When the seasons change, I find it very easy to make alterations to the inside of my house. I have bins of pillows and throws and boxes of artwork and accessories to exchange and I love every minute of it.

However, I have a tendency to forget about the outdoors. Is it because when I’m outside in Florida I feel like its summer no matter what season it is? I don’t really know, but this year I made an extra effort to show the neighbors that I have autumn spirit. A mailbox spray like this one is a good way to start!

Materials List:

• Background greens (fall leaves)
• Stems of pussy willow-like flowers
• Stems of berries
• Focal flowers (sunflowers)
• Secondary flowers (Seed pods)
• Greening pins
• Foam & wire mailbox base
• Spanish moss  

Instructions:

1) The first step is to cover the green foam with Spanish moss. Be prepared, this is a messy step! Pull enough moss from the bag and form it around the foam. Several greening pins will hold the moss in place, and then the flowers will hide it and keep it from moving.

2) Next collect your background greens, mine were stems of fall leaves. They were so full, I only needed four for the entire spray. Insert them into the side of the foam, creating a background or base for the rest of your foliage.

3) The next layer above the background greenery is the twig and berry layer. I used a couple of pussy willow-like twigs and several berry branches, still inserting them in the two long sides of the foam.

4) Focal flowers can now be inserted into the top of the foam, placing them in a random, yet even arrangement. Make sure they overlap the stems of the background greens and twigs.

5) Secondary flowers fill in the gaps left by the focal flowers. They help cover up any remaining Spanish moss and add texture to the top arrangement. Both the focal flowers and the secondary flowers should cover the stems of the background material and the short ends of the base foam.

6) It’s the little extras that make the difference. Leaves from the sunflower stems were going to waste, so I used the greening pins to add them to the center arrangement and it made a world of difference in the softness of the arrangement and gave it a more finished look.

7) Now take your spray out to the mailbox and with one hand on each of the metal straps, bend the straps to fit your mailbox and install your mailbox spray. Your background greens will stick straight out until you bend them to match the curve of the mailbox. This takes a little fussing but it will look great in the end.

Tip:

After finding my mailbox spray on the ground on several mornings, I got smart and used some twine from one metal strap to the other, underneath my mailbox, and the spray was then so much more secure.

Now that I have all the kinks worked out of this project, you can be sure I’ll be making one for each season of the year! I hope you find as much joy in this project as I did…making it was fun and got the creative juices flowing, seeing it on the mailbox was rewarding and has brought many compliments, but unfortunately, cleaning up after it…..was tedious!!!

Shari

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