Saturday, December 13, 2014

Altered Mailbox Christmas Card Holder

Santas Mailbox Believe

I had so much fun with this project that I hope you’ll bear with me because it involves all kinds of things that I love. The star of this is the glitter vinyl that I received from Expressions Vinyl in support of this idea!

I decided I wanted a new place to hold Christmas cards this year and what better place than a mail box? If you’re going to alter a mailbox, why not use a real mailbox? I’d seen some old ones in antique stores but they came with antique store prices. I looked online and found I could get a reasonably priced one at Lowes. Even better, when I got to the store, they had one that was missing parts and was half of what I expected to pay ($12) so I got mine for $6!

Altered Mailbox

The Lowes people were very concerned that I didn’t understand it was incomplete. I didn’t even attempt to explain why I didn’t care.

For this project you will need:
  • Mailbox  to alter
  • Acrylic craft paint (I used black , cream and glitter red)
  • Vinyl (As mentioned Expressions Vinly provided me with the vinyl used in this project.)
  • Embellishments
To start, paint the mailbox black. It helps that the flag was one of the thing missing parts so I didn’t need to remove it:

Altered Mailbox Base Coat

Once dry, dry brush and/or crackle with cream paint. To crackle, paint a coat of white glue ( I just used generic office store glue) and when almost dry, paint over with cream. Let dry.

Altered Mailbox Dry Brush

While your paint is drying, cut your vinyl.

Altered Mailbox Believe Vinyl

I found this “Believe” design in the Silhouette online store and cut it using my Cameo from red glitter vinyl.

Expressions Vinyl Glitter

I used the black and silver glitter vinyl to cut out the initials SC ( Santa Clause) and North Pole for the other side of the mailbox.

Expressions VInyl Silhouette

Santas Mailbox North Pole

To finish off my mailbox, I added a large glitter bow ( Dollar Tree) and had fun embellishing the flag for the mailbox with coordinating scrapbook paper from DCWV’s Candy Cane Lane stack :

DCWV Candy Cane Stack

This section from a page of tags in the stack was a perfect match. I added some sequins and snowflakes to complete. I used a couple more tags from the stack on the top of the mailbox. To cover the holes where you'd normally attach the mailbox to a post, I used self adhesive rhinestones and superglued the flag onto the box.

The completed mailbox now sits next to my altered coffee can Snowman Hat!

Santas Mailbox 1

Santas Mailbox 2


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