Valentine's Day Post Office

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I have been scrambling to find ways to make the week special for my husband and little girl. One thing I have done in the past that has worked well has been hanging up this little family post office box.

My mother actually found a few of these wooden letter holders on clearance somewhere. Before we jazzed them up a bit, they had a tile with a picture of a rooster in the center--but with a little mod podge, fancy paper, and some doo-dads from Hobby Lobby, we turned them into a fun way to get notes and treats from each other. 

Here is how it works: Each person in the house has a tag with their name on it. All of these hang on the left hook. When you place a note or treat in the box, move the receiver's name to the right hook. That is how they know that "they have mail." Once they take the note/treat out of the box, they move their tag back onto the left hook. 

If you are interested in making one like this, check stores like Ross, TJ Maxx, and Hobby Lobby for similar letter boxes. If you want a letter box almost identical to the one pictured above, you can search for "wooden letter holder with key hooks" at amazon.com and some almost identical options are available for purchase.

Instructions

1. Measure the tile square in the center of the letter box and write down the dimensions. Using a ruler, draw a square with those dimensions on two pieces of paper of your choosing. (I used a patterned paper for the bottom square, and a solid paper for the top square.) Cut out both squares.  

2. Using a sponge brush, cover the tile square with a thin layer of mod podge. Place the paper square that you want as the bottom layer on the tile square. While the mod podge is drying, take your second square of paper and measure and cut off about a 1/4'' off of the bottom and 1/4'' off of one side of the square. 

3. Using the sponge brush, cover the back of the small square paper with a thin layer of mod podge and then place it so that it is centered on the base square (that is now attached to the letter box). 

4. Once the mod podge is dry, take the sponge brush and cover the small square and what you can see of the base square in a thin layer of mod podge.

5. When the mod podge is dry, apply whatever doo-dads you want--like these awesome letters and pearls pictured below. Embellish!

 

6. As for the name tags, at Hobby Lobby, we found these black and white circles to use as bases, and some bright, colorful circle tags to glue on top of them. 

7. To finish it off, punched holes in the base circles and tied some loops of black and white string to them so that they could hang easily from the key hooks. 

Happy V-day!