Shoe Box Christmas Tree

Our church has a large foyer with floor to ceiling windows. Every year before National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child, we build two Christmas trees out of shoe boxes. We put an OCC brochure in each one and then our members can take the shoe boxes they want to fill. It is fairly easy to re-make the tree as the boxes disappear, until a large portion of them are gone. We also put a tree in our Welcome Center, as many people enter the church there. This helps us to promote Operation Christmas Child in a visual way and makes it easy for our people to pick up their empty boxes.

 I don't know where we originally got this diagram/instructions to build the trees but I'm passing it on to you. It takes 141 boxes to build each tree. We are a mid-sized church and we collect over 2000 filled shoeboxes each year for OCC. 

Here are the directions that we use each year. Hope it helps you.

Mix It Up

I joined Annie's monthly club for card making & have gotten my first kit. I made some of the things as directed but then, I decided to use up some of the other things I have sitting around my craft room with the club kit. Here is one that I did.

Materials needed:
Flower pot die cut, papers & brads from Annie's Oct. club kit
Silk flowers from any store
Birthday greeting stamp
5 petal punch-SU!
Wild Wasabi card stock 4 1/4 x 5 1/2"
Tangerine Tango ink pad

The Annie's kit had the flower pot shaped card that folded over. I cut it in half and used it on double the cards. The flowers are a simple matter of layering paper and silk flowers and placing a brad through the middle. Some of these were punch outs from the kit and some were cut from left over paper in the kit and my SU punches.
A really simple card to make and a great way to use up some of your extras.

Scrap Paper Packs

In many countries in the world, they put great value on paper because they do not have as much of it available as we do here in the US, especially in the poorer families. Since I'm a scrapbooker and card maker, I usually have far more scrap paper than I ever use. From time to time, I will take handfuls out of my stash and give it to my grandchildren and great grandchildren to play with. I decided that this might be a great thing to go in some of my shoeboxes so I made felt pouches to put the paper in.

When you buy felt by the piece, it is usually about 9 x 12". You can make to pouches with each piece.
Cut a piece of felt in half lengthwise so that it now measures 4 1/2 x 12."
Fold one end up 4" and sew a narrow seam on each side.

The top will fold down to about 3 1/2."

Using scrap pieces of felt, cut out some shapes, such as hearts and stars. I cut them on my Big Shot with my Sizzix dies but if you don't have this, you can use any pattern to cut shapes. With the top open, sew shapes on to the outside top.

You can also use silk flowers, ribbons, beads, etc to decorate the top flap of the pouch.
Now go through your scrap pile and cut squares or rectangles out of the larger pieces. I cut most of the pieces to be 3 1/2 x 4" so that they will fit easily into the pouch.

Since I use my leftover scrapbook papers, they are often a mix of colors and patterns. The back side of the paper can vary.

 It's not unusual for the back side to be blank. Sometimes it will have writing about the paper on it. Some scrapbook papers are double sided and will have colors and patterns on each side. I think that any of this scrap paper will be great. The children can use the paper in whatever way they want. They can use the blank sides to write on or be creative and make things out of the colored, patterned sides. I think this will just be a fun item to go in the middle and older kids boxes. When the paper is gone, then they can use the pouch to put crayons or other items in. 

Fall Silk Flowers

Here's a fun card that you might want to make for fall events.

Materials needed:
Soft Suede card stock 4 1/4 x 5 1/2"
Tangerine Tango card stock 4 x  1/4"
Lost Lagoon card stock 3 3/4 x 5"
Perfect Punches stamp set from Stampin' Up!
Wood grain patterned paper
Large oval punch
Orange or yellow silk flowers 3 petals
Large brad
Twine
Lost Lagoon ink pad

Cute Caterpillar

Here's an easy and cute caterpillar that you can make to go in shoeboxes. Boys and girls will like this one!

I actually saw these on a Pinterest post but they didn't have the antenna or the eyes. I think they are much cuter with them.

Materials needed:
Hot glue gun & glue
tweezers
Various colored pom poms

Chenille stems, brown or green
Wooden clothes pins
Wiggly eyes, tiny

1. Start with a clothes pin and a 3" chenille stem. Bend the stem in half in a v shape. Place a glob of glue on the end of the clothes pin and place the point of the V into the glue.

2. Put another glob of glue over the fold of the stem. Place a pom pom the color of your choice in the center of the glued stem.

3. Place a strip of glue down the center of the remainder of the clothes pin. Add 3 more pom poms of any color on top of the glue.

4. Add two wiggly eyes to the first pom pom. Use tweezers to pick up an eye. Put a tiny dab of glue on the back side and place in on the front of the first pom pom. Do the same to a second eye. You do not have to use tweezers but it really helps to prevent burning fingers.

This makes a fun caterpillar to put in boy and girl shoeboxes of the bottom two ages. 

Make a Pouch for Marbles

What little boy doesn't like marbles? Well, these days, our boys in the US may like video games more but I remember when I was little, one of my brother's favorite things was to play with marbles. I think that marbles is a great item to put in your shoe boxes for the middle and older boys. If you're going to put some marbles in your box, why not make a pouch to put them in? Most marbles come in one of those net or mesh bags that really isn't any good to hold things after it's been opened. You could put them in a zip lock, but I don't think that will last a long time with daily play so I made some simple pouches from felt to be marble bags.

These are really very simple to make. 

Materials needed:

12 x 9 " sheets of felt or fabric

cord

sewing machine

Marbles to fill them with

1. Felt comes either by the yard or by the sheet. I find it easier to work with the sheets of felt although if you plan on making a lot, it might be cheaper to buy it by the yard.

On your 12 x 9" piece of felt, fold down one end about 1 1/2 to 2". Sew a straight line to secure the folded section and make a casing. 

2. If you are going to decorate the pouch, you will want to sew the decorations on before you sew the seams together. I used my Big Shot and some Sizzix dies I have had for years to cut out the stars. You can free hand cut designs or use appliques, if you want.

3. Next, fold your felt together so that the right sides are together. Sew a seam across the bottom and up the side to about 1" from the top. You will want to leave an opening to thread your cord through.

4. Turn this to the outside. Cut a piece of cord twice the width of the pouch and about 4' extra. Thread it through to the end.
5. Fill the pouch with marbles,

6. If you don't wish to do the casing or your felt is not a full sheet, you can wrap the cord around the top and tie. I think the casing is better because the cord won't get lost as easily but it's up to you how you want to do it.
Have fun and pack more shoe boxes. Every shoe box is an opportunity for a child to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For more information about Operation Christmas Child click here. Then go to the Operation Christmas Child link. National Collection Week will be here soon. It's the third week in November.

Birthday Flowers

It's been a while since I've put silk flowers on my cards. When I came across these in my closet, I thought it would be fun to use some on a card again.

Materials needed:

Flower Shop stamp set (SU #130942)

Gingham Garden patterned paper  4 1/4 x 5 1/2"

Primrose Petals ink

Wild Wasabi ink

5 Petal punch

Framelits labels dies

Brads

Sponge Dauber

Stampin' Dimensionals

Birthday stamp

There are lots of places where you can get silk flowers for your cards and other projects. My favorite way to get these is to buy a large bunch of flowers when I can find them for 50% off, usually at Hobby Lobby. When I get them home, I tear them to pieces. I pull all the petals away from the plastic stems. If they have a leaf that I like, I pull some of them off too. I take out any left over plastic bits and throw away the plastic stems. I then put the flowers and leaves in large zip lock style plastic bags. There are other places that you can buy flowers. Often you can find them in packages or bottles at your local craft store. They have some that are beautiful. It just depends on what your needs are for these.

1. Stamp several flower images and cut them out with scissors or with the 5 petal punch. Lay them aside.

2. Stamp your greeting on white card stock. Choose the framelits die that fits over your greeting nicely and cut it out with your die cut machine. Mine is a Big Shot.

3. Using a sponge dauber and Wild Wasibi ink, gently brush the edges of the label die cut. 

4. Place a small silk petal on top of a larger petal to make your flower. Insert a brad in the hole that is in the center of the silk petals or flowers. Punch a hole in the top left and the bottom right corners of your patterned paper. You might want to lay the flowers down on the paper first to see exactly where you will need your hole punched.  Insert the brad through the flowers and the hole. Bend over on the back side. Adhere this to your card base.

5. Place 3 to 5 stamped petals on the card to see a pleasing arrangement. Glue them down.

6. Place Stampin' Dimensionals on the back of the greeting on the die cut. Adhere this over the center of the card and over some of the stamped flowers. 

That's all there is to it. Have fun!