TCP TUESDAY 254 -Valentine's Home Decor/Mailbox Trio

Hi all, iiiiit's Tuesday and that means it's time for another TCP Tuesday Challenge! I am your Hostess with the Mostess for this week, and I really hope you will join me in creating a Valentine's (or love themed) home decorating item! I made this fun mailbox trio, but the possibilities are really endless with this. You could make a banner, a wreath, a wall hanging, or maybe some kind of decoupaged something-a-rather. :) The idea for this challenge was sparked when I saw my local Target store pulling out their Valentine's home decorations that they sell. They're cute, but so many of them are pricey, and not nearly as cute/fun/unique or customized as I could make myself. Why buy when you could create, which is so much more fulfilling! :)

Here are the Details on how you can join in on the fun:

1. Each Tuesday a new challenge will be posted here on this blog as well as on our Splitcoaststampers forum and ourFacebook page.
2. If you want to play along you just upload your design using the InLinkz button below*. If you want to display your pretties on Splitcoaststampers use keyword TCPTUES254. Only the entries uploaded to the Inlinkz button will be considered for Swanky Stamper at the end of the month.
3. You must have your project posted by Monday, 12 midnight EST to be eligible to win the week’s Cat Cash.
4. Cards and projects must have at least one Cat’s Pajamas Stamp or CutUps die in the project.
5. On the following TCP Tuesday, the week’s winner will be chosen from the previous challenge and will receive a Cat Cash Voucher for $10.00.
6. At the end of the month, The Swanky Stamper will be selected from all the weekly entries. The Swanky Stamper will receive some of the stamps from our next release and get to play along with us at our Pajamas Party and Blog Hop. AND… They’ll even get a special spot in the Gallery highlighting the project that won them the gig and a snazzy badge to display on their blog.
7. The Swanky Stamper will be announced the First Monday of the month on Splitcoaststampers, Facebook page and this Blog.

So, here's where I started with this. 3 metal mailboxes purchased last year at Target's Dollar Spot (1$ each). They have them again this year, I already checked for you! :) Then I purchased 3 mismatched candlesticks at the Arc Thrift Store, total cost was around 5$ for these. I was tickled to find a couple with hearts on the base-PERFECT for this project! I used some ivory spray paint I had leftover to paint the candlesticks. Whilst in between coats on that, I started working on my boxes. I decided to go with three separate themes for the boxes. The tall one is "Key to my Heart." The medium one is "Mustache You to Stay." The small one is "Love Letter." But of course you could make them all the same theme, or just in a general Valentine's theme, or even customize them based on who you are making them for-that would be really fun.

I decoupaged decorative paper onto the main box part of each box. I used a window punch (only punching half) to leave room for the flags. For the front and the back of the mailbox, I traced the outline of the lid piece on a piece of scrap card stock. Then I cut it out very carefully staying just to the inside of the line I drew (make sense? You want it slightly smaller that the outline so it doesn't overhang). Then I did a dry fit and trimmed where needed. When I was convinced my template was pretty perfect, I used it to trace onto 6 decorative papers. These also got decoupaged onto the mailboxes.

For the front of each box, I used the Heart Rosette CutUps, and a punched DP circle accented with other CutUps that added to the theme of that particular box.

I added a straw, and the heart banner from Bitty Banners CutUps to each mailbox flag for fun. On the side of each box I did stamped dies to set the theme.

The "Key to my Heart" one used Key Phrases Stamps, Framed Up CutUps and the Key to Your Heart CutUps. 

The mustache themed box used The Mustache Set,  Mustaches CutUps, and Luggage Tags CutUps. The sentiment also used Simply Said.

The stamp one was fun, and used some stamps I hadn't even had a chance to ink up yet: Love Letters.
And I also used the coordinating dies: Stamp Trio CutUps.

I kept the flip side of each box pretty plain-I didn't want to go TOO overboard (yes, I understand "too overboard could be considered a relative term, lol).

On the back of all the boxes, I used the Heart Trio CutUps.

I hope you like my project! This is the perfect centerpiece for my new/old dining room table-so fun!

Valentine's Hugs, Noelle