Well this is a really fun post for me. I love all that I create, but when it involves my family I love it all the more. Our mailbox…it all started when we visited my family in Maryland for a week. Our mailbox sits in between two other mailboxes. The previous box was one of those black plastic ones—the basic model. Nothing fancy. Pretty boring. Respectable. But the door was falling off the hinge. That was all that was wrong with it until some point during our trip to Maryland. Because when we returned it looked as though someone had singled it out and had beaten it with a baseball bat. I don’t know why. We live in a nice area and don’t have any enemies (that we know of). I guess the mailbox had one though.
To me this was a really cool opportunity to get a new one. So I found a white one. I really wanted red though. Our Front door is red and I thought that would be fun to have one to match the front door. I could’ve spray painted the white one to match, but I ended up leaving it white.
Then I thought that I would paint our name on it with the house number…check. But then, I had the BEST idea. I gathered my little ladies together (and later included my husband when he got home from work) and we put our handprints on what is now the best mailbox in the history of mailboxes. And yes, it is a challenge to get a 9 month old to let you neatly place her hand on the mailbox and gently lift it away so as not to smudge the precious mark it left beneath it. But it only took two tries! And surprisingly only one for both of the other girls. I think they are getting used to this kind of thing. They just look at it as part of their every day world…like getting their picture taken. They are just the best.
Now, if you are planning to try your own here is what I did.
1. I first outlined very lightly in pencil what I was going to write on the top and front of the mailbox. It erases very easily if you need to erase.
2. Then I used just a regular acrylic paint and with a thin brush I painted my lettering and numbers.
3. Next, the handprints. I took a 1” brush and coated (a little thick) those chubby little palms and fingers with our shimmering royal blue paint and (after a reminder to them of how we place our hands gently down and not wiggle our fingers) helped them find the place where they wanted to lay their hands. I pressed down gently on their fingers and palms to make sure their print was properly mimicked beneath. Then we lifted them up slowly.
4. After it dried sufficiently, I sprayed the mailbox with a Krylon clear coat.
*insert sigh of contentment here* Still respectable. Not boring! Not broken. And now precious!
