I know, dramatic, right – why a card swap made me cry…… But when you read the story you will understand.
Over on Stamping Family, one of the IRL – in real life – things we do is participate in card swaps. If you haven't ever done a card swap before you should do one as soon as you can! How it works is a group of people plan to create cards all with something in common (a theme, an element, etc.) and make as many of the same card as there are participants. All the card swap members mail their identical cards to a Swap Hostess and she sorts them out and sends back one of each card to all the card swap participants. You get TONS of ideas and it's really fun to see each person's twist on the swap card.
Now, there are a LOT of card swaps out there that are pretty strict in terms of timing. There are even some card swap hostesses who will not accept your cards if they come in after a certain date. There's even another membership site that if you “flake” – that means don't meet your obligation – you are BANNED from swaps for a period of time! GAH! That's the extreme but the general rule of thumb is that the “postmark by” date is pretty set in stone and if people can't meet it they typically have to drop out.
So on our latest swap on Stamping Family, the hostess got word that one of the participants was not going to be able to make the date because of a family emergency. The hostess put out a message to the other participants asking if we would give her some leeway. We all IMMEDIATELY said yes. No surprise there. Then came word that upon returning from her emergency trip she was ill and thought we would want her to drop out of the swap. Well not one single Stamping Family member was on board with that. They ALL said for her to take her time and do her card swaps when she was ready and we would all wait for her. Not just that but the outpouring of concern for her swiftly took over the concern over the cards.
This, THIS, showed me that I had achieved what I wanted through my site and I shed tears over how kind and caring and just plain NICE everyone was over this. It's not like that on all sites and when I started Stamping Family it was always my hope to be the ANTI-“membership site” membership site. No judging, no mean girls, no shutting people down. Just fun and kindness and sharing and paper crafting and teaching and learning and being a FAMILY when it comes to the important stuff.
If this sounds like YOU we would LOVE to meet you! We would love to have you sharing and chatting and learning and teaching and having fun with us. At less than $10 (one penny less but still!) Stamping Family could be the best investment you make for yourself. The only thing missing from the next Stamping Family card swap is YOU!
