Each one is unique and has a personality of it's own. They're so much fun to make that I thought I would show you how to do it too.
1. Tear pages from magazines.....tearing them out works better than cutting them out. Most magazines work fine. Better Homes and Gardens pages are too thin and Martha Stewart pages are really big, but everything else is fine. The post office here told me there would be no problems with them....unless they were solid black and would not let the post mark show.
2. Decide whether you want the top half or the bottom half of the page to be the front of the envelope. Either half works fine. If you use the bottom half, then the flap on the back of the envelope will be on the bottom of the envelope rather than the top.....but WHO CARES!!! I chose the bottom half.
3. Fold over( not quite in half)....the extra is going to be the enclosure flap.
4. Fold the sides in, like so.....
note: I don't do any measuring....life is too short.....just try make the folds as square as possible
5. Crease all folds really good with some sort of straight edge, front and back.
I think my scissors handle is the absolute best tool for this job.
6. Open the page up again and trim side of the "back" of the envelope off, like so.......
7. Fold page up again.....and trim the two corners of the "front" of the envelope like so....
8. Glue the side flaps down. I like to use rubber cement because it sticks good, dries fast, stays flexible, is easy to remove if you make a mess, and is repositionable for a reasonable amount of time....it is also alot cheaper than scrapbooking adhesive runners. Elmer's glue makes a hard lump and dries too slowly. It also disfigures the paper because it gets it so wet. Gluestick glue doesn't work either because it doesn't adhere very well to the shiny, slick magazine pages. It will certainly come loose during shipping.
9. Fold and crease the envelope enclosure flap.
And now comes the fun part......Stickers!!!! I guess I'm still a little girl at heart...the stickers are my favorite part!
10. Adhere an address label.....because it's hard to write on a magazine page and labels are so cool!
I buy these Scotch brand labels, cut them in half, and trim off the "to" and "from" section.....
Adhere a return address label....
And pick out an appropriate Christmas stamp....
11. Fill the envelope with a great Christmas card, glue the enclosure flap down, address it, and pop it in the mail!
175 envelopes........ready to go. Now I just need to finish the cards.
BTW, they're going to be late.
I was told that envelops had to be a certain size - you must have the best post master in Sitka!
ReplyDeleteI like this tutorial!!
ReplyDeleteI think they do have to be a certain size to not incur some sort of extra postage. Magazine pages happen to make standard sized envelopes
ReplyDelete