Fat Book Swap!!

O.K. Ladies, it's time to talk about our first swap....

Fat Books!!

What is a Fat Book -

Fat Books are a collection of 4" x 4" pages made and decorated either to a theme, or just general ones.

They can be decorated, embellished etc. in any way, but leaving embellishments clear of the left hand margin by about half an inch to allow for holes to be punched for making into a book.

Use as thick cardstock or thin chipboard to make nice sturdy pages.

You can make covers for your book, and use book rings (2" are best as these books can become very fat) to bind all of your pages together.

Some people put their pages in CD covers so as not to make holes in the pages.

The backs are decorated too, not so much as the front, but they will be seen as the pages of the back are turned, and details of the name of the page, CSF, date, and your name are added. (just like on the backs of ATC cards for those of you who make them.)

Swap Themes...

We as a group will decide on a theme for the Fat Book. This could be based on colors, quotes, styles (retro, vintage, etc.); techniques, etc. The possibilities are endless! I'm thinking I will post a poll and the one with the most votes is what we'll do. Once we decide on the main theme of the Fat Book each participant will decide on one or two (depending on # of people & how fat we want our Fat Books) weekly/bi-weekly themes for everyone to work on.

How fat do we want our Fat Books & how long do we want to take?

We will need to decide these two factors before we begin - normally there is a set theme for the book and each player decides on a weekly/bi-weekly theme that each person works on.

For example, say our Fat Books general theme is Quotes. Each person will choose a specific theme (weekly/bi-weekly)to work on. These might be - 1) Quotes from famous People; 2) Humorous Quotes; 3) Quotes about the seasons; 4) Quotes from fictional characters; etc.

So, each person would work on each them - say we have 10 people in the swap - you would make 10 pages for #1, 10 pages for #2, 10 pages for #3, etc. NOW DON"T FREAK OUT...I KNOW this sounds like alot of work but the pages are ONLY 4x4 and won't take long at all to make. After all, you're coming up with a quote which can be a rubber stamp or computer generated and work your embellishments & art work around that quote. These will go very quickly once you get into the groove.

In the end of this swap you would have 10 pages (per person) x 10 themes - 100 pages! If we did it weekly it would take about 3 months...bi-weekly about 6 months or if you'd rather we could have 5 themes and end up with 50 pages.

How swapping pages would work....

Well there are a few ways we can work this....

I have seen some swaps where the weekly or bi-weekly themes are set at the beginning of the swap. You will have 1-2 weeks to work on each theme and send to the hostess who will hold them all of the pages until all of the themes are done. She swaps & returns the finished Fat Book to each person. (this could be months down the line).

Some swaps have each person send their pages to each individual player when they are completed. I personally think this would get WAY expensive in a hurry!

or

I was thinking we could have set themes for each week and everyone could send their pages in once a month. (this time frame would help keep everyone on track and not fall behind but still be manageable.) That way it would cut down on postage and if someone wants to work ahead they can. I could either compile the pages as in the first option and return the pages to each person monthly or all at once (depending on how everyone wants to work it.).

SO, first things first....who wants to play? I am going to limit each group to 10 people or if someone pref. to start smaller we can work in groups of 5. I'm open to either or both. If there is enough interest, we could have a group of 10 and another group of just 5.

I will take sign ups until the end of April and we will see what we have participant wise. Please let me know when you sign up if you'd like to be in a group of 5 or a group of 10. The beginning of May we will set the group(s) and decide on themes.

You can either post your name, group pref. & e-mail addy in the comments or e-mail me directly. Either way works :)

And don't be shy! Everyone can play...in the US and out :)