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30 Days of Gifts - DAY 18:

Child's Mailbox

by Tracy Austin, LM Design Team


 

Convert a lunch box into a mailbox for your child. Kids LOVE to receive mail! A little novelty mailbox for to swap notes to one another, complete with a flag to announce new mail and a little hidden garden inside.

Instructions:

  1. Remove handle
  2. Paint the lunch box (optional)
    In a shallow box outdoors, spray paint the lunch box inside and out. Use a smooth side-to-side sweeping motion whilst spraying to ensure even coverage without drips. Allow one hour between each coat.
  3. Cover the box with paper
    First cut the paper to size. Then create a simple embossed template of the lock and the brackets on the paper by firmly running your finger along the edges on the lock with the paper in place. Use a razor to create fitted cutouts in the pattern paper.
    First cover the back of the box using Memory Taper Runner Permanent adhesive and then cover the front overlapping the paper at the sides of the box.
  4. Create the title
    First adhere the letters to chipboard with Xryon adhesive and then cut the letters out using scissors and a razor. Then ink the edges of the KI die cut letters with Tim Holtz’s Distressing ink.
    Stamp the letters with a versamark stamp pad and apply two coats of clear UTEE.
    Use Pop-Dots to raise the letters “l” and “v” for some dimension.
  5. To create the pink background strip of paper for the title
    First print out a series of “o”s with 5 spaces between each “o” to look something like this: o o o o o o o o o. This will serve as a template. Use an eyelet tool to punch out the “o”s. Then use a straight pin to rip through each hole as though it was ripped from a spiral notebook.
  6. Add floral border
    Hand stitch beads to each blossom and then used glue dots to adhere them to the lunch box.
  7. Create a new handle
    Thread some thick, malleable wire through one of the metal brackets and twist the end into a tight cute spiral using needle nose pliers. Then thread the beads onto the open end of the wire. Thread the other end of the wire through the other metal bracket and again loop the end into a cute spiral and cut off the excess with wire cutters.
    Use 1 ½” grosgrain ribbon for the bows.
  8. Make a little garden on the inside bottom of the lunch box
    Fit the bottom of the box with a green Styrofoam frog (the kind used for floral arrangements). Press the frog block onto the lip of the lunch box so you can easily cut it to shape with a large carving knife. Then layer the frog with some decorative moss and then add the silk flowers. Adhere with a glue gun.
  9. The flag
    Create the flag using the same ribbon as the bows. Fold a 6" length of ribbon in half and stitch a line to create a 3” length of ribbon. Trim off the excess at the stitched edge.
    Turn the ribbon right side out and then stitch another line to create a pocket to insert the Popsicle stick. Stitch along the top and the bottom close to the edges. **Ensure you do not stitch over the Popsicle stick pocket opening.
    Use a hot glue gun to attach the stick to a strong magnet and then top with a ribbon.

Supplies:

 

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