Valentine's Mail Box

it's valentine's day! almost. and alex had to make a valentine's box for school. so i made the basic structure of it for her and then she decorated it (i didn't get a picture after she decorated for some reason, but she covered it in stickers: hearts and hello kitty galore. oh and her name in letter stickers.) i started with a basic shoe box. in the lid part i cut 3 the top and the sides of the mail slot, leaving the bottom of slot uncut. i cut out a little notch in the top of the mail slot so she could open it. then i cut with some scrap cardboard a section for the inside of the slot to stop it from opening at a certain distance. it's basically a strip of cardboard about 2 or 3 inches wide and folded for 3 sides (you can see the two inside sides in the bottom picture - the side you can't see is just the back strip.) and i cut the ends at a slight angle. i taped this cardboard strip to the inside of the mail slot and tested it. then i covered the entire lid and bottom of the shoe box with hot pink duct tape. alex wanted a working mail flag so i cut out a flag with the scrap cardboard and covered that in hello kitty duct tape. then i just riveted the flag to the side of the box. it was kind of fun to make, even though the duct tape was a little tedious to do, especially around the mail slot. alex loved it and enjoyed decorating it and says that many of her friends liked hers best. now to fill it with valentines and treats.