Rich Pickings at #RichieValentineSwap

/ February 11, 2016

It is slightly ironic that I am today bringing a little fandom love initiative to your attention that mainly played out on Twitter. Ironic – because it coincides with my annual cleansing exercise/challenge. Despite no religious affiliation, I take Lent as an opportunity to challenge myself to give up a few things that I enjoy too much. Such as chocolate. Or crisps. Or Social Media. I could never give up fangirling over RA, by the way, despite overdosing on him on a regular basis. So I have disconnected from FB and Twitter for the next six weeks, only allowing my automatic updates to post over there, along with some scheduled picture posts to celebrate my New Zealand anniversary. No worries, I do not count WordPress as a Social Media platform and I will continue to post here throughout Lent. I need my daily fix of RA news and fan communication; giving up my blog would be a challenge I could not possibly conquer. I rely on all you lovely readers and bloggers to keep me up to date on the latest news re. Mr A then…

But back to the topic of today’s post. If you read my most recent post on the wonderful Valentine’s gifts I received at the start of the week, you may already be familiar with the #RichieValentineSwap. On our second outing in the wonderful world of fangirl cRAfting, we were still a small select group of participants who created RA-themed gifts for each other. And I would like to take the opportunity and give you a small insight into the fabulous gifts that were exchanged for the Valentine’s swap. (All pictures courtesy of the swap participants as below)

RVSwap 1RVSwap 3I hope my notes are not incomplete and I am matching the gifts properly, but I’ll try to give credit as best as I can. Starting at the top left of picture 1, you can see the fabulous RA scrapbook made by Aquilea @erebors_aquilea. Below is the luxurious Thorin frame, created by Paula @PaulaJo83. (I am the proud owner of one such frame, too – see here). The heart in the middle contains Nancy @_sinnamin‘s ingenious chaRActer garland, and the two pictures on the right are the amazing RA colouring book that Rachel @racheburns created from scratch. Yes, that includes actually handdrawing the pictures!

The swap continues in picture 2 with a Valentine RAPS by yours truly, below that a unique once-off, handpainted mug by Sydney @fleurdelisgirli. @Hariclea‘s delightful scrapbook is bottom right, and in the centre are what look like a compact and a heart-shaped hip flask by Tina @kudzugirl. Oh, and a sweet RA-in-heart by Nancy that acts as the #RichieValentineSwap logo, is in there, too.

The project has been such great fun, again, and if you would like to see better, bigger pictures of the various items, check the hashtag #RichieValentineSwap on twitter. You can communicate with the lovely crafters by clicking on the links under their handles in the text above. Do give them some love on Twitter – I am not going there 😉 And lastly, if you are crafty, yourself, why don’t you join the fun next time around? Plans are afoot…

❤ ❤ ❤

PS: I am not done with Valentine’s yet. Psssst: reveal and raffle to follow tomorrow!

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59 thoughts on “Rich Pickings at #RichieValentineSwap”

  1. So much fun! I had meant to join in and then got sidetracked, but it’s great to see all the wonderfully creative results!!

    Good luck with your “fast” (now I won’t be worried that my last blathering DM was unanswered…it wasn’t me, it was Lent 😜)

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    • Yeah, I was wondering where you were ;-). Maybe you can come back into it next time?
      And definitely not ignoring your or any other’s DM on Twitter. Merely on hiatus. All rants and blathers to my e-mail, please 🙂

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    • Oh, I have some ideas for you… how about a Guy of Gisborne-inspired piece of jewellery that consists of black and yellow beads? Or Thorin in blues and some furry browns? Porter in khaki, and Lucas in cool blues, with the occasional red bead thrown in (Pete the banker’s tie)… Skin-tones and bright red for Francis Dolaryhde???
      Ok, I am getting carried away… Must be all the unspilt silliness left while avoiding Twitter 😉

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  4. Herzig – eure geballte (Bastel)Leidenschaft so auf einen Blick. Ich bin immer wieder erstaunt, was ein Mensch bei anderen so alles auslösen kann.
    Gerade habe ich RAs Audible Interview über “David Copperfield” bei Servetus gesehen und bin ganz bewegt. Ich glaube, für RA ist das Buch tatsächlich etwas Besonderes, weil er es mit Menschen, die ihm wertvoll sind, in der Schauspielschule umgesetzt hatte. Er scheint da sehr starke emotionale Bindungen zu haben und erwähnt das auch immer wieder. Vielleicht sollte ich es doch in Betracht ziehen, obwohl mich Dickens langatmige Erzählweise nicht so sehr anzieht.
    Kein Wunder, dass so ein liebenswerter Jemand euch zu solchen Anstrengungen veranlasst 🙂

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    • Also echt, oder? Kann der Mann wirklich so gut sein, wie er rüberkommt? Da ging mir gestern aber das Herzle auf, als ich das Interview-Fitzelchen sah. 20 Jahre später widmet er einer verstorbenen Kommilitonin sein neuestes Werk. Mein Gott, geht der Mann ans Herz… Ich sag ja, da kann man nur schmachten. (Ich nehme ihm das jedenfalls alles auch völlig glaubhaft ab.) Und klar, so ein grundgutes Vorbild löst natürlich Nachahmungstaten aus *grins*. Alles in Butter, also…

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    • Ich nehme ihm das auch ab. Ich sehe nicht ein, warum ich ihm da Berechnung unterstellen sollte. Es gibt solch seelenvolle Menschen.
      Und wie du gestern gesagt hast, er arbeitet sehr viel und hat nicht viel Zeit für ein ausgedehntes Privatleben. Da bleiben dann halt auch Leute wichtig, die man vor langer Zeit kennengelernt hat. Wahrscheinlich ist er ein gaaanz Beständiger.

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      • Oh, das Letztere glaube ich auf jeden Fall. Einen unstetigen, abenteuerlichen Eindruck vermittelt er nicht gerade. Ist aber in seinem Metier wiederum dann auch exotischer als das übliche Circus-Verhalten der Stars :-D.

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      • Vielleicht ist das der Vorteil, wenn man nicht allzu jung oder allzu plötzlich berühmt wird. Dann bleibt die Bodenhaftung erhalten und man weiß den Wert von Beziehungen zu schätzen.
        Mir sind solche Leute suspekt, die sich für den Nabel der Welt halten und glauben, dass andere Menschen nur dazu da sind, ihnen das Leben angenehm zu machen. Es gibt “Stars”, die diesen Eindruck erwecken. (Der “Unsere” eher nicht.)

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  5. Thanks for showing what you crafty girls have been up to. Beautiful and fun expressions of RA love. There can never be too much of that. Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone.

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  6. Everything seen here is beautiful, and I’m glad the swap was a success. Maybe I’ll be able to participate next year. My lack of crafting skills leaves me hesitant to even try, as I feel all of you deserve nice gifts.

    Thank you, S, for this wonderful blog. It has cheered me up on so many days, that I’ve lost count.

    As for Lent, since I am not a Catholic anymore, I decided to prepare for Easter by working on my Genealogy every day in order to complete the first five generations of my family tree. I figure that – since I’m single – I’ll be able to reach my goal. It’s exciting to find out names and occupations of my ancestors!

    Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Now, if only I could draw exceedingly well, I would regale you with a Cupid Richard but alas, that is not one of my talents. Maybe someone else can do it. *hint, hint* ;D

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    • I believe that everyone of us crafty in some shape or form, B – and there are many easy crafts out there. You never know, maybe you’ll come across something and you’ll give it a try.
      Great idea to work on your family tree. In some ways, the concept of Lent has this negative feel to it. Giving something up, negating something. I’m all for putting a positive spin on it and make it about doing something good, for instance.

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    • Which is why I try to spread the word about projects like this on the blog. I don’t think that Twitter presence is essential for such initiatives. It only helps in terms of hearing about them…

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  9. These gifts are gorgeous! Kudos to all those talented people. I couldn’t think of anything to make myself, so didn’t join in, but maybe if I start mulling over what I can do now I will be organised for the Richie Valentine Swap in 2017! 🙂

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  10. I love seeing all these gorgeous gifts! So much creativity. BTW I too felt the need for an interval of “cleansing” so I gave up alcohol, on a purely temporary basis… Don’t know if I can manage six weeks but so far it has allowed me to get some writing done after dinner. Not bad 🙂
    I’m with you–one thing I would never give up voluntarily is my CH fan fix online!

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    • I think the whole idea of a time of restraint is actually quite useful. It annoys me very slightly that it is associated with religion, but I kind of re-brand it in terms of its origins – giving nature time and space to procreate by changing our eating habits etc. For me it is also a way of getting back into the swing with a less chocolate- and crisp-based diet *coughs*. Staying away from Social Media is purely a self-imposed test of my will. I simply don’t like the idea of becoming dependent on the entertainment by relentless Social Media activity. Mind you – the “daily fan fix” would be too much of a sacrifice. And since it generally evokes positive feelings in me, I think it is only fair to continue with it 😉

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  11. all that gorgeousness! such crafty fingers and i am not talking about myself! more like thick sausages here 😉
    But yeah, it’s all new for me and in very pleasant ways, the first time EVER i have actually enjoyed the whole hoohah around Valentine’s 🙂 looks like heart-allergy can possibly be cured by heart-excess 😉

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  12. Hi Guylty! Thanks for posting this. It’s fun to see everything together! The “hip flask” is really a 3-D heart-shaped purse. Thorin is on the other side. He was being stubborn when trying to glue him down. (https://twitter.com/kudzugirl/status/691445750631370752), but you know how Kings…especially dwarf kings with a chip on their shoulder…ahem. The inside also had pics Guy and Thorin. (Thinking of finding a flask shape for the next cRAfty swap. heehee!) Cheers!

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    • Hi Tina – nice to see you here, and welcome.
      Oh, and I will edit that “hip flask” out of the text 🙂 I could’ve asked you – except my Twitter hiatus had already begun. A heart-shaped purse – how cool is that!!! Way better than a hip flask, actually! (Mind you, I have a tiny hip flask, keyring-size, which I take on all my travels – if you customised one of those, that could be fabulous…)

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