For this swap you buy or make 1 journal. It has to have at least 15 pages and at most 30 pages (more pages is okay but keep it lightweight). Must be A5 sized, more or less. A little bigger or smaller is fine, just not much. It can't be a big or thick journal because of the shipping costs.

You write your Swap Bot username, real name, address, and email address on the front of the first page. You can add preferences, allergies, likes and dislikes. Then you send it to your swap partner.

In the journal you receive, you must fill 2 pages with recipes: the back of the first page and the front of the second page. The recipes must include pictures. (You can take photos, clip them from magazines, stick in recipe cards, etc.) You may create pockets, use paperclips, anything. Just make sure whatever you create won't be a bother to the person who gets the journal next. For example, if you staple a picture to a piece of paper, it will show on the back. And the next person to get the journal has to use the back so the staple will be in the way.

Also, you must write your username and the date somewhere on the pages you fill. This is to make certain no one receives a journal and passes it on without filling it. If people start doing that, it could take ages for the journal to be returned to the owner. Feel free to rate a 3 if the Swap Bot username is not included, or if the 2 pages aren't filled.

You hang on to the journal and you pass it on to the swap partner assigned to you in the #2 swap. When you're the last to add to the journal (i.e. when it's full), you return it to the address written on the front page. Once you've reached the last "spread" and there is only the back of the last page left, the journal is full.

Our journals will likely travel the world, so make sure to add recipes that require ingredients you can get anywhere. Some brands or ingredients may be available in your country but not in others. However, things like flour, broccoli, potatoes, chocolate, peanuts, etc., are pretty much available everywhere. The more "basic" ingredients, the better.

For each of these swaps you'll have a month to sign up and a month to send out. If you haven't sent your journal by the time the next swap starts, you won't be able to participate again. Which means a journal is stuck with you, so please don't mess it up.

About Rating & Lost Journals

Please, communicate! If the journal doesn't arrive, do contact me but also contact your swap partner. Before you rate a 1: Try to come to an arrangement (for example, wait a bit longer or a re-send, depending on the circumstances). You can find whose journal you were supposed to receive in the forum. If the journal never arrives, please arrange a new journal. Either let the re-send be the replacement journal, buy/make one yourself, or ask the person to whom the journal belonged to send you a new one. If all else fails I'd be willing to send you a replacement journal myself, but please try to solve it yourself and keep me updated in the process.

If you have questions or if you can't come to an agreement, do let me know. After all that's what I'm here for. Only rate a 1 if you never received anything after considerable time and your swap partner isn't willing to come to some sort of arrangement.

Last but not least, if you sign up and swap partners are assigned, you have to send a journal out. Which means it's best to drop from the swap or not sign up at all as long as the journal hasn't arrived. It's not a problem if you skip a swap (or more), as long as you don't vanish from Swap Bot without a trace.