Have a Handmade Christmas ~ Week 3

 How are your Christmas projects coming along? What have you been making lately? Please link up your ideas!

  We have gotten started working on filling our boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Last year we did this for the first time and it was really fun! I let each of our kids pack a box for a child of their same gender and age range. We buy some things to put in it but we like to make quite a bit too. We have a bunch of ideas but not a lot done yet. Here is most of what we have made so far:

A couple of tie dyed t-shirts that the kids did with their Auntie Keren this summer. We also have a tie dyed hat that I forgot to put in the picture. Today we made a jump rope and a barrette.

The jump ropes are a lot of fun to make. They are quick and easy and then something else I love- I made them from recycled t-shirts and yet it looks nice and works well.

How I make them is to cut 1 inch wide strips from t-shirts (keep going round and round the t-shirt so it is long enough) and then get 3 of the same length and a bit longer than your desired jump rope. You can use all the same color or 3 different colors or any combination.

  Take your 3 strips and sew them together at one end. Then braid them tightly together all the way down to the other end. Then sew the other ends together.

Next I took a square of cloth and wrap it around the ends to make a handle and then sew it on (tucking in all the raw edges).
After that you are done. It really is a quick and easy project.

Next I decided I wanted tags for them. I was afraid that the kids possibly wouldn't know what it was so I wanted a picture too. I looked online but ended up drawing my own. I am not the best artist in the world but I think it gets the point across. I did include the picture in case you would like to print it off and use it for a tag if you make jump ropes. I then let the kids color the picture. I admit that I was tempted to color my own for this picture so that it would look "professional" but since I tend to get irritated at mothers who micro manage their kids craft projects (Sorry if I stepped on any toes, but for some reason it just bugs me when I am teaching a kid's class and we do a craft and the Mother basically does the craft for them so that it will turn out right!) so I used a picture that Aaron had quickly colored.

If you want to use my "lovely" drawing, just click on that picture and print it out. You may need to resize it to get the size you want.

 For making the barrette I used: A metal barrette base, white felt, blue ribbon and a flower that I had made from the lining of a skirt (see my post about it here.)

First I cut the felt to fit across the barrette and hot glued it on. Then I made the blue ribbon into a bow and glued it on. Then I glued the flower on top. So simple but yet pretty!

I plan on sharing more of our ideas to fill shoe boxes in the next week or so. Are you all filling shoe boxes for OCC? Are you putting handmade stuff in? I would love to hear your ideas!

Now it is your turn!

Please link up any ideas that you have for Handmade gifts, decorations, food and anything else that you have made that would work well for Christmas! (Please do not link up giveaways that aren't handmade or anything else that doesn't go along with the theme)

As you link up I would really appreciate it if you would link back to here, and also remember to link up a particular post not just your blog. I would also be very happy if you would be willing to use my Have a Handmade Christmas Logo as well.