In May I shared that I had knitted a hat and scarf for Craft Hope (see post here). Craft Hope has just announced their next project that I hope to be able to participate in – making pillowcase dress for girls around the world. I cannot wait to get home and make some of these. If you would like to know more about Craft Hope and this project visit their website at www.crafthope.com. I will update when I have a chance to make a few.
Include in your essential list of items for summer camp is a backpack. Every camper needs a small bag to throw over their shoulder to carry their stuff around during the day.
I have to admit this was not one of my SWAPS, but rather it was my daughters. She too has just learned to knit and wanted to hand knit all of her SWAPS for camp. What began as a simple square developed into a cute SWAPS. I must admit she worked a lot harder to complete this than I did on all of mine combined. However, I think they are absolutely adorable and she was able to make them with all the left over yarn I had piled up.
The knitting itself was quite easy. Just cast on 6 stitches using a long tail cast on, then knit 5 rows and cast off leaving a tail of several inches. Using a yarn needle the tail were brought to the opposite side and tied with a square knot to create the straps of the back pack. The tags were printed on card stock and attached to each piece. A copy of the tag is below for your use.
Keep Calm And Carry a Backpack
Note: the backpack did not open but were more like flat rectangles with loops.
I have fallen in love with sock monkeys, and apparently I am not the only one. I never had a sock monkey as a child, but now that I am all grown up (don’t laugh so loud) I wish I had one. The last SWAPS I made for summer camp was a sock monkey friend. It was by far the most popular SWAPS I made, and quite a few people, including adults, came up to me and asked for one.
Like all of the other SWAPS I made it was super easy. It began with a piece of 12×12 scrap booking paper. All I had to do was cut them out and drop them into a 2×3 zipper bag. My wonderful hubby wrote the poem for me. So I printed them and attached them to the top of the bag with a zipper before adding the safety-pin.
If you are able to find the sock monkey paper and would like the tag, here it is. Sock monkey SWAPS top
What is better than flip flops in the summer? Flip flop SWAPS of course!
I found these cute flip flop cupcake toppers at my local craft store. All I had to do was remove the stick and add a tag. I does not get much easier. The possibilities are unlimited and the design is on both sides. These were great because they are colorful and I passed them out the day I wore my summer shirt with flip flops on it.
I love SWAPS! What’s not to love? They are cute tiny handmade items with safety pins for trading. The only problem with making SWAPS is the time needed to make them. Since I made almost 200 SWAPS for camp I needed easy SWAPS that were also inexpensive to make. So after scouring the internet I decided that I would make AHG Friendship Seeds.
There are many different “Friendship Seeds” floating around the internet, but none seemed just right. So, with the help of my very talented husband we created the text. The words were printed on paper and placed in a 2×3 zipper bag with a few seed beads. Nothing could be quicker!
If you would like to make some here is the poem ready for you to use. Just print and cut on the dotted lines. (AHG Friendship Seed Poem)
