Monday, July 28, 2014

SWAPs Interlude IV

 Since no ones ready to plan for next year but Girl Scout Camp is in full swing, I'm going to take some time to post about our SWAPs.   The first is actually the SWAP our troop made for World Thinking Day in February and the second the one my 7 year-old daughter and I prepared for her day camp "Where in the World are the Girl Scouts."






These are both pretty simple SWAPs.  I've got some more elaborate ones to post about next week.



Tourist SWAP

This last February, our troop attended our first World Thinking Day.  We didn't feel ready to host a booth, so we attended as "tourists."  As such, instead of doing SWAPs that were from another country we designed SWAPs that were more generic, going with two themes, one a globe (world traveler) and one representing the United States (where our girls were traveling from).  

We made these in the morning during a camping trip and they were fairly simple.  They were designed so that the girls (6 & 7) could make them themselves and also so they could inject a little creativity into them.   I've learned quickly that the girls quickly tire of making identical SWAPs over and over and over.  (One attempt to make a "quick and simple" SWAP resulted in a Daisy with 50 eyes).  



Supplies for America SWAPs
1.  Red, white and blue pony beads
2.  Silver pipe cleaners
3.  Safety pins
4.  Black sharpie
5.  Red, white and blue cardstock cut into America shapes.  (I use cricut but you could also buy foam shapes)


The shapes are both found on the cricut cartridge "Going Places"


Supplies for Earth SWAPs
1.  Green and blue pony beads
2.  Blue or green pipe cleaners
3.  Safety pins
4.  Black sharpie
5.  Blue and green card stock cut into world maps  (I use cricut but you could also buy foam shapes)

Steps

I think this is fairly self explanatory from the picture, so I'm not going into it.  I just left out bowls of each supply.  They got to be creative with the pipecleaners  and the pony beads, any order they wanted, straight round, figure 8, whatever.



"Come  to Hawaii with me" SWAP

My daughter's first Girl Scout camp of the summer was themed "Where in the a World are the Girl Scouts?"  We were really busy the few weeks prior so we had to make them before we knew anything else other than it was travel themed.  I asked my 7 year old where she wants to travel most and she said she wanted to do a Hawaii SWAP.  

This SWAP is very similar to a lot of others on Pinterest (I'm not claiming any originality here) and to be honest that was the inspiration that my daughter and I agreed to.  Its a great idea and very easy for her to make (almost too easy, she got a little bored after awhile).  Also I already had the 2 inch square ziplock bags from last year, a dozen different colored sands from her birthday party, and the cricut shapes cut out from a Girl Scout project earlier in the year. 





There were two main differences that I could see from the other beach SWAPs I saw.  First we used colored sand art sand instead of beach sand.  More expensive, true, but prettier, cleaner, and more fun to make and swap.  My daughter made SWAPs in multiple colors.  Also I already owned the sand (btw sand art was a huge hit at the birthday party.  I definitely Recommend it for a backyard party.  Too messy for even me inside.)

Second, we taped the umbrella on the outside.  To get it to fit inside the bag, it would have to have been at least 2x3 inches (which I did not have) and even then the umbrella would have had to been cut pretty small.

Supplies
1.  Two inch square zip lock bags (available on Amazon)
2.  Safety pins (also best bought in bulk on amazon)
3.  Colored Sand Art Sand (Available from Oriental trading)
4.  Mini shells (I got these from oriental trading too)
5.  Cocktail umbrellas with tips cut off (so not to poke anyone)
6.  Beach shapes (stickers or cricut shapes)
7.  Labels with message of your choice
8.  Scotch tape


Sand we bought.  They do have smaller packs.

Cricut cartridge I use for this project was "Pack Your Bags."



Steps
This is also fairly self explanatory so I'll be brief.  We had variety in the colors of the sand and the different shapes used.  
1.  Poor colored sand into bag using a small funnel
2.  Add shells and 1-2 beach shapes.  I had pre-cut cricut shapes from cricut.  I usually use the shadow cuts and almost never layer when making things for the kids to use.
3.  Seal bag and cut sharp tip from umbrella, taping it with scotch tape onto the side.  I would double tape it, since my daughter complained that some fell off in the swapping chaos.   
4. Pin on tag.


As I said, these are pretty easy-peasy.  I've got a couple more summer SWAP and craft projects to post about over the rest of the summer.  Then hopefully I can get the rest of year one in early fall.   Please let me know if there is anything you particularly like or want to see.



1 comment:

  1. These are cute! Thank you for sharing all of your great ideas. Your blog is such a wonderful guide for a new leader like me.

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