South Africa:
Last year we made little bags of "industrial diamonds" by putting rock salt in the tiny plastic bags from Michael's. Laura in Phoenix
Germany: (Some "how-to" and some themes only)
Pretzels One of our very clever troops took the tiny 1" pretzels (traditional shape) covered them totally in ModPodge or something else clear to totally seal them and glued a pin back on the back. Fabulous!
Castles
Nutcracker design used in some way.
Christmas tree (custom began in Germany)
Gingerbread men (paper, foam, etc)
Pickles...trust me on this. There is a custom of having a Christmas ornament that looks like a pickle on the tree. It should be hidden so people have to really hunt for it. The person who finds it will have good luck for the next year (or simply a small gift wrapped for this purpose. You could use green craft foam, paper, or whatever and include a tiny printed explanation of the custom with the pickle.
Dianne L. Ward, Aberdeen, WA
Greece:
A miniature Olympic torch or something with the Olympic rings
Ireland:
Miniature pots of gold (end of the rainbow style)
Leprechauns made of pipecleaners and beads, foam, paper, whatever you can dream up!
My all time favorite was given out at our Thinking Day event a number of years ago...polished stones...Blarney Stones! I've kept mine in my coin purse ever since!
Washington State:
Collect a few dead branches with the wood being no larger than a pencil. Cut them in about 2" to 2 1/2" lengths. Tie three together like a bundle of firewood using rafia, coarse twine etc. Hot glue a pinback on the back. Juli Bonell Hoquiam, Wa
Norway: (Theme ideas more than "how-to")
Woven paper heart baskets
Miniature skis
Snowflakes
Reindeer! There are a lot of small easy reindeer crafts that could be used as swaps.
Trolls or gnomes (gnomes with red peaked caps like Santa are very
special...Julenissen)
Mittens ...paper or posterboard with the Norwegian star design on them.
(See photo>)
Miniature weaving
Miniature rosemal designs (a design could be copied from a book or
the net, shrunk down and printed out...then applied to a posterboard
circle to look like a plate. Or girls could do simple rosemal designs
on thin pieces of wood, paper, etc. See photo. >
Viking helmet with horns (one of you creative types could come up with
this one)
"Rune" designs drawn on stones (look up "rune stones")
Something signifying "The Land Of The Midnight Sun"
Dianne LARSON Ward Aberdeen, WA
Sweden:
Many of the themes listed for Norway also apply to Sweden. Here
is a completely Swedish theme for you!
Dala Horses (real ones are carved of wood. The photo shows the
traditional shape. You could use cardboard, paper, craft foam,
or something else! They are painted various colors (red-orange
is the original) with a harness and saddle painted on in a scallop
type of design. (See photo) Troop number could be put on
the side where the photo shows a name.
Dianne Ward
Scotland:
Loch Ness monsters made of foam, paper or other material
A little child paperdoll figure similar to the Japanese children on the Swaps page dressed in a plaid kilt etc.
Bagpipes using a little round pocket of plaid fabric with toothpicks for the pipes
