The mailbox is not anything fancy--it's about 6 inches tall and 9 inches long with a plastic flag attached. It came in a bunch of colors (I chose mint green) and after a sale and a coupon it ended up costing about $2. I also bought a pre-painted wooden butterfly decoration for about 50 cents to stick on the side and jazz it up a little.
Here are the materials I used (not pictured: Velcro. I cut from a strip and sewed on, so you'll probably need about 10 inches total. Also not pictured here is a piece of felt used to create the "stamps").
For the fabric envelopes I just used scraps--as long as your scraps are at least 11"X6" you're good to go.
Start by ironing all of your fabric pieces, then cut each one into an 11"X6" rectangle.
Then fold that piece in half lengthwise, right sides together, and cut one end diagonally to make a point.
This step is optional, but it'll keep your envelope from fraying if you cut around all the edges with pinking shears. I just thought it looked cute :)
Next, fold the bottom edge up (the portion that was cut to a point is the top). Fold it up about 4 inches (or however far you need to fold to make sure the flap folds down over the top when you're done).
Then sew continuously around the outer edges, with about an 1/8" seam allowance.
Next, I cut two small pieces of Velcro and sewed them on the inside flap and outer center to form the "seal." I'd recommend sew on Velcro versus adhesive since the adhesive probably wouldn't stand up to repeatedly being opened/closed.
Then, just for fun, I made heart shaped "stamps" out of felt and sewed Velcro to those and the outer right edge of the envelope.
The last step was to make some "letters" that she could mail in her new envelopes. I found dry erase poster board (who knew such things exist??) and I cut them into 3.5"X5" rectangles. Now she can write letters with her dry erase markers and simply erase whenever she wants a fresh letter!
Who knew getting the mail could be so much fun?
This is great! I know I don't have a lot of nuggets of wisdom seeing as I'm not a parent. But seriously, hold onto this as she grows up. Then, let it become a stress-free line of communication between you and her for those times when she has tough questions or finds her feelings too hard to express face to face. My family did something similar with a note pillow, and it really helped a lot of situations that just would've been yelling matches otherwise.
ReplyDeleteThat's an excellent idea!!
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