Operation Christmas Child: Packing A Shoe Box Full of Love

National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child (OCC) is coming up soon! Within the next week (November 12-19) millions of boxes will be packed, wrapped, and shipped with love all over the world. 

This is my first year participating in OCC, so I wanted to share how I decorated and packed a plain, white shoe box for donation. Hopefully my gift will be a huge blessing to one little girl out there in the world (UPDATE: I was able to follow my box, and it was shipped to Honduras!). 

First things first....decorate the box. I originally thought about using a roll of festive Christmas wrapping paper, but who needs wrapping paper when you have Sharpies!?

Spreading hope, love, faith, and joy...

Next...pack the box. Samaritan's Purse offers a list of gift ideas and suggestions, so I gathered my items with four categories in mind: school supplies, toiletries, accessories, and toys/activities.

TIP: Get crafty and make handmade gifts. (I made a couple bracelets and added little charms to make them one-of-a-kind.)

TIP: Take items out of the packages they come in to fit more gifts inside the box.

Finally...write a happy note. I found some pretty stationery, wrote a little note, and enclosed it in a small envelope. Now it's all packed and ready to go!

There's still time to pack a box! Recycle a shoe box or grab a plastic container and fill it up with all sorts of goodies. You can find your nearest drop-off location here!

#GOVOTE

late night doodle for the #govote project
nov 6. go vote.

Sticker Happy: Black and Gold Glam Earrings

Give me a pack of stickers and call me happy! This all started because of my quest to find a simple pair of gold post earrings. I had pretty much given up for the most part, but then all of a sudden during my weekly stroll through Michaels, I came across these in the scrapbooking section:

Oh my glitter and gold! Right there in the middle of Michaels I reverted back to my eight-year-old self on Christmas morning when I unwrapped my new hot pink Barbie convertible and two-story Barbie dreamhouse. My eyes grew big, my heart fluttered with giddy excitement, and my pearly whites stretched a mile wide. Two inches to the right I found another pack in black and silver. I knew instantly these would make great earrings; all I had to do was add earring posts to the back.

First, I removed the round sticker on the back of the rhinestone. Then, I applied a dab of E-6000 glue to the flat surface of the earring post and glued it (slightly off-center) to the back of the rhinestone. Finally, I let the glue dry for a couple days.

TIP:  The sticker peels off easily, but it leaves behind a little adhesive residue. To get rid of the stickiness, I rubbed a small dot of hand lotion on the surface. Be sure to wipe the surface clean with a soft cloth before gluing.

 

Eight pairs of stickers come in a pack, so you can jazz up any outfit in your wardrobe, and they also make an easy and inexpensive gift for the holidays! Hope you like!