#28. *whew*

28. make mail bags and letters for the younger girls

Completed!!

We looked at a few different tutorials online, but ultimately decided to just wing it, like we do with 99.9% of our projects. We do better that way. :)

First, I purchased 8 sheets of felt. They were a quarter a piece at Hobby Lobby. I know you can get them at Michael's, Wal-Mart, etc.

If you recall, I don't really sew.. I hate sewing.. so we I used the hot glue gun to put everything together.

Supplies needed:
At least 8 sheets of felt
Hot glue, or a needle and thread (or better yet, a sewing machine)
Ribbon or rick rack (we used scraps of ribbon)
Patience

This craft took us about an hour and a half. Of course, if you're doing it yourself it will probably be about half of that. I let the girls cut the ribbon, help shape the felt, and of course they played with it the whole time we were crafting.. so that's why it took a little longer.

First, you want to make the envelopes, letters, and post cards. If you visit the link above, you will see that she did a lot of sewing to put these together. I wanted something a little less "perfect", and wanted the girls to help.. so ours don't look the same as hers. I think it's just a matter of preference.

To make the envelopes, we took the felt sheet and cut it in half long way. Then we cut about an inch off the top of each piece. Take the two top corners and fold them in to make little triangles, like the top of an envelope. Then take the bottom part of the felt and pull it up to make the other half of the envelope. It's really simple once you have the felt in front of you.



Please excuse the foot in the picture, my photo editing software is not yet installed on this computer lol.

Then, we worked on the letters. Sapphire said this was the "most funnest" part. :) Take a sheet of felt and cut an inch or two off the top. Then fold the remaining felt and cut it into fours. These are your letters.



Then take small strips of ribbon (or rick rack) -- about 1-3" long -- and hot glue (or sew?) them on. While we were gluing these on, the girls were "reading" their letters. I think we are going to have to make a YouTube video for them to read them because they were hilarious! They have crazy imaginations!



You can also make postcards in pretty much the same way you make the letters, only don't cut off the inch at the top. Fold the sheet of felt and cut into fours. Glue (or sew) a stamp into the right hand corner, and then ribbon for the "writing".




To make the mail bag, take two full sheets of felt and hot glue (or sew) them together, leaving one of the long sides open. You can make a fancier bag.. I was just tired by the end of this craft -- we usually do them in the afternoon or early evening but we started this one at 7:00pm!



I made the strap with scraps of felt, just overlapping and hot gluing them together. Also, folding down a few inches on the front piece of felt might be helpful. We did not have any velcro but I recommend using a small piece to secure the bag as well as the envelopes!

My goal only included making them for the younger two girls but I just made one set for everyone to share, because even my 8 year old was VERY interested in this craft!



A letter..



And then, just as we were getting ready to finish up, I saw a lonely (and empty) Capri Sun box sitting on the counter!



So, even though they were quite content with their letters and mail bag...



We decided to UPCYCLE that Capri Sun box and turn it into a mailbox! We covered it with leftover scraps of paper and covered it with shipping tape to make it more durable. At the end, where the opening is, I cut the top half and glued it to the bottom half to make one big flap rather than two small ones. I used a hole punch and made a handle with 3/8" ribbon, so it was easier to open. We also made the flag out of cardboard from an old shoe box. We covered it with scraps of paper, and shipping tape.. secured it with a brad.. and voila.. a fully functional mailbox! :)



And yes, I'm aware that she looks tired.. we all were after this one! lol

If you have any questions about how we did this project, feel free to leave a comment. It's late, so who knows if this post makes any sense! :)