craftyrach

Hi there!! My name is Rachelle 🩵 I currently live in Iowa with my boyfriend & 2 fur babies - a 🐰bunny that I rescued 5 years ago from a local shelter & 10 year old 🐶 "Doxiepoo" (Dachshund/Poodle) who is truly my soul dog and goes everywhere with me. & yes.. they are besties and absolutely love playing together!

I graduated from college a few years ago, and accepted my first “big-girl” job shortly after, so sadly most of my hobbies were put on pause as I got adjusted to a whole new chapter of life.

I'm happy to be at a point where I really want to focus on my creativity/art, hobbies, and what brings me joy. ❤️ If someone told me a year ago I would enjoy spending Friday nights cozied up making art & getting lost in projects, I would've thought they were crazy!! But here we are... & I am so thrilled to be here :)

I first heard about Swap-Bot from my mom, who was an active member for over 10 years and has participated in 100’s of swaps ranging from postcard exchanges, journal swaps, ATC swaps, mail art, seasonal themes, and pretty much every category over the years. Seeing how excited she gets while sharing her creativity & interests with others inspired me to create my own profile and start my journey with Swap Bot.

One of my biggest values is practicing sustainability in any way I can & continuing to learn about different ways to challenge myself to live more mindfully while consuming “less” and instead investing in creative outlets. I love repurposing anything/everything I can, so it only makes sense that this shows up in my art, hobbies, and projects. The joy I have found in creating something entirely new/unique while including recycled and/or repurposed materials has inspired me to keep exploring any ways to give old items purpose again.

A couple of my most recent ventures has been unraveling old/unused sweaters and repurposing the yarn for new crochet/knitting projects & repurposing "junk mail" into journals, envelopes, etc!

Colors 🌈 Blue, Pink, Green, Yellow

Food 🍴 Ice cream, Ramen, Pad Thai, Tacos, anything Breakfast

Drink ☕ Coffee and Black teas

Music 🎶 I like to listen to pretty much anything/everything (MINUS heavy rock/metal & country), but some of my FAV artists are ~ The Lumineers, Mumford & Sons, Amber Run, Queen, Amy Winehouse, Bon Iver, Labrinth, SZA, Mac Miller, Cage the Elephant, Bad Bunny, Zeds Dead, Excision, ODESZA, GRiZ, Subtronics

Movies 🍿Harry Potter (Prisoner of Azkaban is my fav), Can’t Buy Me Love (or any 80s classic), and anything with a Dystopian/Sc-Fi plot

TV Shows 🎬 Game of Thrones, Euphoria, Survivor, Big Bang Theory, Scooby-Doo

Travel ✈️ Pacific Northwest (Oregon is my favorite state to visit), Colorado, and Washington. I would love to visit Italy someday.

Animal 🐒 Bunny, Cow, and Monkey

Holiday/Season 🎊 Halloween & Christmas / Fall

~ Puzzles

~ Poetry (writing & reading)

~ Plants/Wildflowers

~ Reading

~ Board Games

~ 20s-70s Fashion eras

~ Road trips (the longest so far is about 6 days round-trip between Iowa and Oregon, when I visited 13 states and 6 National Parks)

~ Nintendo Switch (Animal Crossing & Minecraft are my guilty pleasures)

~ Quilting

~ Crochet

~ Knitting

~ Sewing upcycled clothing

~ Mixed Media

~ Collage

Vintage Print 📰 There’s so much uniqueness in old media that I find so interesting & feel a lot of inspiration from when I use it to create/make anything. A few of my favorites are clothing patterns, hobby/craft books (all types), newspapers, sheet music, magazines, and cookbooks.

Stickers 🏞️ No matter where I’m visiting/traveling, I always find myself looking for stickers at local shops and events I’m attending. I just think it’s such a cute & fun way to look back on the places I’ve visited & be reminded of the memories made

Notebooks/Journals 📗 There’s nothing like getting a new paper journal/notebook and writing on that first page. I’ve embraced being a weirdo who has a notebook for every aspect/hobby in my life because at any moment, I can start right where I left off on something without having to look everywhere 💡

Hand-written Notes/Cards 💌 Pretty sure I have every.single.card. I've received since middle school and even a few from elementary school. While I’ve always had a passion for collecting these, it’s become even more important to me in the last 5 years as more of everyday life becomes digital.

Charms/Jewelry 📿 Love incorporating any kind of upcycled charms, trinkets, etc. into my projects, so nothing is ever too random or too small in my eyes.

Maps 🗺️ I would love any & all kinds; nothing specific in mind or particular format I’m after. Since I have a passion for collecting old media & prints, older versions/formats would be super cool but something local/near to you or from a place you’ve visited would be just as awesome!

Recipes 👩🏼‍🍳 While I follow various online blogs/websites for getting cooking inspo, I would love it even more if you shared your favorite recipe(s) with me! I don’t have any allergies & don’t follow any particular diet, so I’m super open-minded when it comes to trying new foods! Filling out my very own Recipes Book that I plan to have for years & years has made the process of expanding my cooking skills a lot more fun and purposeful & I would love this community to be a part of that.

Postcards 🌅🏞️ I don’t have any themes or specifics I am hoping for, but anything related to my profile/interests would of course be appreciated but not expected!

Patterns 📋 Always looking to expand my library of "How-Tos" and project inspo. Anything related to my current hobbies/interests would be awesome, but I’m always open to trying something new and potentially discovering a new hobby!