Teddy Bear Day ~ First Operation Christmas Child Shoebox for 2015

My friend runs a brick and mortar discount craft store.  She recently opened an online store, The Rag Bag of Shelby [Updated:  no longer in business], and donated fabric for me to make a dress for one of my shoe boxes.  I got to "shop for free" at her online store.  I chose this sweet cotton fabric Teddy Bear print--it is a Boyd Bears print.  It so soft to the touch.  So I began to build my first shoebox for the 2015 Operation Christmas Child collection around this dress.

Do you remember the Kohl's Cares Bear I wrote about earlier that I just couldn't resist?  He will be tucked inside the box with the dress.  I added the blue bow to
match the dress fabric.

One of the teddy bears had a green and white checked bow.  I designed this hat to match it.

There are purple hearts in the background of the fabric so I added some sparkly purple shoes and socks with purple hearts.

                   

I chose to match the bright yellow in this bear's flower to match the ribbon and bias tape trims on the dress. I love to include bright colors in my boxes.  If you'd like to make your own dresses I have written a tutorial and included the pattern here:  Simple Pillow Case Style Dress Tutorial.

I found some free coloring sheets online and printed some off to make a specialized coloring book to tuck inside.  I'll also add some blank pages so she can draw her own.

I also found some teddy bear wrapping paper to wrap the box in.  I think I'll try to find a fun picture of a teddy to include inside the lid.

Here it is all together.  Notice I also made a little drawstring purse to match.  There is still much to be added over the course of the year, but at least I have my anchor items all picked out.

Click this link if you would like to see more Operation Christmas Child themed shoeboxes.  And you can find more of my crafting for shoeboxes here:  Handmade by Cheryl.