OCD Girl Scout Leaders: SWAPs Interlude VII

Ok, so this is the final SWAPs post of the summer, I promise. Then I have the rest of Daisy Year One written, it just needs to be edited, so I hope to keep posting every Monday at least through the first year bridging. Then I'm going to try and do some Journey Reviews before starting year two (and honestly, I can't imagine I'll get to year two until next summer).

Anyway, these SWAPs are from our last camp and they are all for the adult volunteers. Yes, I came up with and made SWAPs for my husband and Co-leader because they were not going to do it themselves. As usual, my co-leader was very proud that she can get me to do her crafting for her and my husband was both appreciative and couldn't careless in turns with a bit of reluctant indulgence of my insanity mixed in.

Lobster SWAPs

This is what I came up with for my husband, aka "Dr. Lobster." They are actually pretty quick SWAPs, if you excuse for the drying time.

Supplies:
1. Red Tempera Paint
2. Dixie cup
3. Small twist shells
4. Red pipe-cleaners
5. Scissors
6. Googly eyes
7. Low heat hot glue gun
8. Safety pins
9. Tags with whatever you want printed on them

Steps:
1. Drop several shells at a time into a half inch of red paint. (The hand you see is my daughter. She gladly helped with this. Thought it was the most fun ever).

2. Let dry several hours or overnight.

3. Cut pipe-cleaner into 2 inch lengths.

4. Bend length in half, then roll in end to make to tiny "claws."

5. Using hot glue, attach the dried shell to the center.

6. Glue on googly eyes. I used elmers because I had the time and it looks cleaner, but you can use hot glue for faster results.

7. Fold Tags and pin to the claws. Tada!!!

Firefly SWAP

My Co-leaders camp name is "Firefly" and we've been talking about a possible firefly SWAP for a year. In the end, however, she lost interest, I got fixated on my "vision," and this is what I came up with (all on my own).

I loved how they turned out (though part of me still feels they need legs). They could be done by girls but I think I'd stick to Juniors and older.

Finished swarm of fireflies

Supplies:

1. A variety of gold beads (I got this box from Michael's $7.99 before coupon)

2. Glow-in-the-dark paint

3. Small paint brush

4. Low heat hot glue gun (I got glue on my fingers a lot during this one so low heat is important. It's still uncomfortable, but causes no real damage.)

5. Googly Eyes

6. Gold Pipe-cleaners

7. Gold Florist Wire

8. Scissors or wire cutters

9. Safety pins
10. Tags with whatever you want printed on them

Steps

1. Hot glue smaller/ shorter beads together.

2. Paint the ends of a variety of beads with glow-in- the- dark paint and let dry.

3. Use glue gun to attach googly eyes on the other end of beads. (Elmers didn't work for me on this one).

4. Cut and twist the florist wire into an antenna. Bend end where antenna are joined to make shelf to glue to bead.

5. Use glue gun to glue antenna "shelf" on bead, hold for ten seconds to set. Add a dollop of glue on top if seems unstable.

6. Cut gold pipe-cleaner, wrap around your finger and twist ends together to make two wings each. Each pipecleaner will make 4-5 wings.

7. Hot glue wings on either side of bead.

8. Allow a minute to dry then bend wings out.

9. Pin tag onto wing

For flat beads put eyes on the flat, wide surface, otherwise it looks really bizarre. My co-leader laughed for a half hour over one fat little dude.

Eyes on flat side

Fat Dude my co-leader found so funny. I also tried red faces on the first
batch before deciding it was too much work and I didn't like the look.

10. Don't forget to remind the girls you give these out to to check them out in the dark (if it's a day camp). They do actually glow in the dark! Sorry I couldn't get them to photograph in the dark.

For extra fun, carry your SWAPs in a jar like real fireflies. :)