Fair point. I suppose my hope was people would be like “I want a christmas cat” rather than cat A and then which they got would just be a surprise.
A few years ago one of the offerings was an embroidered gingerbread man and there were 2 poses. I have both so perhaps with that one both poses went to everyone.
I’ll suck it up and do my best to make them identical.
Mine were not identical the last time I did this swap. They were elves in different poses. Once matches were announced, I just communicated individually with people to figure out who would get which one.
Doing 3 of one and 3 of another design is absolutely no problem. 6-ornament swappers are sort of treated like two 3-ornament swappers anyway.
Reaching out to your partners is a good way of figure out what they want. It would be a first who answers gets it sort of thing for me. Thank you for that answer!
I know that in the past, some swappers would craft the ornaments to 90% done and customize the final details. One year, I received an adorable stocking ornament that was customized with whatever initial I chose. So, I think that as long as you have an ornament to post and can finish details/ship on-time, it should be fine.
I’m definitely planning to do 3 and 3 with the second set being specifically international shipping friendly.
Hey, can people help me tag people who have done this swap before, in case they might be interested?
@Magpie
@crafty-becky
@kbrison
@Edel
@AcadianDriftwood
@gala_apples
@marionberries
I just can’t do swapping any more, postage costs, customs charges and threats of what they are going to charge are beyond a joke, it’s taken all the joy out of it. It’s going to have to be happy mail from me from now on. 
I’m sorry, @edel, that’s the worst! I hope you still get lots of happy mail despite the post service and customs nonsense.
I’m so sorry that the postal climate has taken the fun out if it. I wish things were different. I’ll have to do better at sending happy mail your way.
Question of the week: Do you often make handcrafted items in “batches”?
As for me, I rarely plan to do batches. But I do sometimes feel the urge to keep making the same kind of item over and over. (Looking at you, tin birds!)
I don’t normally do batches, but i do find one pattern/item that i like making and do it several times, but not at the same time. I usually get bored doing batches, but working on this booth has shown me how productive it can be.
Also, my supply came in so I am going to try to sneak in a little time near the end of the day to work on these.
I almost never make the same thing twice.
I think I don’t like to do the same thing over again but because I’m not great at following patterns & mostly enjoy figuring out the how of a thing means I sometimes make many many of something, just perfecting it. Like these crocheted crowns. I must have made dozens of those & many flat versions like the one on this badge. I still have 5 crocheted snow people ornaments in stash from last time I made them. I’m not sure if I can get anything made this year but we’ll see. If I get started chances are I’ll end up making 20. I can seem to help myself 
I do a lot of batch crafting for my holiday gift buffets (I put out a bunch of stuff I made and people take what they want). I don’t mind it. There’s still often some variation, like using different yarn for the same hat pattern. I like to figure out the process and just get into the flow. It’s kind of meditative!
Those crowns are darling!
Anathema!
I used to mass produce when I did craft sales, but even then each one came out slightly different.
I like the challenge of figuring out how to make a design idea work; once I’ve done something once, I lose interest.
If I suddenly become obsessed with something (like the ornaments for this swap) I’ll mass batch make things, but if not, I usually don’t. I get bored easily, so I like to change things around a lot.
Sometimes!