Letters to Santa Drop Box by Tamara Tripodi

If you have children, you know how exciting it is for them to write their letters to Santa with a long list of fun stuff they want! Why not let them have their own personal drop box for all those letters? My kids write letters every other day it seems! And if you don’t have children that are still writing letters to Santa, then why not create this drop box as a decoration? Mine is on my fireplace and looks great! You can make it any ’style’ you want!

SVG Collections Used

A2 Lace Edged Cards SVG Collection
Christmas Cookie Party SVG Collection
Christmas Morning SVG Collection
Robin’s Return SVG Collection
Santa’s Visit SVG Collection
"To Santa" Caption
Valentine’s mailboxes SVG Kit
3D Wintergreens SVG Kit

Supplies Used

• 9” round Styrofoam disc
• 6” round Styrofoam disc (the one I got in more like 6.75”)
• Styrofoam post or cardboard tube cut to 12” long
• Craft wood spools
• Canvas Corp stars
• Dark brown buttons
• Various fibers in blue and dark brown (Canvas Corp)
• Paper twine in dark brown
• Hot Glue
• Black and cream gingham ribbon (May Arts)
• Fake holly berries
• Brads (Echo Park Paper)
• Paper Collections, Echo Park Paper ’Seasons Greetings’ and DCWV ’Homemade Christmas’
• Punkin’ Patch Stamps

Dimensions

Here are the exact shapes, sizes and colors I used. Size to the dimensions shown below. If chart only indicated width OR height, Use "Keep Properties" or "Aspect Lock" to size files.

Instructions

1. Use a craft knife and ’trace’ a circle in a dark brown polka dot paper to fit over the top of your Styrofoam. Adhere. Cut strips in a green gingham paper to fit along the edges of the Styrofoam. Adhere. Then, adhere both Styrofoam discs together to look like ’stair steps.
2. Cut your cardboard tube or Styrofoam tube (I would go for Styrofoam for sturdiness) to 12” long. Wrap a music paper pattern around and adhere with hot glue. I cut a little hold into the Styrofoam disc to help support it. With a good amount of hot glue, it will hold really well! Embellish with ribbon bow and button.
3. Cut and assemble the drop box. Adhere to the top of the post with hot glue. Make sure the top of the post is cut straight or else it will tilt a bit. Embellish the drop box with envelope, caption, holly, brads, twig and cardinal.
4. Using an eyelet setting tool, add dark brown eyelets to the canvas stars. (you can use paper, too!) Stamp with Punkin Patch Stamps. Use dark brown fiber and a button to embellish the drop box. Add a little dab of glue behind the stars to help secure them to the drop box if needed.
5. Cut the ’cookie tree’ and score all 6 pieces down the center. trim the bottoms a bit so it’s a little more flat. Adhere back to back to create a 3D tree. Add white ink or use a snow writer to create ’frost’ or ’snow’. Adhere to the back of the Styrofoam discs and to the side of the post. This is for extra support.
6. Cut the Santa. I used a fuzzy cream yarn on all the ’white’ pieces to give some texture. Looks great!
7. Cut the sleigh and all the toys, poinsettias, holly, etc. and adhere in misc. spots around the base to create a toy scene. To get them to ’stand’ you will just use a little line of hot glue and hold it for a second to dry. The piece will stand freely and be pretty secure!
8. I cut thin strips of paper and adhered them around wooden craft spools to look like rolls of ribbon. One of them is the ’nice list’. Add your kids names to personalize!
9. Add touches of fiber bows, buttons and fake holly berries.

Design Tips

Tamara Tripodi - SVGCuts Design Team Artist

• This piece is so fun with so much to look at and can become quite ’busy’ if you are not careful. Watch your placement with the toys and embellishments. Stagger the diecuts to give LOTS of dimension. Try not to ’cluster’ anything. When I made this, I cut most everything out before assembly and played with placement several times before I felt like it looked right.
• I used a dark grey ink to add a ’vintage’ look. Rub in on most the light pieces.
• Go for texture! I pulled in yarn, ribbon, wood buttons, different fibers, ’sugared’ fake berries and paper twine.
• A handwritten list of names is a nice touch and personalizes it a bit.
• Stamp on canvas! Yes, you can! It’s a lot of fun and I love the look of it! I used Memento black ink and it worked great!
• Hot Glue is a must! This entire project was built with the help of sturdy hot glue! It’s quick and really keeps things in place.

I hope you just love this fun project! Make a dropbox for each child and have them decorate it for a fun family night! Look around your house for inspiration! My inspiration for this was my main Christmas tree, it matches it perfectly! How cute would this look sitting next to a matching Christmas tree? Play around with colors and patterns to fit your style. Most of all, have fun with it! If you give the drop box a go, I’d love for you to share on the SVG Cuts Facebook wall! Enjoy and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!