I got an email saying I had a swap, but when I logged in I couldn't find it.

Hi Karen,

If you give me your username I can check your account specifically.  In general, the time it takes to get a swap varies from a record of 5 minutes to days or weeks depending onhow popular your items are and how active you are.  Here are the tactics followed by swappers who have attained more than 5 swaps in our first four months of operation.

1) Log in from time to time, check out new items and add them to you swaps. 
2) The more items you request and the more items you offer the better your chances.

Regarding the swap you cannot find.  Maybe it timed out or got rejected by another swapper.  You can look it up if you go to "My Swaps" and select "past swaps" on the filter.  I can tell you for sure what happened if you give me your username.

Let me know if you have more questions.
George

my user name is karenmsmith77 . I do check back regularly, and I have lots of items listed, but I have only found a handful of things I want.

You have indeed uploaded lots of items. Eighteen is a good number of items and several of them have been requested  by other folk. 

The email you received said that you have not yet offered these requested items in any of your swaps.  Items that have already been requested are closer to being swapped.  So if you do not wish to add these particular ones to your existing swaps, keep this piece of info in mind when you create more swaps.

Your swaps suggest that you only found four items worth requesting, which is perfectly fine.  But it is also true that the more items you request the better your chances.  You may also request for alternative items in a single swap, mush as you offer alternative items now.

Let me know if I can  be of more help.
George