Make it Monday: SWAPS!

I am back again with another round of SWAPS. I am helping out on staff for a week-long arts camp this summer and we were asked to make  SWAPS to share with the girls attending. I like to put some effort into my SWAPS so they have some meaning behind them. I love astronomy (my dad is an astronomer) and my Guiding name is Starshine so I thought this would be the perfect SWAP for me.

 

I got the original idea from this project I saw on Pinterest and I adapted it for my SWAPS.

 

 

I love to get all of my supplies ready and organized before I start a project because I love the idea of seeing how a bunch of different pieces come together to make a project. Plus I needed a photo for Twitter... :) 

 

I started by using my star punch to get fifty stars. Luckily this didn't take as long as I thought it would so I was happy. I chose to punch the stars before I laminated them because I needed to write on the stars and it would be too hard to punch the exact spot where the words were.

 

 Because the circles did not have any writing on them I chose to laminate a full piece of paper and then punch once, this also saved a lot of time!

 

I only used four sheets of paper to get fifty circles and I was pleased with how they turned out. There were a few that did not turn out because I had the punch at the wrong angle, but overall it was fairly simple.  

 



I also punched purple stars to say the constellation name. I just liked the look of the punched paper, especially when it was all done. I only needed one piece of paper to punch the fifty stars.  

 

I used the pink stars to write "Provincial Arts Camp 2013" on the front and wrote "From Shannon" on the back as a memory of who and where the SWAP is from.

 



 

 I used the purple stars to write the name of the constellation to attach to the SWAP. I chose six easily recognizable constellations and wrote what the shape was. In case you cannot read it I chose Cassiopeia (Queen), Ursa Major (Big Dipper), Leo (Lion), Orion (The Hunter), Pisces (Fish), Canis Major (Dog).

 

I used these super tiny brads to attach the pink and purple stars to the black constellation circle. They are really small and I thought they were so cute. :)

 

Luckily all of the stars fit on one laminating page so it was easy to lay them out and cut them apart for the SWAPS. I have a small laminator that I use quite a bit and I would definitely recommend it to any crafter!

 



I wanted to practice the constellations before I did them for sure on the real SWAPS so I used the messed up circles and a sharpie to copy the constellation based on pictures from the Internet (and then confirmed with my dad...). I know that they are not completely scientifically accurate, but it is just a craft.

 



I used glow in the dark paint to put on the dots. I did eight of each constellation and two extra to get fifty and it took me about twenty minutes to do all of them. I am a speed demon at one in the morning! :) That paint is VERY glowy and I was happy with the results. I definitely recommend this paint!

 



Here is the finished product! I am overall pretty pleased with them and I attached them to my Girl Guide for Change business card so the girls would have my contact information.

 



This was a fun project and from start to finish it only took about three hours (much less time than the friendship bracelets I made last year...)

 

Thanks for reading!