ready for some christmas swapping goodness?

I know it's a wee bit early yet, but I want us all to get a jump on things this year. I'm opening sign-ups for this year's Christmas ornament swap right now! If there is enough interest I'll do a five for five Christmas ATC swap too, just let me know via comments on this post.

To sign-up for the ornament swap, send me an email (amy AT aplcreations DOT com) with your name, mailing address, and blog or flickr link. Sign-ups will close when I have twenty swappers OR Friday, November 14th, whichever occurs first.

This will be a five for five swap. The theme is broad: Christmas/Winter. This means anything Christmassy or wintery is fair game. Check out all the awesomeness from years past right here for some inspiration. The only real RULE I have is that your ornaments MUST be something you would be thrilled to receive from someone else as a gift. If you run out of time or aren't finding the right inspiration it's perfectly fine to back out of the swap. All you have to do is drop me an email saying, "hey, time got away...too much Christmas shopping left to do...kids are sick, etc." Easy as pie, no one will be left in a lurch, and there will be other swaps! I will completely understand...I know, I've been there myself :).

Try to keep your ornaments' weight under two ounces a piece so we can keep the postage down. The idea is keep each box at a pound or less. If your ornies end up a tad on the heavy side, just send along some extra postage or a couple bucks to cover it. Be sure to package your ornaments in a sturdy box that I can re-use to mail your new ornaments back to you. You must put a tracking number on the box (if you print your postage online the tracking is free, otherwise it costs less than a dollar). As far as return postage goes, you can print off a Priority Mail postage paid label at USPS.com and enclose it in your package for me to use or you can send along $5 and I'll print the label for you.

The mail-to-me deadline will be Monday, December 1st. For all my fellow procrastinators, this means your mail-to-me date will be Wednesday, November 26th. If you finish your ornaments early, send them to me early, I don't mind! In fact I'll make bonus treats for early birds...

So, to sum up:

• send me five handmade by you ornaments and I'll send you back five handmade by other people ornaments.
• remember the Golden Rule when making your ornaments. Give as you would want to get.
• pack them in a sturdy, re-useable box.
• email me your tracking number so I can keep track of everyone's whereabouts. We don't want anyone's hard work to go missing if we can help it!
• don't forget to enclose a pre-paid Priority Mail label or $5 for return postage.