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OhPEN Land presents:
Crams Decos FBs Friendship Sheet Games/Chains Label Bags/ Label Envelopes Lyrix Plojs Slams
This is where a lot of people is supposed to "cram" into a little piece of paper. If a CRAM comes your way, just write down your address or put one of your labels there…and that's all you have to do before sending it on to another swapper. Page up
You can probably guess what you are supposed to do with these, even if you have never swapped in your entire life. Yes, that's right - take a page and deco it after your choice! Most people into decos use cuttings from magazines, glitter glue, stickers, rubberstamps, confetti, package tape and neon glue…but why not try anything different? Let your creativity flow while cutting, pasting and putting your fantasy on paper! Page up
FB is short for friendship-book (or friendship-booklet) and is the swapping item most commonly spread. For those of you who have no idea what this is, I can basically tell you that one person start by making the FB either for herself (or himself) or for someone else. Then the FB is sent on to another FB-swapping pal who writes her (or his) address in it and then send it on. This keeps going until the booklet is full. Then the last person is supposed to send it home to whoever the FB is for. Of course people who do not want to sign the FB also must send it on! This goes for all swapping items! See our page with TIPS & SUGGESTIONS for more information! Page up
This is basically the same thing as an FB, and often they are called "FB" instead of Friendship Sheet, the difference is that this is no booklet, it's simply a piece of paper (mostly A4) instead. Page up
Many true swappers hate them, others dedicate hours in following them. A chain (or game, as they are also called) is mostly a little piece of paper with an instruction: "make 2 fb's for number 1, move everyone up and copy 10x", "send 10 stickers to number 1, move up, copy 5x", etc… Sometimes you can also find these instructions on other swapping items. (Example on an FB it can say "make 2 FB's for owner, maker, sender and a pal, copy in all!") Never feel obligied to follow any games if you don't like them, just send them on to other pals, who you think like them, as soon as possible and tell the one you got them from you don't want chains (or that type of chains). Page up
There are many different types of Label Bags (or Label Envelopes, labelopes). In general you put some of your labels inside the envelope/bag and take out, usually either the same amount of labels, or a certain number from each participant. With these labels you make either new label bags/envelopes or slams/decos/lyrix/fb's according to the instructions on the bag. When you receive a full one home, you make swapping items with those labels as well.
Lyrix are becoming more and more popular, especially deco-lyrix. Most of you are probably familiar with the word lyrics and that is what you will use when filling out a lyrix. You simply take some lines out of a song text and put them in the lyrix along with your name and other details you would like to add. In a deco-lyrix you also decorate your entrance with the lyrics in a nice way. Many lyrix are deco-lyrix even if it does not say they are, so of course you should always try to do your best, no matter what it says on the cover...it is more fun that way too, isn't it?
So far I have only seen Swedish plojs... Maybe because "ploj" is also a Swedish word? A ploj reminds quite a lot about a friendship book, but every participant takes an entire page for themselves. Signing a ploj you are also supposed to add something more, what/who you love, what music group you think rules, some quote or so on. This is usually not specified on the cover, but each participant makes what they like. SLAM stands for "So Learn About Me", and indeed slams is a good way to get to learn things about others. A SLAM is a booklet where everybody who signs in either answers to questions...or other things. There are A LOT of different types of slams, e.g. "Sign-if Slams", where you sign your names to everything that you like/agree with/have at home/have done/etc. the list can be long just for that, "Symbol Slams" where you put a symbol to for example all that you like or that applies to you, "Sticker Slams" where you put stickers in different themes and just to mention a few more there are man slams, story slams, list-slams, alphabeth slams, half slams, and a lot more. If you are new to swapping and would like to know more,