Come Craft With Rachel Johnson of Swap-Bot.com at Etsy Labs

julieincharge

Story by julieincharge

Published on Jan 28, 2010 in Events

Photo by Swap-bot

Love is in the air at the Etsy Labs. Our hearts will surely sing if you join us to make matchbox valentines (tutorial here)at Craft Night with Rachel Johnson — whether you’re in Brooklyn, or anywhere in the world.

Stop by for our weekly Craft Night in our online multi-user chat room, the Virtual Labs, for a live online demo at 5 p.m. ET, or in person at the Etsy Labs in Brooklyn anytime between 4-8 p.m. at 55 Washington Street, Suite 512 in Brooklyn, New York. (Click here to see what time 5 p.m. ET is in your hometown.) Craft Night is a time to make things, sharpen your craft skills, and connect with fellow crafters.

On Monday, February 1, Rachel Johnson will show us how to transform matchboxes into sweet little valentines and gifts. Altered matchboxes are small favors or gift boxes that can be decorated in any style or theme — including Valentine’s Day! Some crafters decorate real, empty matchboxes, but if you don’t have any of those handy you can create the little boxes from scratch using card stock or light cardboard. (A printable PDF template is available for download on the Swap-bot blog.) The small paper boxes can be decorated with patterned papers, ribbon, and other small embellishments. You can fill the boxes with a paper valentine message or a small gift.

If you are interested in trying out a matchbox swap on Swap-Bot (more details on Swap-Bot below), come join the February Love Matchbox Swap.

Rachel Johnson (on the left) is the co-owner and sole administrator of the art and craft community website, Swap-bot.com. Swap-bot is a web tool used to coordinate group craft and pen pal swaps. It is also a community with over 25,000 members where you can share, create, chat, and have fun with other artists, crafters, writers, and makers from all over the world.

Rachel created Swap-bot in 2005 with her husband, Travis, and has recently devoted herself full time to running the site.

If you are attending Craft Night virtually this week and would like to craft along with us, you’ll need to gather the following supplies:

  • Matchbox template (Download a free matchbox template PDF from the Swap-bot blog here.)
  • Thick card stock and/or light cardboard, like a cereal box
  • Pencil
  • Scissors
  • Bone folder or other scoring instrument
  • Ruler
  • Glue
  • Decorative papers and other embellishments for decorating your Valentine box



Upcoming Events at the Etsy Labs in Brooklyn:

2/8: Heatpress printing with Dari of papismami
2/15: President’s Day: Craft Night canceled.
2/22: Open Craft Night
3/1: Hatmaking with desirapesta

Looking for further paper craft inspiration? 

Rolling Ball Books | Paper Boxes | How-Tuesday Projects

Will we see you on Monday? Let us know in the comments below.

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