🎃 A Haunting We Will Go ☠ Halloween elf Exchange (2019)

[ZombieMetroAnt]

                                      *  Sign ups are now closed*

                                       DEADline to sign up was 9/30

                                     👻     👻     👻     👻     👻     👻

 

Something's brewing, and it 'll be ghoulishly fun! A wicked good time for everyone...

If you are interested in joining, please see the Eligibility Requirements, Rules, and Key Dates below to see if this will be a good fit for you!  

We are looking forward to some haunting good fun!  

Bugs & hisses,
PrettyinPA & ZombieMetroAnt 

🎃 important information for all potential Ghoulfriends...

Spoiler

👻 ELIGIBILITY 

Have you participated in a gift exchange on BT/BIC previously?

Yes
Previous participants in exchanges that either MCakes, @prettyinpa  or I have hosted without incident on their part are pre-approved. If you participated in an exchange that MCakes, PrettyinPA or I have not hosted, please kindly provide a link to that exchange thread for us to do our due diligence. If there were no issues from the exchange on your part, we are excited to have you on board!

No
Meet one or more of the following requirements:

1.Must be willing to do a $50 box deposit that will be taken at sign up and returned once your Ghoulfriend has given us confirmation of delivery.
2.Must be vouched for by 2 members of the community who PrettyinPA or I are familiar with.

*Since we are trying to be as inclusive as possible while also protecting other participants in this exchange, PrettyinPA and I will have final discretion on participant eligibility. We realize that this is very subjective, but we must establish a certain degree of trust between users as there is sensitive information being exchanged. Thank you for your understanding.


👻 RULES

By expressing interest in signing up for the exchange, you are agreeing to the following:

-The minimum spend for this exchange is $50. You do not need to go over this amount, but in the spirit of fairness you may not go under it.

-If you have not participated in an exchange previously, you must ship your gift on or before October 21st. If you miss this deadline and do not communicate with PrettyinPA or I about the reason for your delay, you will not get your box deposit back. Instead, we will use your box deposit to create a gift on your behalf. No Ghoulfriend will be left behind!

-Provide tracking number(s) to PrettyinPA or I once you have shipped your gift. This can be done via Elfster or messaging PrettyinPA or I.

-Acknowledge receipt of your gift ASAP, even if you need a little more time to do a full post. This is a courtesy to your giftor to know it was received (it is stressful waiting to know if a package made the journey ok!) and for PrettyinPA and I to keep track of the progress in the exchange. You may do this via Elfster, by posting on this thread that you have received the parcel, or by messaging either PrettyinPA or I.

-You must post pictures of your gift. This is an integral part of the exchange experience and we want to share in the excitement with you! We know how much thought and care goes into curating a gift, and we want to acknowledge your giftor's efforts as well. You may provide pictures for either PrettyinPA or I to post on your behalf if you are having issues posting, but please know that the pictures are a firm requirement.


👻 KEY DATES

Sign Up Deadline: 09/30/19

Draw Day (This is the day you find out who you are shopping for, yay!): 10/1/19

Ship Date for First Time Participants: 10/21/19 (*If you are shipping from Canada to US or vice versa, this deadline will be earlier)

All Gifts Must be Received: On or before 10/31/19 (Halloween Day)

👻To sign up, please comment on this thread! ZMA and I will be messaging approved participants with more details and will be updating the Participant List as we go. 

🎃 Tips, Tricks & Other spooktacular ideas!

Spoiler

💀 Elfster Tips:

-> Ask questions! Anyone can ask anyone an anonymous question, that will help you get a better idea of likes and dislikes, haves and wants, etc. It is important to note of any dietary restrictions 


->When you purchase something, click "Mark As Purchased." They won't see it, but they might be using the same wishlist for other gift exchanges, so this can prevent them potentially getting the same gift from two different people.


->If you got something for yourself, remove it from your wishlist!

🎃 Shipping suggestions: 

Spoiler

How to ship abroad/add a customs label while still using online shipping:

1. Creating an account: First, you must create a free account on the USPS website. The paypal.com/shipnow site will not let you create customs forms.

2. Shipping Label: To create the shipping label, you want to use the "Click n Ship" function from the dropdown menu under Mail & Ship. Many of the directions from above are basically the same but the key difference is under, "Where are you sending to?" you will need to use the dropdown menu to select the country of choice.

3. Finishing the Shipping Label:Fill in all the corresponding information until the end of the form including the value of the package. The Canadians on the board may have more to speak to with this but I always kept this amount on the lower side so the recipient doesn't get hit with high customs fee. (average amount I would put would be $10-$20) A great feature is at the end of the page it will give you all your options for shipping. I can tell you on a personal note that when I ship to England I always choose first class international mail and I have never had a problem. Once again, delivery confirmation is thrown in for FREE.

3. Beginning the Customs Form: You will then get to a page that will you through step by step filling in the customs form. The first question will ask you to "Enter Package Information." This is where you can just write this is a gift box for a friend. You do not need to write anything more!

4. Customs Inventory: Next up is, "Enter Item Information." Okay, this one is a little tricky. If you want to itemize, and fill in every single thing in the box, you can. If you only want to do a couple, you can. I've done both over the years and both have been okay. I'm not going to tell you though that it will work every time so ultimately, the decision is up to you. Make sure though that you mark each item a GIFT so that the recipient does not get charged increased fees. Also, and this is IMPORTANT, the total that adds up for the all the items has to be the same total you gave on the previous page for the value of the box. So if you make something worth $1, that's fine! (Again, Canadians speak up hear if I'm wrong but my abroad friends always told me it was better to do this to reduce customs fees for the recipient.) Lastly, each weight of each individual item will need to add up to the to the total weight item, so I've honestly literally made up ratio numbers in the past. (I have never had a problem in years of sending packages)

5. Tarrif Number: Lastly, you do not have a tariff number so leave that blank. Okay, one last thing, choose your AES exemption. I would choose the second one having to do with gifts.

6. Obtaining the Label/Customs Form: The steps following this are similar to the ones from above except that I believe the payment options for USPS may also include credit card options as well as PayPal. Go ahead and print your label which will also contain your completed customs form. (Please note: you may need to sign your customs form before affixing it to your package) On a positive note, YOU STILL SAVE MONEY BY USING THE ONLINE POSTAGE SYSTEM!

7. How to actually ship it:For international packages, my personal advice is yes, bring it to the post office, and yes, actually check it in and get a receipt saying it was checked in by a postal worker. Since many international packages take quite longer than domestic and tend to get delayed at different intervals, you want to make sure that everything is okay when it first enters the system.

Duty info (thanks Veronika23 ):

The US can receive a gift up to 100$ USD. If you are sending a gift from Canada and mark it as 100$ you are actually saying it cost you 100$ CAD. Today Google converts that to 73.30$ USD so your recipient should be ok and not pay additional fees.

Canada can receive a gift up to 60$ CAD. If you are sending a gift from the US and it was 60$, you are actually saying it cost you 60$ USD. Today Google converts that to 81.86$ CAD. So your Canadian recipient in this case might pay duties/taxes/fees. But if your gift only cost you is lets say 35$ USD today Google converts that to 47.75$CAD. So the recipient shouldn't pay fees.

I believe customs will check the rate on the day the item is processed.

For the US ladies. The cheapest way to ship to Canada is via USPS First Class International mail.

 🎃 Participants: 

Spoiler

😨 faeriegirl
😰 Anastasiya13
😱 PrettyinPA
😈 ohheyitscindyk
💀 Brutalitops
☠ cc3616
👻 SpaceLlama
👾 gonerogue
🎭 mermadelove
☠ itsfi
🎃 Lipstick4soul
🔮 Lazybeautybeast
🎭 Kim888
💀 quspork
👻 SportyGirly125
😈 Buootiful
🔮 Snoflakefaerie
🎃 MichelleShops
👻 Nickelliebear1
😰 Samtian
💀 SunKissedBlush
☠ bem564
😨 Sarah2TheHi
🧟 ZombieMetroAnt

Mix one part Scream with two parts Scare,

a pinch of Fear, a dash of Dare...

and give your elf a Halloween Box Extraordinare!

[bem564]

@michelleshops Wonderful surprises! I really love the Laneige lip mask!

[SportyGirly125]

@michelleshops What a box full of awesome beauty items, treats, and decorations. @prettyinpa did a wonderful job picking out gifts for you.

[faeriegirl]

Enjoy all of your awesome goodies @michelleshops!

[Buootiful]

Happy Halloween Everyone and especially to my ghoul friend!!!💛🖤💛🖤🎃🎃🎃

I got my box last Monday and been wanting to post so bad but work got in the way. 😞 Anyways, I was so excited when I got it-it was heavy bringing it inside!! 😊. Opening it was a treat! Oh my goodness so much stuff was gifted and I love EVERYTHING!!!

You know how at Xmas you spend all night wrapping presents last minute? It felt like I spent all night unwrapping my gifts! 🙂 To be fair, I didn't want the excitement to end, so I took my time and fought with the tape on all the gift wrapping, LOL. So much fun!

First off, I adored the homemade card, those are always the best!! The decorations were cute and a little gory (to me) as the black confetti reminded me of The Blob movie. 🙂 I guess I like gory in small doses. On top was a humongous Halloween bag that had stuff inside, but my inner voice wanted it opened last 🙂 On to the 1st set!:

*Woooho, Fenty beauty Killawat Foil palette! I have been eyeing this since the end of last year and kept looking at it on my loves list. It always got pushed back to next time..... well, because of Pat Mcgrath, TBH. I tried it this weekend and I am in love with it. Here is a small swatch of what I used on my cheeks.

*Four Sigmatic Mushroom sampler. I am very curious to see how it tastes with and without milk. I wanted to drink some today while posting but I forgot to bring it to work 😞

*Drunk Elephant Lippie balm. Anything Drunk Elephant is awesome! I wanted to try this as an eye balm :)...

On to the 2nd set!:

*Trader Joes Boo bark. Delicious and all gone!

*Ferrero Rocher chocolate. Almost gone as my husband claimed it when he saw it.  He is hoarding it like Willy Wonka.

*Tarte LIghts camera lashes mascara and primer. Oooh, will try it when the 3-4 brands I have to use up in the next few months.

On to the 3rd set! 

*Tarte Kitten eyeliner. I love the cute kitten cap!

*2 lovely Mason jars with candy. I had to open the jar of Peanut M&M's. What is it about a mini Mr Good bar that is so delicious? BTW, did I get a reminder that I am getting old. Was I imagining things or were the M&M's now giving me heartburn?  Oh no, one more thing I can't eat 😞 .  So, I took them to work and tried them after lunch. Yup, they were spicy again. Then I googled jalapeno M&Ms for the fun of it. Turns out they do exist! Thank you for the Trick AND Treat, LOL!!!  🙂 🙂 🙂

*More Tarte and Drunk Elephant goodness

*Laura Mercier lipstick! I have never tried her bullets,  so I'm excited to see how these perform 🙂

*Pumpkin candle. Smells yummy! 

I was finally at the bottom and surely the yellow wrapping was just cushion for the bottom? Nope, it was a very cool, chic Halloween sign which is now in my cubicle!

Lastly, I tore into the Halloween bag and was shocked to find  a purse organizer along with masks. Yay!!! I have never done foot masks and really like I can try these out.

Highlights:

The Fenty Palette, of course!

I love looking at the amber colored mason jars. Can't wait to re-purpose them.
The purse organizer. 😍 I am lame. I love sensible things as much as fun stuff for gifts! This was on my wish list, heehee!

If Fenty and the homemade card was the only thing in the box, I would have been content. My Ghoul friend got almost everything on my wish list and so much more, wowie wow! Thank you from the very bottom of my heart for these awesome gifts and treats @mermadelove  <3<3<3

Sorry about the long post! Once I get going, I can't stop!

[sunkissedblush]

My husband claimed my treats too haha

you will definitely love DE lippe balm it is really good!

[SpaceLlama]

You're not lame, @Buootiful ! Sensible gifts are really nice to receive! The purse organizer looks super useful! Perfect for storing all of your new goodies 😉 

[rockstargina]

This is such an amazing box of goodies!  Enjoy all of them. ☺️

[mermadelove]

@Buootiful  I am sooooooooooooo glad it finally FINALLY!!!!!! Got to you!!!! Ghoulfriends, this box made the trip cross country TWICE!!!!! before our beYOUtifful @Buootiful got her goodies!!!!

Imagine my frustration when her package showed up on MY doorstep a week after I shipped it out due to USPS’s computer leaving off part of her address!!! 🤬🤯☠️😡

But all’s well that ends well. 

SO glad you enjoyed your goodies— and baddies! I tried to give you a hint on the jalapeño m and m’s that they were more than meets the eye by Pablo g that jar TRICK or treat and the minis jar trick or TREAT. LOLOL I also wrote what they were at the bottom of the mason jars. You know. For when you were done eating them. Lolol  Little Miss Mermadelove and I tried a few and gagged. But mr. Mermadelove said we were being wusses. 😂😂😂

Anyway, thanks for sharing in the Halloween fun! 💋🎃👻💀👻🎃💋

[Buootiful]

And this Halloween gift keeps on giving 🙂 !!! A month and a half and im still getting secret messages from my Ghoulfriend @mermadelove 

Thank you again for the wonderful Halloween Treats! It tasted good and wierd. Plus, bonus points for my Boss loving these spicy peanuts and dipping into these too!! >3

[SportyGirly125]

@Buootiful Wow your box was packed with so many goodies. It just kept giving and giving. Enjoy everything @mermadelove picked out for you. 

[Samtian]

@Buootiful ooh how fun! Trick m&m's had me laughing!

[Anastasiya13]

@Buootiful  Wow you got some awesome goodies. Enjoy hon.

[RebeccaBT]

Hi @Buootiful,

WOW! This package is full of amazing goodies. Enjoy! 

Best,
Rebecca

[PenelopeBT]

Christmas came early for you this year. Yay! Thank you for sharing all your amazing goodies. <333

[tsavorite]

@Buootiful ,

I really enjoyed your photos and the step by step unboxing of your gifts and treats! 

@mermadelove  is an excellent Halloween Elf gift giver!  The Jack 'O Lantern Bag was a nice gift too!  Enjoy your Halloween!

[eshoe]

Wow I am kinda envying the purse organizer @Buootiful! @mermadelove has some great taste and incredible shopping skills 😉

[lipstick4soul]

I was lucky to get a @mermadelove box last year, she certainly knocks it out the park! I think the positive energy must aid in the box packing Tetris!

[mermadelove]

@lipstick4soul  Awww you are too sweet!!! 🥰🥰🥰

✨🧜🏽‍♀️💖✨

[quspork]

So many amazing goodies, @Buootiful! That handbag insert looks genius- perfect for those of us who seem to lose things easily in our bags haha!

[ohheyitscindyk]

@Buootiful Omg @mermadelove hit it out of the park. The Fenty is so pretty on you. I love that sign & I'm now considering getting a purse organizer, I swear my purse is like a black hole. The mason jars of candy were a nice touch & I didn't know jalapeño M&Ms exist haha. And I need to try the Four Sigmatic. Enjoy your treats!

[SportyGirly125]

@ohheyitscindyk I have a purse organizer and it’s a game changer.  I have it in 2 sizes.