LiliLuv

Hi! I live in Germany and love finding something other than ads and bills in my mailbox. :) I used to host and participate in swaps between 2003 and 2007 in Yahoo! Groups, one of which I co-ran for a couple of years. Early in 2020 I was reminiscing about those times and came across Swap-bot. Shortly after, the pandemic hit and rediscovering swapping ended up being the highlight of my year.

I'm now in my mid-30s, no children, but I still love cute and beautiful stationery, stickers, and writing supplies! Some more things I enjoy are:
- Flow Magazine
- childhood stories and illustrations
(for example, I love the stories I grew up with by Astrid Lindgren and their classic illustrations by Ilon Wikland)
- the MBTI - I'm an INFP!
- history
- learning about different people and cultures
- languages (working on Spanish and Russian)
- traveling!

I grew up in the US and have been living in Germany for over 12 years. I have been to quite a few cities in Europe, but am determined to see many more. I really enjoy northern cities like Reykjavík, Dublin, and Amsterdam, but also love the south of France and places with Mediterranean flair.

Top 5 places I want to go:
- south of Spain
- Norway
- Sweden
- Russia
- and Provence while the lavender is blooming!

Swap-bot has been amazing at getting me in touch with my creativity! Through swaps I have learned about and made my first ATCs, mini pocket letters, flipbooks, zines, and lots of decorated envelopes. I have so many ideas and things I still want to try and I love making something special for my swap partners. Before joining Swap-bot I didn't know about clear stamps or die cutting machines, but now I have both. It's amazing how quickly craft and stationery supplies can accumulate once you have an excuse to buy them! Especially washi tape rolls... I'm pretty sure those things multiply quicker than rabbits!

I'm not picky, but if you need ideas for a swap, I love to receive all sorts of paper goodies, such as:

• nice used postage stamps
• stickers
• washi tape
• vintage ephemera
• interesting book pages, especially from old children's books
• cut-outs
• die cuts
• tags
• journaling cards
• embellishments
• paper clips
• letter and note paper
• envelopes
• postcards

I love bright colors, but also cute pastels and subdued earthy tones. My favorite colors are turquoise, burgundy, light greens, and dusty pinks.

I love big bold florals and cute illustrations. I'm especially into cute dinosaurs and love foxes, hedgehogs, squirrels, and other woodland critters and themes, like mushrooms and Autumn leaves.

An ABC of themes I like:

A – Animals, Adventure, Autumn, Advent
B – Butterflies, Buttons, Berries, Bicycles, Books, Botanical
C – Color, Cuteness, Citrus, Clouds, Coffee
D – Dinosaurs, Dragons, Daydreams, Doodles
E – Europe
F – Family, Flowers, Florals, Foxes, Food
G – Gnomes, Gingerbread
H – Hygge, History, Hedgehogs, Houses
I – Illustrations, Introverts
J – Jokes
K – Keepsakes, Keys
L – Love, Letters, Lists, Languages, Lemons
M – Matryoshkas, Mushrooms, Mysteries, Mediterranean
N – Night, Nature
O – Oceans
P – Paper, Pens, Positivity, Patterns, Plants, Piglets, Penguins, Polar Bears
Q – Quotes, Quiet
R – Rainbows, Rain
S – Seas, Shells, Sunshine, Stars, Snow, Squirrels, Snails, Sarcasm
T – Travel, Trees, Thrifting, Tea
U – Umbrellas, Upcycling
V – Violet, Velvet, Vintage
W – Washington (State), Waterfalls, Woodlands, Wildflowers, Westies
X – Xenophilia
Y – Yesteryears, Yore
Z – Zoological

I especially enjoy illustrated postcards and nice postage stamps.

I really love so many different things, so don't worry too much and feel free to surprise me. I love seeing your personal touch!