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Monday, August 8, 2011

A Mailbox Makeover

This week's project isn't my typical craft project. My brother brought this one to me.

He works for a farm in my home community and decided the mailbox was in dire need of a makeover. He heard that I recently purchased a Silhouette and enlisted my assistance to get 'er done.

First he sandblasted the mailbox (I have no idea what this entails..it's just what he told me before he brought the mailbox to my house and dumped sandblasted dust all over my floor...I recommend cleaning out the dust before bringing it inside to work on ;-D).

Second he coated the box in John Deere Green and the lid in John Deere yellow. They actually sell licensed John Deere green and yellow at hardware stores. Who knew?! Not me, obviously.



Then he showed me a few graphics on the Internet he wanted to use on the mailbox for stenciling. I took the graphics and convered them to Silhouette shapes and after several rounds of using the lightest paper on the stickiest mat, I finally switched to a poster board material and was able to make some solid stencils without ripping it upon pulling off the Silhouette mat.




Tip for converting graphics to Silhouette shapes....the graphics with the simplest lines and fewest colors are easiest to convert.

We used a stencil adhesive on each of the stencils to adhere them to the mailbox and then taped around them to limit overspray.







It looked super sharp and those numbers are the house numbers. Don't they look just like a tractor serial number would? I thought it turned out awesome.

And, here's a few pics of the final product on its post at the farm.





The owners were stoked to have it and it was fun to make!

Linking up to these parties this week!

7 comments:

  1. That turned out awesome! I'd love to do a fun mailbox makeover... just need to find someone willing to let me do it.

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  2. I love it! I need to give our mailbox a face lift...it's in a sad state. The neighbor kids ripped the front off and the red flap is hanging by a thread...
    liZ
    (simplesimonandco)

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  3. That is fantastic. Hiding from hubby, or he would be asking for this in not time... on second thought, maybe I could get the shilouette machine out of it, LOL!
    ~Kimberlee

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  4. So authentic looking. You did a great job! Thanks for linking to Wicked Awesome Wednesday!

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  5. Awesome! What a fun idea!

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  6. This post made me smile. Thanks for inspiring me and many others to even attempt this feat. Really appreciate that you linked up at the Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop.

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  7. This is seriously awesome!! You have the coolest mailbox I have ever seen!! Thanks for linking up to our Strut Your Stuff Link Party every Saturday! We would love to have you come back tomorrow and link up some more amazing stuff! :)
    Camille @
    SixSistersStuff.blogspot.com

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