Friday, October 19, 2012

Headbands for Christmas Shoeboxes

My absolute favorite charity is Operation Christmas Child or as we call it, Christmas Shoeboxes. For more information about this charity that provides Christmas boxes for poor children all over the world, click here.
Today, I want to share 2 of the items that I've made to go in my shoeboxes. Of course, with the economy like it is, everyone always looks for inexpensive or cheap ways to give things. That's what I've done here, plus I've used up some of the stuff in my craft "stash."

At my local Dollar Tree (you can get items where ever you can find the best deal), I bought plastic headbands, stretchy fabric headbands and cards of mini clips. I like Dollar Tree because everything there is only $1. I looked and found plain bands and clips in packages 3 or 4 for $1. Then I dug in my craft closet and pulled out silk and paper flowers that I've had hanging in there for years. I used to buy the bunches of flowers and pull them all off of the plastic branches so I actually had a lot of them. I've used them in the past on cards and scrapbook pages.



These are what I got so you get the idea. The clips were in a pkg of 30 for $1 and the others were 3 or 4 bands for $1.


 First, I put the mini clips on a cardboard sheet. This way I could make sure that they actually worked and I could work with them easier. I used hot glue for all of these so my SU! Silicone Craft Sheet (#127853) was a dream to work with.
Place a blob or a large drop of hot glue on one clip. Then put one small flower petal on the glue & mash it down. It helps to have an old tweezer or other metal item to use to mash down. That helps prevent burning your fingers. (I always burn my fingers anyway, but it does help.)

These is what they can look like when finished. You can put a small flat back gem in the center of each or leave it empty.








First, you will want to build several flowers using your hot glue gun and your silicone craft sheet. When you build it on your silicone sheet, it will come up easily and not bring paper or other things with it.

I build several flowers before I put them on the head bands.

Put a bead of hot glue along the front of the  head band, whether fabric or plastic. Place your flowers in the hot glue and mash down so they will stick good. Your completed headbands will look like these.



Clean up is a breeze with your silicone craft sheet! No matter how much hot glue you get on it, it will pull right off. The most you might have to do it scratch a little off with your fingernail. I've used the silicone craft sheet with other glues & it works great but I didn't realize how great it was until I used it with hot glue!





While I've made these for my shoeboxes, you could make them for a craft fair or your children or grandchildren. Just have fun with them!

No comments:

Post a Comment