I am studying abroad this semester in London, England, which I am super excited about it! I have a rare hour of wifi access, and I thought I'd put together a blog post for y'all.
And just what are S.W.A.P.S., you ask?
SWAPS are Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere!
Swaps are a Girl Scout Tradition-they can be any type of object, craft or accessory.
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| An example of SWAPS |
Scouts trade them off at troop meet ups, national conferences, international visits, etc. Exchanging Swaps is a great way to break the ice and to make new friends!
The Website gives a lot of great tips about how to create and exchange SWAPS meaningfully. For example, a SWAP should "tell something about the givers or their group. It is a representation of who the Girl Scout is, or her community, country, or of her troop."
For more SWAPS tips and tricks, check out:
http://www.girlscouts.org/program/basics/traditions/swaps/
Next, I'd like to share a project that would make awesome SWAPS!
I had the idea for this back in high school when I decided to put beads on my headphones. I really wanted to personalize my headphones and put a meaningful secret message into the beading. I decided to encode "All you need is love" with different colored beads in Morse code. The results were pretty cool! In order to create the message with beads, I chose two colors (blue and yellow), and assigned each color to a Morse Code symbol. I used blue beads to represent dashes, and yellow beads to represent dots. Then, I sorted out enough beads to write my message out. For "Love," or "._.. _ _ _ ..._ ." in Morse Code, I needed 12 different beads-5 blue beads and 7 yellow ones. So, I arranged them "Yellow, Blue, Yellow, Yellow, Blue, Blue, Blue, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Blue, Yellow."
It's a lot simpler than it seems!
Supplies Needed for This Project:
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| Seed Beads |
- String
- A needle (depending on the size of your string/beads-See the link to the tutorial)
- Different Colored Seed Beads
- A Morse Code Key (see above image)
- A word or number that you want to write in Morse Code
- Bracelet Clasps
- Time, Patience, and Enthusiasm! :D
Anyway, I thought that this project would translate well into a SWAPS project! Using Seed beads, girls can encrypt their own messages into bracelets! I think it would be cool to write your hometown, troop number, or an inspiring word or two in Morse Code on a bracelets to trade with other girls.
For example, if I wanted to put my old troop number-2009-on a Morse code bracelet, I would write it like this: ".._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ." Then I would pick out two different colored beads and arrange them in that order.
The pieces are on the smaller side, so I would definitely recommend it for older Scouts and Scouts who can enjoy more time-consuming projects. I think that this would be a ton of fun to trade with other scouts-who doesn't love a beautiful, personalized piece of memerobilia?
Check out this website for a great tutorial for this project!
Hope that you are all having an awesome week, and let me know how this project goes!
Much Love,
Gold Girl Allie
P.S. If you are interested in following my London adventures, I will be setting up some sort of Blog soon to document my travels and experiences, and I will post the link in my next Blog post!
For now, here's a picture of me with Big Ben:
Image Sources for This Post:
Image from: http://pad3.whstatic.com/images/thumb/d/d9/Make-Girl-Scout-SWAPS-Intro.jpg/670px-Make-Girl-Scout-SWAPS-Intro.jpg
http://www.makingfriends.com/images/girl_scout_bead_Swap2.jpgMorse Code Key: https://www.cadetsignals.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/International_Morse_Code.jpg
Seed Bead pic: http://www.doodle-head.com/images/bead/seed_beads_2007-1010.jpg
Cool Blue Background: http://animatedpowerpointtemplates.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/cool-blue-powerpoint-templates-1024x640.jpg
Braclets on a table: https://img0.etsystatic.com/035/1/6975992/il_340x270.569038324_77sh.jpg
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