Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Door Prizes, Labels, and Other Fun Stuff!

With only one weekend separating us from National Soup Swap Day, I thought it would be fun to share something other than soup to work on this weekend.

That's right! Get out your glue gun and glitter 'cause it's the door prize edition of Soup Swap.

Maybe about five years ago in Seattle, once we had the ritual down with Soup Swap, we threw in the added element of door prizes.

Big and Little Spoons in SeattleIn Seattle, our traditional gifts are a large wooden spoon for the first soup picked, and a small wooden spoon for the last soup to go. I sometimes think we ought switch it and give the big spoon last, because no matter how much you are an adult about being picked last, it still feels bad. I ought to know, I've gone home with the little spoon.

Renee's Super spoons Taking the idea of our spoons further, Renee in Albany blew our mind with her SPOONS FOR EVERYONE! Seriously, we'd never even thought of this. But if Renne looks like Martha Stewart, then you gotta see what Not Martha's got up to: SILK SCREENING.

Not Martha's Soup Swap PotholdersNo, seriously. That's a lot of work for parting gifts!

We've heard of folks giving books, colorful potholders, and for all kind of reasons: first soup frozen, best Telling of the Soup, naughtiest named soup, most exotic ingredient. Do what makes your event the most fun!

Soup Running Away with SpoonWhat if all you want is your soup to be picked first? While I'm normally scrounging around for a pen and mailing label, you can always add a cute label to catch the swapper's eye. Jenny in Rochester did a swell job with this one.

Maybe a cute label isn't enough? If not, you can send some crackers home with it, a box of raisins, or in the case of these folks in DC, what looks like homemade cornbread! And while you're looking at this picture, check out the soup wrapped up in their own blankets!DC picture by Joe Foley, Wrapped Soup!
On a new twist on ugly soup, this weekend down in Portland, one of the intrepid swappers was offering romance with her bleak, dull gray black bean soup! That's right, you picked her soup, and you got the recipe and a pair of candles since candle light makes everything look better.Ugly Soup by Candlelight



Soup IDFinally, neither door prizes nor incentives, we can say that everyone appreciates a recipe and some order to the evening! Having some extra sticky labels and pens handy for folks to label their soup, for example. We're hardly this organized in our swap, but I thought this idea by the Not Martha crowd to making picking easier awesome.

Indiana Soup CardsAs far as I can tell, these cards from our pals in Indiana were used to not only describe the soups, but also gave folks a cool thing to take home with recommendations on what to eat with the soup! They are good looking, don't you think?

These are just a few of the ideas folks have shared with us, but we sure love them. If you browse our archives or take a look at all the contributers blogs and flickr feeds to see even more! Creative types must be drawn to Soup Swapping!

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4 Comments:

Blogger *monyca* said...

I've got prizes for the Jersey City Soup Swap. But, if you have more than 2 prizes (but not enough for everyone) what are some other good suggestions for prize categories besides "first picked" and "last picked?" Any ideas?

January 17, 2008 4:36 AM  
Blogger Kirsten said...

At the Naptown Swaps, we've taken a slightly different approach to gifting - little favors for the crowd and special prizes for made up categories. At our first swap, we gave out recipe cards that I designed and little, keychain sharpies for people to mark containers. At the second swap, we distributed reusable hot-cold bags, since it was in the winter and we wanted to avoid soup melt.

But, on to categories, we've done: most spring-like soup (gave out Burt's Bees farmers hand balm); soup most likely to cause bad breath (a wealth of breath-aids); the soup displaying the most organization (a planner); and the soup with the most spice (I think that was ginger items). We're still figuring out how we'd like to approach next week's special prizes.

January 17, 2008 5:45 AM  
Blogger Kirsten said...

Oops: The hot-cold bags were in the summer, not winter, but that mistake was probably obvious...

January 17, 2008 5:46 AM  
Blogger Knox Gardner said...

The mints idea for the stinkiest soup is hilarious.

It definitely has my wheels turning to come up with some additional fun parting gifts.

January 17, 2008 9:20 AM  

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