Karla Nathan

Lost Swap Pages, a very sad tale

A few years back, I participated in a round robin swap with three talented ladies. Beth Leintz, Lisa McIlvain, and Sandra Blanks.

Here is a post from March '12 when we were packing up the completed books to send to Stampington, per request of an editor there.

Here is the cover that I made for my own book. The theme of all four books was "Her Life in Stitches" and since I didn't sew, I dedicated mine to my mother, who was a talented seamstress. So, I added her photo to the cover that I made from an old book.

Well, two years later, the books have returned from the magazine, after one of us asking for them to be returned. Some pages of each of ours had been published, which is always an honor.

This photo shows the back side of the pages I showed in the first photo for this post.

And it is also a picture of my whole, entire book.

Yep, it is the ENTIRE BOOK.

I received two pages back from the whole swap, no covers, nothing else. And one page here was sent to me by Sandra after the books were complete, so it has been sitting in my cabinet waiting for the rest of the pages to be sent back so I could add it to the book.



This is a special page that Beth made for me, in honor of my mom too. It wasn't returned.

Now, hopefully, this means that the missing pages are being published some day? I hope it doesn't mean they were treated casually and just lost in the storeroom. I've sent a message to the magazine and got a nice response, saying they will look around for them. But I've lost other things there, and know others who have too.

Sure, they get tons of art sent in, some by request and some just from artists hoping to get picked to appear in their magazines. These books were all requested. Beth and I took the time to pin a tag to each and every single page, reading- "Made by Beth Leintz for Sandra Blanks" or "Made for Karla Nathan by Lisan McIlvain", etc.

Beth and Lisa are very happy with their books. I haven't heard from Sandra about hers.

Lisa (who Stampington mailed all the pages to) mistakenly sent me some pages made by myself for her, Beth, and Sandra, and I've got those ready to send to the rightful owners. So, their books will be nice and full. The photo I saw of Lisa's book had quite a few pages, and I'm sending her 3, so hers should be fat, full, and look complete.

Although, this special page I made for Lisa, with a "Borrower's" theme wasn't in the photo she sent to me of her book. This one was made because she mentioned how much the book had meant to her as a child.

Here are a couple of posts I did about the swap at the time. This is Lisa's cover. Here is a page I made for her, that was published.

I'm not trying to dis Somerset here. I can understand how this happens. I told you in my last post, just how hard it is for me to get things right when I host a swap for 100 people. Just imagine how hard it is to keep track of the bazillions of pieces that Stampington must get in the mail.

In the past, I've never complained about lost items that I've made. No big deal, I'll make more. But I am saddened by the loss of gifts made for me by these talented ladies. And I guess I'm bringing this up to let you know that this is a very common thing. If something is precious to you, I recommend hanging on to it, not sending it in to be featured in a magazine.

Somerset has beautiful publications and I've always been pleased to be in them. But, if you are sending something in to any publication, please keep in mind that they deal with so many applications and so many pieces, that mistakes will be made. DON'T send in anything that you don't mind losing.

If more of my pages are found, I will be sure to let you know. I'll be singing it from the rooftops.

EDIT:

The pages were found! My entire book, is all in one piece and will be sent home. I have to thank Miss Shawna Horan for searching for and successfully finding it. I am thrilled to be getting the artwork made by the other swappers back again. Delightful news!

If you do send in work to a magazine, keep records. Remember who requested it, who you talked to and have photos. I did none of those. But I went through my blog archives and found some pictures that helped in the search.

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