A Gnome Away From Home - Angel1985 and QuixoticKit

Lots of people are familiar with the concept of gnome-napping, where you take a gnome (or a stuffie, or a plushie) from someone, take it on a holiday with you, and then return it with lots of photos and postcards from their time away. This is a more legal, more ethical variation that doesn't involving nicking stuff from other people!

Choose a stuffie, or a small (lightweight, easy to post, easy to photograph) character of some description. It can be store-bought or handmade. It does not have to be a gnome, but if you want it to be a gnome, that's cool too.

Take it with you on holiday, or around your hometown, and take a minimum of 12 photos of it in interesting or significant places.

Collect postcards, ticket stubs, brochures - the usual stuff you find as a tourist - from the places you go.

Put the photos and extras together in a small journal. Again, it can be handmade or store-bought. Each photo or other artifact should have a little bit of writing to go with it to explain what it is, and how you and your little travelling companion experienced it.

You might like to include an introduction of you and your travelling companion in your journal, too, just to give your swap partner a bit of perspective on your travels.

The journal can be written from the perspective of you, or your travelling companion =)

When you are all done, pack your travelling companion and your journal up and send it off to your partner!

Fine print: this is a somewhat labour-intensive swap. If you do not think you can complete it by the send-by date, don't join. If you find yourself in an unusual, difficult situation, and can't send, please contact both myself and your swap partner as I will arrange to angel the swap. If you are late sending, your partner has the right to rate you accordingly - but please do be reasonable, and if your partner has contacted you with a valid reason why they haven't sent it, you might like to think about how you'd like to be rated in the same situation.

Fully filled out profile. 4.98 rating. No no-sends in the last three months. Minimum of five Type 3 swaps completed. If you do not meet these requirements, message me! Maybe we can do it as a private swap. If you choose to ignore this and sign up anyway, without the minimum requirements, you'll be removed from the swap post-sign-up-deadline.

This is an international swap. If you can't pay the postage, please don't sign up as it is a big disappointment for someone if they miss out for this reason and have paid to ship something to someone else a long way away.

Last time I did this, Herbert the Wombat and I travelled across Russia together, and I received Winnie the Guinea Pig in return from England. It was one of my favourite swaps of all time, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did! You can start right away if you want (I know I will be!).