I'm a paper crafter from way back. I use to love joining crafting groups on Yahoo before they phased the groups out. I remember 10 - 12 years ago when paper crafting was at its height I was a member of several of these groups. I was a member of an ATC group where we exchanged and hosted swaps of 6 cards at a time. ATC (Artist's Trading Cards) used to be very popular and there were even a few books written about the phenomenon at the time. I still have binders full of all my ATC cards that I traded.
Not just any old cards, these were heavily embellished with the latest trending glitter paints, embellishments, fabrics and paints from the latest designer's collection of crafting goodness. I did that for several years and enjoyed it very much.
And I was also a member of a hand made charm swap for several years where we would make and trade sets of charms made from little jewelry bits and polymer clay. We also did pendants and special projects. They all had a theme we had to stick to for each swap, a time limit to mail them in and return postage (it's really not affordable any more sadly). We would send in 8 to 10 charms in a set and get the same number back after the hostess swapped them out. I still have jars of charms and I do use them on my junk journals and I display them occasionally in my craft projects.
I was also for a short while a member of a Marie Antoinette swap group where we would exchange little paper and lace themed items like cards, paper dolls, jewelry, booklets, laces and trims, fans, cake, paper shoes, etc... anything related to Marie and I loved that group. It was so feminine. Until one of my jewelry charm swaps was returned unswapped with a note that it just wasn't good enough (in so many words). Maybe I didn't use real rhinestones or for whatever reason, I decided to quit that group. I remember thinking at the time that they were not very helpful or friendly and just plain too snobby for me. You can still look these things up on YouTube and see the sort of Marie things we made back then.
What I really loved about being a member of these groups was that we shared free patterns and helped each other learn to make pretty stuff. Well I still love Marie Antoinette and the fancy stuff. Jeanette at Mi Cottage Crafts is heavy into the Marie Antoinette style that I so love. I remember her when she was called ScrappinHappy. She is still current but has a long list of videos and links to free patterns all things Marie. You can find something to love there.
Does anyone remember Terri Heinz from Artful Affirmations? Remember Teacup Tuesdays? I do. Thirteen years ago is a long time on the internet. I remember her Fairy School tutorial that was so popular back then and I remember seeing her beautiful fancy teacup collection. I actually made a fairy school following along with her videos. Years later I tore mine apart and repurposed it into a book. The shoebox was a real dust catcher and hard to display. Joyful Compass was her YouTube channel. I was a fan and sorry when she quit crafting online.
But most memorable was her Marie Antoinette mail art group shoe swap. The pink shoe above is from that swap. Do a search and look it up on pinterest. Those were beautiful! Terri Heinz still has a free paper shoe template you can get here. There were a lot of these swaps back then. And a lot of paper, flowers, ribbon, fabric and faux jewels used on them. Aren't these beautiful?
Just taking a trip down memory lane and remembering the crafty past is fun sometimes... maybe longing for the craft way it was and maybe missing my friendly (some not so friendly) art groups. And there's nothing wrong with wishing it were like that again but it's probably not going to be. Postage is not going to come back down because businesses have bottom lines. It's just cost prohibitive now as are most things done in the past. So many more people can participate in crafts now without joining a "certain special" group because of all the social media platforms. But I'll always have my memories. And truthfully I'm grateful for the way it was and all I learned and shared. Time marches on and here's to looking for the brighter crafty days to come!
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