Make Your Own Envelopes

by Lauri Griffin | More from this Blogger

09 Mar 2008 02:13 PM

A lot of people these days are making beautiful cards with photos, stamps, trinkets, ephemera, and scrapbook paper. There are entire magazines devoted to card making. Why stop there? You can make your own envelopes very easily.

All you need is your chosen paper, a glue stick, scissors, and a pattern. You can download patterns from the internet, buy a stencil pattern, or simply unfold an envelope and use it for your pattern. I like to just use an unfolded envelope. Once you've made a few, you can even pretty much guess at the dimension you need for special shaped cards. If you are going to mail your envelopes, you do want to stick to fairly standard sizes. Very different shapes and sizes may need extra postage.

Trace your pattern onto the wrong side of your paper. Cut around the pattern. Fold up the edges just like on the original envelope, spread glue on the tabs, press it all together, and that's it.

Kids love to make these. And just about any paper works: torn pages from magazines, notebook paper, card stock, velum, scrapbook paper, wallpaper samples, gift wrap, or even grocery sacks. If you are mailing these, make sure the address is legible. You may want to use a white mailing label if the pattern has a lot of patterns. If you aren't sending the envelopes through the mail, you can be very creative about sizes and papers. You can make tiny ones for gift cards, or even see though velum ones. You can even use felt, or fleece instead of paper.

The best thing about making your own envelopes is that you can decorate them any way you like. You can also use rubber stamps to decorate your envelopes, or stickers. If they don't have to go through the mail, you can attach ribbons or charms, or do collage artwork.

Envelopes are easy and fun to make. See what your children can come up with!

Also See:

How to Make Tiny Magnetic Folders

Easy Paper Dolls and Paper Shapes

Card-making and Scrapbook Pages

Learn more about Lauri Griffin

Lauri lives in Colorado with her husband and three sons. Amidst all the laundry and packing of lunches, she tries to keep parenting fun.

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