To You, With Love

Valentine's Day is already drawing near, and love is in the air!!  It's time for pink hearts, flowers, and Valentine's cards.  Whether you like to exchange cute, little hand-made Valentine cards with your friends or if your children exchange Valentine's with friends at school, you have to have something special to keep them in, right?  Today, I have an adorable altered mailbox to share with you that is just right for storing your Valentine keepsakes.  Christy sent me a package of goodies from the store that included some GORGEOUS Valentine papers from Teresa Collins' Posh collection.  At first I thought about using them to make actual Valentine's cards, but then I thought "hmmmm, I will need something to keep the cards in".  If you have been to Walmart or Target, then you know they have the kiddie themed mailboxes in the store, that come with pre-made Valentine cards.  I decided, wouldn't it be more fun to alter the mailbox, than to make the cards...so that's what I did.

Here is the original mailbox that I started out with:

I started out by tracing the backside of the mailbox onto the paper and then cutting it out and re-tracing it, to have two of those shapes for the front and back.  I used Mod Podge to cover the mailbox and adhere those two pieces.


The height of the mailbox was a little over 7 inches, so I knew my 12x12 paper wouldn't fully cover the sides, so I cut two, 2.5x7 inch strips and lined them up with the bottom of the mailbox.  Then I cut the 12x12 down to 7x12.  I covered the mailbox with Mod Podge and added the second piece of paper over the top of the mailbox.  Then I used one of the black patterns to cover the seam, by cutting a 1x7 inch piece.

Next, came the fun part...DECORATING!!  I continued using these fabulous papers, because there are some great patterns for fussy cutting.  I used one of the papers that had some beautiful roses and another that had a cameo pattern.  This mailbox did not come with a flag and what mailbox is complete without a flag??!!  So I decided I would make my own!!  I just free-handed a flag onto some cardboard (I save the filler cardboard sheets that come in my Page Protectors-they are great for cutting out your own shapes and then covering with Patterned Paper to create dimensional elements on your pages or projects) and cut it out.  I used the Mod Podge over the top of it and glued it to one of the Patterned Papers, let it dry, and cut it out once again.  To attach it to the mailbox, I punched a hole with my WRMK brad setter and used a brad that had long enough prongs to go through the cardboard and the mailbox.

Once the flag was attached, I began layering the fussy cut images from my papers.  I also had a few very pretty brads and several little rosettes in my package, so I incorporated those into the clustering.  I added the word "Love" in big white letters at the bottom of the mailbox and finished it off by adding a little ribbon and some baker's twine to the pull tab on the front.

Voila!!  Now you have a beautiful keepsake to store all of those sweet, Valentine's!  You could also use this as the "wrapping" for a gift that you are giving to that sweet someone, or maybe even use it later on for a jewelry box.


You still have a little over 3 weeks to get a jump on all of your Valentine crafts this year, so stop by the store and see what supplies you need to make this February 14th a very special day!!