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A hand-painted love letter box, with the look of
antique lace. It's easy with paper doilies!
Love letters need a special place for safe-keeping. Here is a cozy
letter box, with the look of hand-painted, antique lace. It is made
easy with paper doily place mats, and a romantic Valentine postcard
trimmed with a lace ruffle.
Materials
- Vintage
Valentine postcard (Adobe PDF file), printed on heavy photo
paper or cardstock.
- Cardboard cigar box.
- Embossed paper doily place mats – you might
need 3-4.
- Ruffled lace trim, about 20”.
- Decoupage medium (like Mod Podge).
- Spray paint. We used dark red, matte finish.
- Craft paints. We used pink, yellow, dark green
and medium brown for the antiquing wash.
- Oil or water-based polyurethane.
- Craft glue.
- Hot glue gun.
- Craft knife (or razor blade) and cutting mat.
Scissors will work fine.
Instructions
 Spray
paint the cigar box with at least two coats, inside and out.
let it dry between coats.- Carefully
cut the lacy border from the placemats. Center the borders on each side
of the box, and cut to fit. For the top, cut four pieces to fit around
the top, then miter (45-degree cuts) the corners.
 Brush
decoupage medium on the back of each lace border, and position them on
the box. Smooth them down with a slightly damp rag (see Tips). Let dry.- Brush on one coat of matte polyurethane.
Let it dry.
 With
craft paints and a fine brush, color in the details on the borders. You
can use a paint pen, too, but you’ll miss the messy “hand painted” look
we were aiming for.- Apply another coat of polyurethane and let dry.
 Mix
up a little brown wash (1 part brown acrylic paint and 2 parts water).
Working with one side at a time, brush on the brown wash, wait 20
seconds, and wipe it off gently with a rag. If too much brown
accumulates, dab it off with a damp rag. You want "age" accumulated in
the embossing, not sediment (see Tips).- When it dries, brush on another coat of
polyurethane.
 Cut
out the postcard image, and with a hot glue gun, attach the ruffled
lace trim along the edge on the back.- Affix the postcard to the top, with the hot
glue gun, or with foam mounts.
Tips
- Be
sparing with the decoupage medium. If the doily paper gets
too
wet, the paper will absorb too much water, the embossing will flatten
and the paper will buckle.
- Line the inside of your box with
velvet. Cut a cardboard piece to fit the bottom of the box, cover it
with a velvet scrap glued around the bottom edge with hot glue, and
glue it down inside.
- Add a little gold latch to your letter box,
with glue, for charming but questionable security.
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