Christmas mailbox

Last year cute little metal mailboxes from Target were really popular for decorating. I made a bunch for the gift shoppe in which I sold items, and they went over really well. There were some left over, so I decided to sell them at the Houghton craft fair. I had just enough time to throw together a Christmas themed mailbox. I was not really creative that night (is there an artist/crafter's term for "writer's block??), so I might redo this for next year...

Last of the mailboxes

These are my last boxes, at least, that I'll post. Still have one more to make for my youngest daughter, still at home. I also have a couple more to photograph, but I'll probably just put them in my galleries on my website on Monday.

I wanted to share a lovely idea for mailboxes, from Crystal, a very creative thinking mom! She made them for her daughters to be used to write letters to a sister offended! What a lovely idea! I suspect, if she keeps it up, they will themselves begin to leave notes for each other, just for the fun of it! Can you imagine, ten years down the road, the memories they'll have? I bet they'll keep those mailboxes. :-)

More mailboxes

The pink mailbox is for my mother. Her mother came from Czechoslovakia as a young woman (after running away from home at age 13 to work in the city, she then emmigrated to the US on her own). Anyway, the stamps on the mailbox are Czechoslovakian, so it was the perfect paper to use! I also used a postage stamp punch for the flagpole. The ribbon on the flowers was curled with a heat gun. The angle makes it look a bit odd!

The red mailbox was made because I was determined to use red - the shade is so bright, that few of my papers look well with it. I finally decided the white roses looked okay, but it's not my favorite!

Tomorrow will probably be my last mailbox post, hurrah! It's been so much fun making them, but it's probably tiresome seeing them showing up on so many blog entries! But tomorrow is the last possible day to make them in time for Valentine's day...

Wallpaper mailbox!

I've had so much fun with my papers, I really didn't consider using wallpaper. But in trying to make a non-frilly, non-pink, non hearts/flowers design for my dd Karen, I was coming up blank. I had made one in the post below, figuring she could pass it on to a friend. (I actually had thought of doing something humorous: I had some green lizard paper, which she'd get a great kick out of, but then, if she didn't want to keep it, who would want green lizards?). But then I looked through my wallpaper, and found this textured red. Karen loves South America, particularly Cuba, so a palm tree seemed like the perfect image! So, this is definitely not really a Valentine themed mailbox, but it's right!

More mailboxes!

I came back from Target with a bunch of maiboxes! It was so much fun ... I spent probably an hour at Jo-Ann's, mostly browsing, but I did pick up a few things.

One thing I did NOT get was ribbon! I realized when making the other mailboxes that I was running low on ribbon. As I am also selling card kits now at the City News & Daily Grind (cards, envies, panels, papers & fibers), I really needed an affordable source for ribbon. I remembered vaguely seeing a site a long time ago when I was not using a lot of ribbon, and managed to find it again. Really Reasonable Ribbon is an absolutely fabulous place for ribbon! The prices are marvelous, and the customer service is excellent. I was also extremely impressed to receive an e-mail after placing my order that actually my shipping was going to be less! I already thought it was reasonable!!! She also upgraded me to priority mail. I placed the order Thursday, it arrived Monday! Wow.

It was also perfect timing, I had just begun these mailboxes,
and would not have had the ribbon I needed without it.

The top mailbox is for one of my daughter Karen's roommates who is almost completely blind. I decided I wanted paper that had very distinct (light/dark) pattern, and embellishments that were a good size.

Trying to make one for Karen was a real challenge, and I'm still not happy. It's the middle one, and I was trying to make it devoid of pink, purple, flowers, or hearts, none of which she appreciates. Well, three out of four was as close as I came! Actually, she's not really a knick-knack person, so I did plan to give her (and her other roomies for that matter) the freedom to pass it on to someone else (though I'm sure she'll eat the white chocolates inside first, lol!)

White mailboxes

Here are the last of the mailboxes I've made, though I'm headed toward Buffalo for more. :-)

Red mailboxes

Until this spring, I did not have a lot of print paper. Too expensive, and I really like focusing on stamping with my cards. But a local scrapbook store went out of business, and she had a great sale on paper. All but two of the ten boxes I made are from those papers!

Jackie mentioned making some mailboxes for her children, and that inspired me to try to find some more for my daughters who are at college, and perhaps even make them for their roommates. So much of my creating is for sale, it will be lovely to make something for love! :-)

Unfortunately, the nearest Targets are all about an hour and half to two hours away. Normally, I would forget it ... spending all that time and gas money for one dollar items!!! But, I can't let the idea go! I'm not really great about care packages, and this just seems so perfect. My husband says it's a great opportunity for a date with him! So, I used the store locater, and would you believe, out of 8 stores that I called, only one had enough? Most either only had one or two colors; two had none left! The store I am going to had 40 - obviously it must not be an area where a lot of crafting happens!

It will be interesting to see if next year they Target carries them again, and at what price!

By the way, if you have been trying to find these and been unsuccesful, California paper goods carries mailboxes. They are more expensive, $3.76, but appear to be a higher quality, and have a little handle to open it with, like a real mailbox.