Friday, February 3, 2012

Valentine Mailbox Magnets

I'm still working on getting our house ready for Valentine's Day. We really don't have a ton of decorations out other than the cute Chalkboard Candy Boxes that I made a few weeks ago, and this really cute printable that I pinned and then downloaded from Oopsey Daisy. For the last few years, my boys have had some cute little metal mailboxes that I picked up at Target {don't you LOVE the Dollar Spot} and decorated with a paint pen...obviously before my days of owning a Cricut or Silhouette:) I pulled them out of storage and Eli promptly sat on two of them and bent them all out of shape! Needless to say, the last time I as at Target there were three new little metal mailboxes in my shopping cart. I decided to try something a little different this time. Instead of just decorating the boys' Valentine mailboxes with their names or initials, I thought it would be really cute to include a picture of them too...but I wasn't quite sure how to achieve that. Then I walked past our fridge and noticed two old magnets that I had saved just in case I wanted to craft something, and a light bulb went off! Those little mailboxes are metal which means a magnet will cling to it with no problems! So I set out to make some cute Valentine Mailbox Magnets!

Here are the cute {but oh so plain mailboxes} that I started with.
They look really cute {but oh so plain} sitting the edge of our stairs with the Chalkboard Candy Boxes...but they needed something to jazz them up a little and make them pop!
I started with two 4 inch by 4 inch magnets that I cut in half. I ended up with 4 inch by 2 inch magnets, so I opened up a few pictures of the boys in PSE and cropped their pictures to fit the 4 X 2 magnet. I printed the pictures out in black and white and made sure that they were the right size.
I used my paper cutter to trim the picture to the right size, and then I used spray adhesive to attach the pictures to the magnets.
After the spray adhesive dried, I grabbed a red Sharpie and added a little bit of fun Valentine graffiti to the boys pictures. The black and white pictures were kind of plain and this was a quick easy way to add a little color. You could also add some cute stickers or even attach some pretty Valentine scrapbook paper. 
Then to seal the pictures, I added a few thin coats of Mod Podge.
I also cut out some red vinyl initials with my Silhouette, but stickers or scrap book paper would work great here too!
After the Mod Podge was dry I simply stuck the magnet to the side of the mailbox and they were ready to go! Eli was so excited to see his face on the side of  his Valentine mailbox:) Now I just have to come up with some fun stuff to put inside their mailboxes!

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19 comments:

  1. love your idea -- thanks for sharing : )

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  2. Those are so cute!! I am going to have to go to Target today!!

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  3. those are adorable! I love the picture on the side with the writing on it! Cute:) Would love you to stop by and link these up at Friday Frolic! Stop by when you get the chance!
    Karen@Pocket Full of Pink

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  4. Really cute,love this idea:)

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  5. I really need to get myself a Silhouette. The craft options are endless! I love your blog & your cute ideas!
    -Kendall
    {songbirdsandbuttons.blogspot.com}

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  6. SUPER cool!!! I love that they aren't super girly, but just perfect for boys!

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  7. So very cute...I love how personalized they are. I need to get some of these to make something cute for my kids.

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  8. What a great idea to repurpose those advertisement magnets. The mailboxes are adorable too!

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  9. Wow, so neat! Love the way you decorated your steps, so cute!

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  10. Cute idea! I saw the mailboxes at Target but didn't know what to do with them. Thanks for putting this together. I would love for you to come share it at my party I host - http://www.literallyinspired.com/2012/01/wytbw-can-i-get-do-over.html

    Hope to see you there!

    Ginger

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  11. Totally cute!
    PS I'm making your see-through Valentines for Brooklyn's preschool class!

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  12. These are SO cute!! Love how you added the pics as magnets!

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  13. adorable! target should hire you to create from their $1 spot. because then i'd go in there knowing exactly what to do with everything! : )

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  14. Super cute! I picked up some of those little mail boxes from Target awhile back & STILL have yet to decorate them! Thanks for the inspiration! Cute blog, btw! =)
    ~Holly

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  16. I love these mailboxes! I love how you have them on the stairs, too! I'm pinning this!

    T'onna @ Submarine Sunday Link Party
    http://navywifeypeters.blogspot.com/2013/01/submarine-sunday-15.html

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