Brownies: Fairy SWAPS and Camp Prep Fun

This year our camp theme is "Fairies and Firelight." So rather than continue on with our legacy badges, we took a break for a few meetings to work on fun camp-related activities.

First up, I found a nice deal on fairy wings at Amazon.

The wings already had very pretty glittery designs (swirls and whatnot) on them, but I brought in some glitter glue and let the girls go nuts decorating their wings. They each came up with their own "fairy" names for camp, too, and I wrote the name on the wings in Sharpie (be sure to put a piece of paper underneath as it will bleed through easily).

It didn't matter if the girls were attending camp or not; each girl got a pair of wings. But it encouraged some of the girls who hadn't expressed an interest in camp, to sign up for the outing. And they came up with some great names for fun at camp!

The wings held up really well. With the exception of a few activities, many of the girls wore the wings all day. None of the wings ripped or fell apart. The glitter glue stayed put as well. It was super cute!

Next up, making SWAPS! Some people go all out for SWAPS and that's great! But keep in mind you typically need at least ten per child, so if you have a large troop, you might end up biting off more than you can chew if you go with a super involved craft. Because our troop is so large, and we made crafts in a troop meeting before knowing for sure how many girls would be attending camp, we went with something simple but cute.

I went to Michael's and found some foam fairy sticker kits and small (roughly business-card-sized) card stock. There wasn't quite enough of the card stock, so I just cut some colored 3"x5" cards in half (or so -- made them the same size).

First up, separating the stickers:

Then putting together some samples:

We wrote the troop number on the back of the cards first, then put stickers on, then added pins.

I separated out 10 into each baggy, and had all the girls work on them, regardless of whether they planned to attend camp or not. Then I brought them home, added the pins, and put them in a big bag with glitter! It coated the sticker bits that stuck off the cards, and added more fairy fun. We ended up with 15 per girl for camp.

EDIT: Next year, we will be doing SWAPS with a Daisy troop to work on our Bridging to Juniors badge.