Valentine Mail Box

Hey everyone!  Here's a mailbox I made today for my niece for Valentine's Day.  She's not allowed to have a lot of candy, so I stuffed it with a few pieces of candy along with some Valentine barrettes, Valentine rubber ducks, and a jingly heart necklace.

I was able to use paper from my scrap stash to complete the entire project.  Everything was cut on the Cricut from the Create a Critter cartridge.  The ribbon tied to the mailbox flag is from Stampin' Up.


Front

Back

I just love this little monkey.  I wish I had some flocking at home to make him fuzzy, but it's probably just as well, since my niece is only two.

The cuts on the mailbox are:

• Monkey, layer 1 & layer 2 - cut at 3"
• Banana (shift monkey), layer 1 & layer 2 - cut at 3"
• Vine (shift accessory) - cut at 3.75" wide
• Balloon (shift koala), layer 1 & layer 3 - cut at 2.5"

I used my Gypsy to layout the pieces I needed to cut as well as to hide the faces that were on the balloon and bananas.  Using the mat guide on the Gypsy, I was able to cut everything at once by putting different papers on the mat.  Super easy project!

Hope you enjoyed.  I'm off to do laundry and then back to the crafting table for a few more projects today.  I'll be back to share them this week.

Welcome!!!

Welcome to my blog!  I have been thinking about starting one for awhile now.  I follow many and have been inspired by many wonderful crafters out there.  I would like to "track" my progress and creations.  I am often working on so many crafts at the same time, that I feel like I don't ever finish anything.  Hopefully, this will help me track my accomplishments.

I am a busy mother of two - my son is 15 and my daughter is 10.  I work full-time outside the home and work full-time when I'm at home keeping up with the many activities of my children.  I try to find time "for myself" to craft, play on the computer, or just veg, but for those of you with kids, you know that time is often hard to find.  Just because I'm not busy enough, I have also been my daughter's Girl Scout leader for the last 6 years.

I hope you come around often and get to know me better through my crafts.  I look forward to receiving any comments you have to help me improve.



The first craft I am going to share with you was inspired by Robyn, "My Pink Stamper".  My daughter watched one of her videos with me where she altered some $1 Target mailboxes, and decided she had to have one for Valentine's Day.  Luckily, our Target also had the mailboxes, so not only did we make one for her, but one for her teacher as well.

This is the mailbox we made for her teacher.  The pink heart paper is something I found in "my stash".  It is Stardust Hearts Pastel Pink by Making Memories.  The red ribbon is 1/4" real red Stampin' Up grosgrain ribbon I got from Barb at Snowmanlover's Paperie.  The front of the mailbox is a heart I cut on my Cricut Expression using the Beyond Birthdays cartridge and some leftover red cardstock I had around.  I used Xmas Red Stickles by Ranger to "bling up" the heart.

Finally on the back I used some paper I had leftover from a craft project my daughter did for school last year.  I believe the paper was Me and My Big Ideas.

My daughter is a "girly girl".  If it's pink, it sparkles, or it shines, she has to have it.  For her mailbox, she chose the pink mailbox that she then proceeded to cover with more pink.  The paper she chose came from a paper pad called The Basics by The Paper Studio.  She loved the polka dots, but wanted them to shine, so once the paper was attached to the mailbox, I covered all the dots with liquid glass by Close to My Heart.  It made them really shiny and gave them just a slight bit of dimension (I hope you can see it in the photo).  The ribbon around the back of the mailbox is 3/8" cocoa Close to My Heart grosgain ribbon.

On the front and back of her mailbox, I used my Cricut and Accent Essentials to cut the scalloped circle, the heart, and the heart shadow.  The paper is cocoa cardstock from Close to My Heart, pink paper from The Basics paper pad again (to match the polka dots) and some random white cardstock.  I added some liquid glass to the pink heart, filled it in with Star Dust Stickles and added some white dots with my Inkssentials opaque pen.

The finishing touch my daughter had to have was a pink happy face on the side.  She loves the Peachy Keen Stamps I won in a contest from Robyn, "My Pink Stamper".  She said it made her smile; you can't beat that.  The face was stamped on the same pink paper I used on the heart and cut using Accent Essentials.

I have some other crafts I've finished recently that I'll be posting soon.  Please let me know what you think of my blog so far and check back for some other creations.