The @#!!!##* WHAT is in the mail???

At the start of the year, you got a peek inside my hot water cupboard (here).  Here's a peek inside the letterbox, which frequently homes earwigs (I had brought it inside for refurbishment)

Hmmmm, not enough Happy Mail since Christmas - spider web, ants, even a bat has taken up residence, and something's bits of bones!!!

The spider web is from Eye Connect.  I threaded brads, and the narrowest cutout of Seth Apter's Citrus die through the holes.  Did the cockroaches think "No Entry" (Triplex, officially) symbols would stop the mailman from disturbing their environment?  The "archways" along the left side are cut out parts of the same die - adding "texture" 👀 or covering rusted-out bits of mailbox where insects come & go like doorways.  I also made use of vintage paper bags from Silver Crow Creations, cutting them for the inner circle of the largest Robo Ring die, (inside right wall above) and ripping a chunk to reinforce the hinge, which kept cracking when only paint was on it.

At this earlier stage, there are only 3 layers on the mailbox, including the "Timeless" stencil:

By the end of it, there are at least 6 layers on the inside of the door, plus the collaged paper and postage stamp.  Easily identifiable is the Discovery stencil which was repeated slightly offset in a second colour.

Seth loves telling us "If it's worth doing once, it's worth doing twice"

So I did - again & again 🔗🔗🔗

The outsides - the back had fewer layers.  You will see the Pathways die cuts in other places too.  I had a narrow strip of manilla folder, which was perfect for a bit of incomplete fencing... or something.  Maybe it's a breathing gap for the insects. 

Typical rural mailbox, it has the flag that, when up, says there's mail inside for collection, and the 4" version of  The Time stencil is a good size to tell the mailman he has to stop and collect mail to the Post Office.  This also gives a good shot of the NZ stamps arranged like the spine of a Tuatara along the top:

Different lighting in the photo below, and you can see Citrus and Pathway dies again.  Some of the Inside Out stencil was heat embossed. Hard to see but all adding texture, or patina (LOL) are stamps: Morse Code, Raindrops, Birch bark, and Letter spin which was stamped onto tissue paper then ripped and parts placed around the mailbox, 

On the other side the flag is again the 4" version of You Got This stencil, telling us from the distance whether it's worth coming down the drive for mail.  The arm of the flag includes the Urban Insiders Bar stencil - one part on this side, the other on the other side.  Both parts are also elsewhere on the mailbox.  Like the Birch stamp, they resembled aspects of posted mail.  I had had a near-final layer of spatters, with green-gold paint.  Looked fab, until it dried to invisibility, so out came the white.  Maybe it's guano, instead of moss-stain.

Within stamp was heat embossed onto tissue paper, and the lettering coloured in before gluing to the front.  (It was also partially stamped several times inside the mailbox.)  The numbers were die cut, stamped with  birch bark - for this project it was a particularly appropriate image, as it resembles the cancellation stamp over postage stamps.

Every so often I make a batch of tyvek beads.  Some proved handy to keep the front shut after threading onto elastic, and the Bat pick from Silver Crow Creations makes a great doorstop on the inside, and a hook for the beads to hang round, on the outside.

Here's hoping for Happy Mail, Fan Mail, just about any sort of mail to clear out the nasty taste of insects and post-Creepmas bills from this letterbox.

When I started going through my tool-stash, I realised how much of a collection of Seth's designs  I had acquired.  It started over 2 years ago when I met him and saw his urban grunge stencils across the ditch in Australia. On the challenge blog here we all feel amazingly privileged to have Seth sponsoring us so generously.  Seth's dies and some stamps can also be found at Spellbinders, more stamps at Impression Obsession, stencils at Stencil Girl, and classes on DVD or downloadable at North Light (and books).

Having watched and "done" the card play video, started the Top 10 Collage Principles one (while sort-of-convalescing from not-whooping cough), read his articles in Cloth Paper Scissors, seen clips with him in episodes of Make It Artsy, this mail box is rather "in the style of", as well as using his tools.  Challenge to me for next month is to use the tools in a not-Seth-style?  Unless E Frog or teamies over-rule me 🔇

Leave us some off-beat, creepy-love below, and link your weird/creepy/dark creation here, because Seth gave us some extra goodies to share!