How to make your own funky envelopes
This post is from my friend Bethany from Bethany Actually. Thank you, Lewus!
When I was in college, my roommate Erin used to get letters from her friend Aspen in handmade envelopes. Aspen created them from magazine pages, and Erin and I thought it was so cool we started making them ourselves.
Back when I used to send real mail to people, I made these envelopes all the time. If I noticed an interesting full-page ad in a magazine I’d tear it out and save it for future use. I don’t make them as often as I used to, but every now and then I need an odd-sized envelope or am feeling crafty. I’ve made them from wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, and old calendars too. It’s a fun way to make mail special. Of course it’s also environmentally friendly if you’re using old magazines or calendars, so yay for reusing and reducing!
Today, I’m going to use a page from an old Forces of Nature wall calendar. I suggest you read the whole post before attempting your own envelope because it’s a little confusing at first, but once you figure it out it’s easy-peasy.
First gather your supplies:
Step 1: Choose a pretty picture, and figure out which portion of the picture you want to be the front of your envelope. Just be sure to leave about an inch of space for the side flaps and enough space for the top and bottom flaps so that when you fold them in they will overlap. (Yes, I know that’s confusing. It will become clearer as you read, I hope.)
Step 2a: Flip the page over and trace around the envelope in roughly the same area. Or you can use a ruler to measure and draw a rectangle in the size you want.
Step 2b: To create the flaps, draw lines from the corners of your rectangle as shown in the photo above. I like to color in the corners to show that those are the pieces I am going to cut off. Whenever I forget to color in those corners, I inevitably cut along the wrong line. See?
Don’t do this! I cut along the wrong line!
Step 3: Emphasize the lines you want to cut by drawing curly lines on them, or marking them with a red pen, or something. You can skip this step if you’re not a ditz like I am.
Step 4: Cut on those curly lines so the colored-in corners are snipped all the way off. See?
You can trim some length off your flaps if they’re irregular.
Step 5: Fold all the flaps in and crease along the lines you traced around the envelope (or drew with a ruler) in Step 2a. Leave the side flaps folded in.
Step 6: Spread some glue on the bottom flap where it will come into contact with the side flaps, being careful not to leave glue where it will stick to the main part of the envelope. Or—and this would make more sense and I don’t know why I didn’t do this—on the side flaps.
Step 7: Fold the bottom flap up and press on the glued parts for a few seconds.
Voila! A beautiful handmade envelope.
When you’re ready to use your envelope, just stick the letter inside and either glue the flap shut or tape it with strong tape. If the envelope is light-colored, you can address it with a black Sharpie. If it’s dark-colored, you can write the address on a printer label. Stick on a stamp, drop it in the mail, and make someone’s day!
20 Comments
erika
what a neat idea! :) pretty cool and different.
Sonja
Ooohhh! Now… who could I send a letter to?
(I’ve handmade envelopes before, but they were a lot more improvised and used a whole lot of tape to hold them together.)
Angella
I have said it before and I will say it again.
YOU ARE THE CRAFTIEST PERSON I KNOW.
Jummy
That is really neat! When I buy cards to send to people I tend to lose the envelope somehow so this would be a great way to be creative with part of the card if not the actual card itself!
Kate
So cool. I think I remember doing something like this when I was a kid. Might have to start doing it again!
Melissa
I’ve done this a lot — and the recipient ALWAYS loves it! Most of the mail we get these days is junk mail, so it’s really fun to have such an inviting piece of mail waiting in the mailbox.
Maps and gift bags work well, too.
Jennifer
This is so cool! My oldest has been wanting to send letters to different members of family. She’ll love making the envelopes too. Thanks for the idea :)
bethany actually
Melissa – Maps! What a brilliant idea, I’ll have to try that. Thanks!
Angella – I seriously doubt that is true. I am probably just the only one bragging about it all over teh internets. Ha!
Annabanana
Oops I left my comment over on BA’s blog.
Darci
We used to make boxes out of old cards in generally the same way, but leaving the flaps longer so the would tuck in and make the edges!
Gayle
Wow, this is such a great idea! We often make our own birthday cards for family members and have no envelope for them. Now we will!
bethany actually
Darci – I used to make those same little boxes out of Christmas cards, also with Erin. Erin was my partner in craftiness a lot, I guess! :-)
Meg
How fun! This is a great project…thanks!
Liane
Hey,
great tutorial…thanks, Bethany!
Jillian
That is such a cool idea!! I am totally going to do this sometime!
Victoria
Such a cool idea!!!! Thanks :)
soleil
Very cool! Thanks for sharing! I’ll have to remember this
Beth B.
Awesome – love it and can’t wait to try it. Thanks!!
Hop
Thanks so much for sharing this tutorial. I hope it’s okay, but I’ve linked to this page from my blog. Here’s the page (http://fairycreative.blogspot.com/2008/09/you-can-totally-do-this.html).
Funky Monkey
Looks so cool!