. As i said before i like to be organized so please keep communication open at all times.

• If a swap is going to be late, please just email me honestly wether its going to be a week or a month late. Just tell me! I will of course understand. I only get upset when people lie.

• By all means approach me for a private swap. I sometimes prefer them to public ones. Just ask and we can sort something out.

• I always rate quickly and will communicate before i leave a low rating, please do the same for me. I like to think if a swap goes wrong we can communicate and sort it out before it gets ugly :):)

• I love forum tags and keep a record of sent and recieved on my profile as i don't write them in my swap book. So if i owe you something from a tag, check here for the date it was sent. If you don't see it, please let me know so i can send it out asap. Tags are only taken off the list once they are sent and recieved.

I know this is a subject talked about a lot but here is where I stand. I love to look through my partners profile to see what they like. I almost always include a baggie of things they have listed on their profile. However, I can't always do this as sometimes money and supplies are low. I never expect extras with the packages I receive so don't feel that you have to include something other than the swap. I also don't rate for extras, I only rate the swap itself!

Hearts are subjective, they are up to the individual rating at that time. There are no requirements in the rules of swap-bot about what deserves a heart! Please don't ask me to give you one. Likewise, I will never ask for a heart. Lets not get so hung up about hearts!!!

SENDING

OWED

• Trinket- 3 atc's GGGW group.