aMuse FC Red Carpet SWAPs

For the Final Celebration, our little divas will be walking the red carpet and celebrating all that they have accomplished during this Journey. Here's a SWAP to commemorate their celebration.

This is a simple SWAP, but it will still tickle your girls. Using sticky back felt makes this more expensive, but soooooo much easier and faster. Use the picture from the Leader's Guide as a guide for your trapezoid. Using the self adhesive felt, you could probably make about 24 out of a single sheet of felt, which puts each SWAP at about 5 cents each (including a scrap of paper and a safety pin).

Here's your recipe card:

Recipe Cards

Why recipe cards?

As I was searching for SWAP ideas for my Troop, I noticed that most of the SWAP ideas were just pictures.  Sometimes, there would be a brief description, which may or may not have told how to make the SWAP.  On the Making Friends website, I noticed how a very good description of a SWAP, including how to make it, was just like a recipe.  A list of ingredients (supplies) and instructions.  I started thinking that this would be helpful with making SWAPs with the Troop, as well.  

During previous camping trips, I put pictures of some traditional SWAPs on notecards, punched holes, and looped binder rings through.  I kept this set of cards in our SWAP/craft box.  I started thinking how much they looked like recipe cards.  And then I started daydreaming of a recipe box filled with SWAP instructions, or a recipe card binder, categorized.

I mostly like the idea of the recipe cards because it means that I can have a set of SWAP ideas for my girls, that are all the same size, same shape, give them the information they might need to recreate them, and have a picture if they just want inspiration.

Why are they all about the aMuse Journey?

The short answer is that they won't all be.  Last weekend was a camping SWAP.  I plan on having a Camping set of SWAP Recipe Cards.  As well as one specific to my local Council.  I also have plans for a set of Brownie Journey SWAPs.

When I was planning for this year, I noticed that there weren't many SWAPs specifically relating to the new Journey books.  Lots and lots of traditional vests, sashes, bedrolls, s'mores, tents, campfires, flashlights, and all those adorable film canister SWAPs no one can do anymore, because who can find film canisters?  But no Dez the Fashionista Spider.  No Flower Friends.  No Brownie Elf (at least not the blue one from the books).  these books are going to be part of Girl Scouts for some time in the future, so I think it only fair that they should get the same SWAP treatment at Hermie the Worm. :)

Okay, but what do I do with them?

You can either keep them as a saved image file, or you can print them off.  They should print 4-up landscape on a letter sized piece of paper or cardstock.  If you print them on paper, you can cut them out and glue them to index cards.  Then you can keep them on binder rings, in an altered recipe box, or in a binder made for keeping recipe cards.  I am considering laminating mine with my Xyron so they won't get messed up at camp.  Once I have a final destination for mine, I will post it.

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:

aMuse S8 Megaphone SWAPs

Ready, Set, TAKE ACTION!  In honor or the girls' big presentation, I created this Megaphone SWAP:

This one is super simple, but it does have one trick.  As you can see in the SWAP Box, the megaphones originally had "Go Team!" or some other such Homecoming nonsense on them.  This will need to be removed to make room for "Take Action!" or "Girl Scouts!" or "Juniors!" or some other such cool thing.  Goo Gone is what worked for me.  It takes a little elbow grease, but it works like a charm.  Then grab your faithful Sharpie and doodle away.  If your megaphone (like mine) has a loop on the top, then you can simply stick a safety pin through that, otherwise you can hot glue a safety pin to one side or use a self-adhesive pinback.  This is probably the most expensive SWAP I will ever recommend at nearly $0.50 each, which is why I recommend getting these megaphones after Homecoming when the price should come down.

Here is the recipe card:

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aMuse S6&7 Clapperboard SWAPs

In Sessions 6 and 7, the girls begin work on their Take Action Project, as is illustrated in the Girl's book, in "Turning Acting into Action":

I just did a quick Google search for "clapperboard" and found a good copyright free image, printed it off, cut it out and then glued it to some foam.  I used brown because that is what I had on hand, but white or black would look better.  Once the glue is dry, cut out the foam around the clapperboard, you can either attach a pin back (as I did), or simply stick a safety pin through it.  Again, the cost for this per SWAP is based almost entirely on the pin you use. :) 

Here is the recipe card:

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aMuse S5 Junior Doll SWAP

In Session 5, the girls start discussing the power of stories:

To go along with the "Good Yarn" opener, I decided on these yarn doll SWAPs, made using a technique directly out of the Girl's Journey book. I used one wooden bead for the head, 2 chenille stems, that fabulous yarn I found, and some green yarn I've had. This SWAP cost 16 cents to make with a self adhesive pinback. If you use a safety pin, maybe 11 cents.

Or, these could be used during Session 2, as yet another role that your girls play.

Here is the Recipe Card:

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aMuse S2 Roles SWAPs - Student

In Session 2, the girls discuss stereotypes and what "girls are supposed to be" and what roles they themselves play. I created several different SWAPs to illustrate some of the roles they might play. The third one I am going to show is the "Student Role":

One role all Girl Scouts play is that of a student. This little SWAP is easy and very easy on the budget, because essentially all you really pay for is the pinback. I used a free printable from Hittie Print Mini for the composition notebook. There are other style of notebook on the site as well. I used a tutorial from Zakka Life for the miniature pencil. This SWAP cost 5 cents to make with a self adhesive pinback. If you use a safety pin, maybe 1 cent. Maybe. :)

Here is the Recipe Card:

Next week, I will have the last in my set of Session 2 Role SWAPs!

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aMuse S2 Roles SWAPs - Artist

In Session 2, the girls discuss stereotypes and what "girls are supposed to be" and what roles they themselves play. I created several different SWAPs to illustrate some of the roles they might play. The second one I am going to show is the "Artist Role":

This is another simple little SWAP. Merely some paint daubed on a shaped piece of foam. I really like the self adhesive bar style pinback on this one, but you can also use a regular safety pin poked through the foam. With the pinback, this SWAP cost maybe 10 cents to make.

Here's the Recipe Card:

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aMuse S2 Roles SWAPs - Friend

In Session 2, the girls discuss stereotypes and what "girls are supposed to be" and what roles they themselves play. I created several different SWAPs to illustrate some of the roles they might play. The first one I am going to show is the "Friend Role":

This is, of course, a variation on the classic, "Make new friends, but keep the old" type of SWAP. This one features chenille stem and silver and gold pony beads. This SWAP cost about 7 cents to make. Here is the Recipe Card:

I will feature another Session 2 SWAP next week.

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aMuse S1 SWAP - Dez the Spider

What better way to start the Journey than with a SWAP of our guide, Dez the Fashionista Spider? I found some fabulous packs of chenille stems (pipe cleaners) and a ball of variegated cotton yarn which coordinates so well, it looks like they were meant to go together! For more information on the specific supplies I bought, check out the SWAP Box. These SWAPs cost about 5 cents each in supplies. You can easily add googly eyes (the ones with eyelids and lashes would be especially cute!), stickers, or even a foam beret to give Dez more personality.

Here's the Recipe Card:

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