Burn Ban SWAP

Since we are in Texas, we are going to be doing a lot of burn ban cooking this Fall.  I wanted to make a SWAP for this for our first meeting, since our first campout is this weekend.

These were easy, done with Shrink Plastic.  You can use one of the commercial varieties, or you can DIY it as a re-using project.  I used commercial.  The amount of shrink you get will depend on what plastic you use, so make sure you test it out, or they might be too small.

Drawing:  I used crayons for these samples.  Bad idea.  They are very vivid, but when I heated up the shrink plastic to shrink it, the crayon melted and got all over.  Icky.  I don't recommend it.  I recommend  colored pencils or markers.  The colors intensify as you shrink the image, so don't worry if you can barely see what you drew. :)

Prep by cutting out all the circles ahead of time.  I used a 2" hole punch used for scrapbooking.  You can also pre-punch the hanging holes with a one-hole punch, but that makes it hard to color in that area.

If this is the first time your girls have worked with shrink plastic, I would shrink one while they watch.  It's fun to hear them go "Ooooooh!!" "Wow!" "Cool!"  I used a heat gun specifically for crafting (not paint-stripping).  You might be using an oven, if you have access to one in your meeting space.

Now, for my troop (17 girls), I had planned on each them doing two, one to keep and one to SWAP.  34 little circles to punch, 34 little holes to punch, 34 little charms to shrink.  I had the girls color them, had another adult go around marking their initials on the backs, and then hole-punched, shrank, and pinned them at home.  It took me 20 minutes!  This would not be effective use of meeting time.  However, if you are using an oven, you can do all the shrinking at once, so it would be easier to do during the meeting.

I love shrink plastic for SWAPs, and can't wait to try running some through my printer!  However, please be aware you are MELTING PLASTIC.  Have good ventilation, keep girls with breathing issues away, and for safety's sake, read the instructions completely!  :)  Have fun, but be safe.

Here's your recipe card: