I'm Hosting My First Swap

I have been thinking about this for awhile now and I've decided to host a swap, The Brown Paper Bag Swap. The Brown Paper Bag is such a simple item and how many of us started off as little kids crafting with brown paper bags? In school we decorated them for goodie bags, made puppets out of them, used them for our lunches, etc.... My mom made my little guy, Jace, a brown paper bag scrapbook when he was born. It was so cute and yet so simple. I love it!!


So what I am thinking is that we (hopefully others like this idea too and join the swap!) could use a brown paper bag and create something for our partner out of it. It doesn't matter how you use the bag as long as it is somehow used in your swap. It could be added to your art piece, made into a tag, it could be the main part of the item, whatever you can come up with.


Extra goodies can be included if you would like. I have found out doing swaps that most people include goodies and it does make it kind of fun!

My rules for the swap are:

1. You must use a brown paper bag in your handmade swap item.
2. You MUST contact your swap partner by email. You need to say "Hi", introduce yourself and then tell them a little about yourself. I am making this a rule because I have participated in a couple of swaps and have never heard from the person I am exchanging with. I think this takes away from the whole point of the swap and kind of leaves everything up in the air. Make a new friend, it doesn't mean you have to email them constantly, but be friendly.
3. There is $15.00 (+ or - a little) price limit.

Okay, sounds simple enough, doesn't it? Please email me at sherryreneew@hotmail.com or leave me a comment on my blog if you would like to join the swap. I need your

1. Name
2. Email address
3. Blog address if you have one

• I will take sign ups until Sunday May 18, 2008. The mail out date for your brown paper bag item will be June 12, 2008 (that is anniversary day the patent was granted for the machine that makes the paper bags we use now days.)
• I also have a hotmail code for the badge, as plain as it is, if you would like it I'll send it to you after you join the swap. Please spread the word if your interested and feel free to post info about the swap so others will join. I'm so excited to see what everyone comes up with!!!
• I will open a Flickr Group up for the projects to be posted to if you want to join it. http://www.flickr.com/groups/746844@N23/

If your interested, here is a little history on the Brown Paper Bag as we know it now. There were other paper bags before this and other people involved in the invention of the bags. I just decided to post about the type of bags that are familiar to us now days.

Square-Bottom Paper Bag w/ pleated sides

On June 12, 1883 the U.S. Patent office issued #279,505 to Chas Stilwell a patent for a paper bag machine. After fighting for the Union in the Civil War, Charles Stilwell began to tinker with the idea of making a better paper bag. Paper bags already existed at this time, but they had many flaws. They had to be pasted together by hand; their V-shaped bottoms prevented them from standing on their own; and they were not easily collapsible or conveniently stackable. In the summer of 1883, Stilwell put into operation the first machine to produce paper bags. The bags had flat bottoms for standing up straight by themselves and pleated sides that made them easy to fold and stack. Dubbed the S.O.S., or Self-Opening Sack, it remains in widespread use today. With the birth of the American supermarket in the early 1930s, demand for Stilwell’s paper bags skyrocketed. Their versatility, strength, and low cost made them first a nationwide then a worldwide phenomenon.