hi, I just posted about ABs on the Craft & Dec page (post about going away gift). I'm in a round robin right now. Each participant passes their book to the same person after a certain length of time (1 month in our case). Each time we get another book, we work in it and send it on to that same person. Eventually our books come back to us. We formed a yahoo group just for sharing about our progress, and to post pictures. And yes, I think the main thing is to have a theme. I was really scared to take part in one of these, but now I highly recommend a round robin. I've also heard of "Tip Ins" --a kind of swap where others send pages or spreads that you "tip in" to your book. You can attach the pages directly to other pages, or cut off existing pages leaving only a tab, and glue the tip-in to that.

I took a beginning class for beaded jewelery once. They emphasized this bit I found online for you-- ""Czech beads are superior in everyway to similar beads from other nations, such as India, Germany, and France, except for those of Japan. Japanese beads are more consistent in size (both in outer diameter, and inner diameter), and usually have more durable finishes. This consistency in size is extremely important, especially if doing intricate, very detailed bead work. The inside holes are not as sharp or jagged as those beads from other countries. Japanese beads are somewhat more expensive (about 1/3 more) than Czech beads. When people are getting started with seed beads, we suggest trying both the Japanese beads and the Czech beads. The Japanese beads are easier to use because they are more uniform and have a larger and more consistently-sized hole. However, because the Japanese beads tend to be so perfect, you sometimes end up with a piece that looks like a paint-by-number Elvis on velvet. With the Czech beads, you get a more organic, artistic look."" My teacher made a big deal about it, showed microscope pics and everything, to convince not to "waste your time" on beading cheap beads because the project would slice itself apart in a year. Made in China beads are the absolute worst--they don't even bother mentioning them above as contenders!

It was a great time, it was the first time for the class and it went longer than the 4 hours. Should be a day class with breaks and lunch. I learned so much, things like using the paint and the distressing pads. I've been a very simple with my pages doing matting and some embellishments. Plain and simple. I learned to use ribbon, staples, brads, and flowers. I love the pages I did now I just need to add pictures, which is something else I learned I always picked pictures then did the pages. Nancy

Glenda-- why do you have to print out the photos? These are digital photobooks in which you upload the photos that are already on your computer into the book-publishing software that's online. Are we talking about the same kind of books? Not the scrapbooking-type books where you buy stickers and paper and put it all together yourself on the kitchen table (which is what Bulldinkie's referring to?). I've done that, for my first puppy's life. Fun, but these digital bookmaking programs give you something different. Really nice professional look. There are some inexpensive photo scanners out there that'll have all your loose pictures uploaded in no time (or photo service places will scan photos on a CD -- if you can still find an old-fashioned-type photo place nowadays! They're dying off... unfortunately). I've stuck to Shutterfly for a few books I've done (trips). Too bad that the guy who wrote the comparative analysis didn't include the version made for Apple computers (tho I understand why--not everybody has an Apple). But it's the simplest one I've ever tried. At the time, tho, there were very few layouts to choose from. I saw a friend's Apple book and it looked really nice. Some of the book-publishing software is easier to understand than others. Beyond Apple, Shutterfly is pretty simple, but I found MyPublisher (and I think Blurb, too) to be much more difficult to master (without investing too many hours!). I'm going to mess around with the Inkubook publishing site next to see what that looks like. It got some good marks from this guy's tests.