Swap Banner & Computer Expert

This time of year is always so crazy. Cookie season is a couple of months of activities (and sales), Thinking Day, Girl Scout Week, the list goes on - and all of this starts before we are fully recovered from the holidays! The crafts never end :)

I have posted about the swaps that my daughter does with the Girl Scout Swaps group. The last one was World Thinking Day and we received ours back last Monday, but I haven't had a chance to do anything with them until this weekend.

This is what we got back! 100 swaps! We even got the one from the Juliette in California that my daughter writes to. What can I say, you already know that I am an enabler! But really, I'm so glad she joined - I love her being there too!

We did 2 countries/participants because there were 74 countries claimed and we wanted more than 50 of them. We ended up with 57 out of 74. And it was really fun, too.

And I finally ran up that swap banner I've been wanting. Maybe I should've made it bigger...

Before                                           After

My Little Brownie is planning on making a Girl Scout Birthday swap for her pen pals and I've been planning my next few weeks with her Girl Scout Journey. Over the last week she completed her Computer Expert badge, and we are brainstorming ideas for the project to earn her Take Action badge and complete the Journey. We've got it narrowed down to two...

Here is my latest scrapbook layout, though I still prefer the Project Life style, I'm giving this to My Little Brownie for her scrapbook. She loves Photoshop and she hovered over my shoulder while I made this. She helped me pick out the pictures and I let her move the elements around. They say a picture is worth a thousand words!

 


I'm working on my Girl Scout Week marathon. The first day of Girl Scout Week is March 6th. For us it's the last day of initial orders for cookie sales where things slow down a bit while we wait for cookie drop. You can join us as we wade through it to earn a fun patch or two!

And here is the binder card for Computer Expert:

I'm Looking forward to seeing you during Girl Scout Week!

Door Hanger Craft

Tonight we decided to crash the Fire Dept. meeting. We showed up about 30 minutes early so we could catch them standing around chatting before the meeting started.

Anybody that has sold cookies (competitively), has some in the freezer when the next cookie season rolls around. Well, I had 2 cases left. I got stuck with a 10 box sale plus the ones I ordered for myself -and for this year's taste test. What can I say, after we had our fill I blocked them out forgot about them! So I gave a few boxes away to neighbors and friends to make room for this year's. And we thought maybe if we gave out cookie samples we might have better sales this year :)

But - passing around a box of cookies to a group of people is unappealing to me and possibly even a little distasteful...

So this is how we served 'em up, and I think it's pretty cool even if I do say so myself.

Step 1. Download your council's door hanger from their cookie page. They're all different depending on what kinds of cookies they are selling this year. (Check out all of their cookie selling tools while you're there.)

Step 2. Go to www.pdfescape.com and fill it out for free on their site (I messed up 2 door hangers trying to fit my handwritten email address on those cards before I just gave up!)

Step 3. Trim your cards and carefully crease then fold the card like this:

Step 4. Put your Girl Scout to work to put a cookie in small plastic snack bags (or small craft bags). Insert the filled bag like I've shown below and staple. Make sure to staple like a matchbook.

Easy peasy. At first I thought I could cut these up and staple them like snack toppers, but I think the matchbook setup is way better because the order form just folds out.

These door hangers were formated perfectly to fold them this way. I printed up extra to punch holes in the top and use them for their original purpose, but using them for sample packs was a very happy situation for my Little Brownie. We put Toffee-tastic in half and Rah-Rah Raisin in the rest. (I marked them with a small "T" or "R" so I could look slick when people asked for a certain kind.) Those are the flavors that people I've spoken to ask me to describe. Then people give you the hairy-eye when you describe them like they are afraid to try them out anyway :( This was a no-commitment solution for them.

My daughter handed these out and got orders from all but 2 of the guys there, but they still had the order form and our contact info so they could order later. (They admitted that they wanted to ask their wives which kinds to get.) Not one of them refused the sample. I love handing out samples anyway, I really think they make a difference. I call them "gateway cookies", and even went so far as to bring thin mint brownies to our cookie booth last year. I had printed up the recipe cards from the Little Brownie Baker website and put them on the table with the brownie samples.

In case anyone is wondering, each order tonight included at least one box of one or both of the sample flavors.

And I have room in my freezer for this years cookies. Win/win!

On to the next adventure - Good luck and Happy cookie sales, my friends!

Ode to Lemonades...

This weekend I was scrapbooking. I do Project Life, but there is a serious shortage of Girl Scout themed pocket cards in this world. I Googled some keywords and ended up on Pinterest. Well, I completely lost track of why I was even there - it happens... Cookie season being what it is, I stumbled across (and am swimming in) everything cookie!

There are so many activities and patches to earn that could quite possibly leave you with no time whatsoever to SELL the cookies! Here are a couple that I have found:

There is a new cookie patch for the Lemonades for their 10th birthday. These are ABC Baker products, but if you're a collector it doesn't matter. This is the only place I have seen them so far, but I'm sure other councils or service units will have them in stock soon. On the up side, service unit shops are way cheaper on shipping :)

If you look hard enough, you can even find recipes that feature this little gem. I am dying to try Lemonades Pie and  Lemonade Cookie Gelato, but if you check Google or Pinterest you'll find tons! If you just can't find these bad boys in your area, there are even knock-off recipes to make your own - but you didn't hear that from me...



It is on this same site for GSMH SU 738 out of Columbia, MO that I saw the Cookie Booster Activity complete with...wait for it...a patch!

You can download either Little Brownie Bakers version or ABC Bakers. There are a bunch of fun games and other activities, as well as printables.

They have a limited number of patches available, so if you decide to do this activity, get your order in quickly.

Be sure to share your Lemonades recipes!


Happy Julietting!

Thinking Day Crafts & A Girl Scout Week Patch!

Our Service Unit hosted their World Thinking Day event on Feb 6th, but it is officially on Feb 22nd. There are lots of crafts and traditions associated with World Thinking Day and here is a site with tons of info for your reading pleasure.

This year's theme is "Connect" and since it changes every year, you can find the most current info here. I have read that you can put this patch on the front of your vest, but I have never, ever, ever seen anyone do that...

I read up some of the traditions when I was researching for our booth last year. I don't remember what site I was on, but I particularly liked the idea of placing a lit candle in the window and reflecting on Girl Scouts around the world, knowing that Girl Scouts around the world were doing the same thing and also thinking about us! My daughter and I whooped up a little craft that only cost a dollar and scavanged bits from my scrapbooking stash.

Thinking Day 2015

We just got a votive holder from the Dollar Tree and printed "This Little Light of Mine, I'm Gonna Let It Shine"  (because it was mentioned on the website I was looking at) and the WAGGS logo on vellum paper. We cut it to size and curled it around the short votive. We only had it lit for a few minutes because I didn't want to burn the house down... I am looking for ways to actually affix the image and lettering onto the glass so we can relax and enjoy it.

The Vellum sat correctly in the holder until I took it out to dust it and take pics... 

I don't want to move onto the next thing until I mention that there is also the World Thinking Day 2016 Challenge Badge that can be earned by completing an activity pack. Most of these look pretty much like many of the other team building or confidence building activities that you would normally do with your journeys. So even if you don't want the patch, the info for the activities could be useful for other things.



Now, on to the next thing! I was scrolling down through the Girl Scout Gab Facebook page and a nice lady posted the requirements for the Girl Scout Week Patch! Girl Scout Week is celebrated for 7 days each March, starting with Girl Scout Sunday and ending with Girl Scout Sabbath/Shabbat on Saturday, and it always includes the Girl Scout Birthday, March 12. This year it is March 6-12. Even if you don't have a group you can do this with you can still have fun and earn the patch. The first page is the requirements sheet that an adult must check off and the second sheet is the order form for the patch. Complete the requirements each day and send $2 along with both completed pages for this year's fun patch! You can also order this patch here for $1.75 plus shipping. (This is NOT an affiliate link)

And let's not forget this one... I believe you only have to wear your Girl Scout uniform to church on Girl Scout Sunday to earn the Girl Scout Sunday Patch. Please look up the requirements before purchasing this patch.

So hopefully everyone is on the patch train for the next few weeks! I don't know about you all, but I still haven't ironed on anything since before the Fall Festival, and I'm thinking I may need to go get out the iron!

As usual, until next time, my marvelous Juliette friends, and Happy Ironing! (I think there may even be a patch for that, lol)

A Visit With A Junior Troop

Last night we went to a meeting with Troop 6710 in Beebe, AR. The leader is a parent in my daughter's old troop, and has a Junior troop of her own. They are working on the Agent of Change Leadership Journey. This visit was spurred by the bridging requirements to work with an older troop and a younger troop. (I have requested a list of Daisy troops in our area, so that next year we can hopefully work with a younger troop.)

Since there would be an extra girl in the meeting, (my girl) I felt obliged to whip up a kaper chart for this visit so that all of the girls would get a kaper. I wish I had added small tags to label each bracelet, but since it was a last minute idea, I was kind of squeezed on time. We had to look at the box each time we moved to another activity and it was a hassle. And why, yes, that IS a tissue box (very handy and self contained for a kaper chart).


I could even have added a green bracelet if we'd had one more girl. General Assistant got opening and unplanned stuff, and Quality Control was to take care of closing and make sure that the room was left better than we found it.

We wanted the girls to get something out of the meeting that applied to both levels. My Little Brownie is working on Brownie Quest. We decided to do the "I'm Being Framed" activity where the girls add positive descriptive words to a self-portrait. We found an awesome template file for that here. (The file link is way at the bottom of her very inspiring blog post.) This activity ties into both journeys, and hey, it never hurts to take a few minutes to remind our girls how awesome they are.

I was so tickled to see the girls working on this project because even though they all started out with the same materials - every single picture was unique - just like every girl!

I wish I had taken the time to create a doc file with more words, but the girls also hand-wrote some of their own. A couple of the girls even drew their own portrait instead of using the templates.

Two girls came in late after I took these pics, we got everything back out and let them each do one too -and I'm kicking myself for not getting pics of their posters as well...

We took a few minutes to talk about Juliette Gordon Low and the upcoming birthday of Girl Scouting with some history trivia about the first troop in Savannah, GA.

All in all, everybody enjoyed themselves and each girl got something out of the activity that they will hopefully carry in their hearts. Each girl was able to see that their individual talents and personality traits are strengths and valuable additions to their Girl Scout teams.

This activity fulfilled one of the requirements for both Brownie Quest Discover Key and Agent of Change Power of One, which are in the first session to use words or pictures to tell others about who you are.

I took the opportunity at the end of the meeting to give each of the girls a fun patch in appreciation of sharing their meeting with us and giving us an opportunity to make new friends. My Little Brownie and I really love visiting with other troops and joining in events where other troops are present.

And of course, I went straight home after the meeting and made a scrapbook layout for the occasion. For this post, of course, I had to alter the picture to hide these lovely young ladies' faces - sorry! I posted the unaltered pictures for the parade in December, but that was a public event. Now that I am a little better at Photoshop, I can make one for Troop 6533 that included us in their parade!

Until next time, my wonderful Juliette Friends!

Ridiculous Crafts & My Apologies for the Bombardment

When I started to write this post I noticed all of the drafts that I had been scheduling and saving, but I didn't know I had to hit the publish button. So those of you who have subscribed to my blog are about to get bombarded with about 8 of my past posts - and I am so sorry. When I check my posts I preview them from the editor, but I don't go to the blog page and that is where I made my mistake I guess.

So on to the ridiculous craft.

I guess you know by now that I am entranced by all things Girl Scouty... So I was trapped on Pinterest one day and saw the wreath. OMG the WREATH! Yeah, baby, it's $60 on Etsy and she's not even offering it for sale anymore.

Well, I'm kinda crafty, so I thought to myself "I could do that!" So, lets compare, shall we:

Awesome Wreath

Cheap Knock off Wreath
shedding huge amounts of glitter
on my bedspread.

Okay, the first problem is that I couldn't find both of the mesh colors at Walmart. They had the kelly green, but not the lighter color, so I got the wired mesh which is only 5 or 6 inches wide. The wired mesh doesn't work very well (or look right), so you can bet your cookies that I'm going to Michael's next time I go to Little Rock. She also just prints off the cookies and laminates them, so since I am such a polymer clay demon now, I am going to try to mold the cookies out of that. Will update when I get it redone... Mine actually doesn't look too bad in person, but when I compare it to that delicious one on the left I just can't settle.

By the way, if you just can't live without one of these things, just Google mesh wreath and you'll find thousands of tutorials on making them. YouTube videos too. Apparently I am about two years behind on yet another trend. Oh well. It wasn't hard though, even my daughter helped - so we were both just coated in green glitter!

Happy Crafting and Cookie Sales, my friends.

World Thinking Day

This year, as Juliettes, we didn't host a booth at the World Thinking Day event with our Service Unit. We still wanted to participate, though. We signed up with the Girl Scout Swaps group on Facebook again. My daughter chose Jordan and I chose Germany. Normally we only sign up for one swap, but we did 2 this time thinking we would get a better variety back. (There were over 75 signups) We will log them in a keepsake passport just like we would if it was an event we attended.

Jordan swap

I downloaded these super cute country cards to insert into our keepsake passport from the making friends website. These people are awesome for making these and offering them to us for free. We bought the coiless safety pins and hopefully trapped the beads with the postcard and flag tag that is also on their site. (Maybe the beads will be slower to fall off when the pin is opened) For the Germany swap I tried something I've never done before... polimer clay! It was fun to make little pretzels, but I had to fool with the baking temp and rebake and rebake and rebake. Thankfully according to most sources you can't overbake it, and if you cover it while its baking the color shouldn't change and it wont burn. It's supposed to feel rubbery when it is done. I added the flag and postcard and called it done! 

Germany swap

I am actually trying to make time to sew up a banner for the swaps that we get as well. Anybody who has checked out anything Girl Scout related on Pinterest has probably seen the swap banners and I bought some Daisy blue and Brownie brown canvas along with some iron on letters to make a couple of them. I will probably do this year's (brown) first, because she really only got the ones for thinking day last year, and they are still on the lanyard that they handed out...

We still attended the World Thinking Day event with our Service Unit. 

Funny story: I got a text 8 days before the event asking me if I wanted to do a booth. (by ourselves, in 8 days, ha, ha, ha, ha...) Yeah, Sweden. 

The troops that host a booth have to make 150 swaps and 300 food samples from the country they are assigned to. We had a ball doing Australia with her Daisy troop last year, but it was an insane amount of work! 

I'm such a people-pleaser, I almost said yes, but then my common-sense kicked in as I tried to mentally calculate how we could possibly come up with the funds to pull that off - even considering the amount of time it would take one adult and an eight year old to brainstorm and create 150 swaps. Oh, yeah, and a presentation board. I was kind of bummed out too, because that would have been fun if we'd had more notice. Maybe next year... 

Checking out the Displays. She hit the Fiji booth
at least a dozen times because she loved the fruit
drink they made. She had a purse full of dimes!

This girl is covered with swaps!

Our old troop did Madagascar this year.
The cute red-head is her BFF stamping passports.

And a picture with our Service Unit Director to finish out the day. She's the sweetest lady!

Hope you're all having fun with all the events your Service Units are having this time of year!