Guest Author - Deborah L. Kompare
Sorry this is late for Girl Scout week, but I hope, if you are a Girl Scout, or a leader, you had a very good time celebrating this event. As I mentioned before, I have a 2nd grade Brownie troop of 20 girls and I have a wonderful time with them. It’s been a while since we’ve made any S.W.A.P.s, but I think the time has come to revisit this tradition. S..W.A.P.s are small crafts, usually pins, that one troop will exchange with another troop or other Girl Scouts at a meeting or event. Usually it is a pin and the girls will add a label that identifies their troop.
When making S.W.A.P.s, you could use a theme for the event, or simply make something that is cute and you know the other troop would like. For a while, ladybugs were a hot item and they make cute pins. What you would need to do is take a plastic spoon and fill the spoon bowl with plaster of paris. When is has set a bit, add a pin back and your troop identification. (You could also simply paint your troop number on the bottom when the form has dried.) Once is has hardened, pop out the form and paint it to look like a ladybug. I have only seen pictures of these recently, but they seem to be very cute. It just takes some preplanning to have the forms done before the meeting you may use to paint them.
A camping S.W.A.P. that my troop made to exchange with an older group of girls who would be helping them get ready to camp was just too cute. I have tried to find the site and picture for it without success. If I do find it, I’ll post it on the forum. You will need wooden ice cream spoons, small scraps of fabric, yarn or doll hair, paint, glue and pin backs. First, paint the larger end of the spoon a flesh color and add a sleeping expression to it once it has dried. Add yarn or doll’s hair once the face is finished. To make the sleeping bag, take a small fabric scrap and cut it into a rectangle that your spoon will fit into. Glue it on two sides and slide the spoon into the rectangle. We also added a small bit of fiberfill to give it a realistic look, but if you are using felt, you would not need to do this. I don’t remember if we glued our “camper” into her sleeping bag. Add the pin back and these were a hit with the older girls.
There are several sites on the web that offer many different ideas for S.W.A.P.s. Since there are so many different ideas, these would also be good for parties or other groups. You don’t need to be a Girl Scout to enjoy the fun of crafting S.W.A.P.s! Let me know what fun you’ve had with ideas such as these on the forum. I’d love to hear what you’ve done!
