Gift-Wrapped Envelopes

Hi everyone! I can't believe there's only 5 days until Christmas - time has gone by so fast! My family starts celebrating Christmas on the 23rd, and it's even harder to believe that it's only 3 days away. The weather here in northern Illinois hasn't helped much either, we've had temps in the 30's and 40's lately and with barely any snow, it sure doesn't feel like Christmastime. Today I'd like to share with you the envelopes I made for my coworkers that contain their Christmas cards. I've been working on this project since October, and it feels so good to finally have completed it.

I handmade the 5 in x 5 in envelopes using papers from the SugarPlum Recollections paper pad (the cards are made from these papers also). I tried to make sure that the same paper on the card wasn't used for the envelope, and if there was more red on the card to use more green on the envelope, you get the idea. I then created tags (with a glitter border) and chose a bow and ribbon color for each card based off the colors on the envelope paper. Here are a few samples:

The envelopes were made using a 5 x 5 envelope template, a scoring tool, two-sided tape and glue dots. They're super easy and fun to make! 

I made a total of 21 cards/envelopes for my coworkers this year. I put them in their mailboxes last night, and I'm excited to hear what they say about them. I loved the idea of giving the envelopes a gift-like appearance because it makes receiving only a card more exciting than just receiving a card in a plain envelope, at least in my opinion.

All 21 of the cards. I couldn't find a good place to take the picture other than my bed, so I apologize for the poor quality. :/ One new year's resolution I'll definitely be working on is taking better pictures! You can at least see the variety of paper/ribbon combos used. 

Thanks for reading! :)

Ashley

Experimenting With Handmade Envelopes!

Making my own envelopes has been something I've wanted to try for forever. Normally I take the easy route and just buy a package of envelopes, but now that I realize how easy it is to make my own, I'll hardly ever resort to that anymore! I recently checked out a book from a local library (see the picture below) that has some really fun sketches and in the back, envelope templates for different sized cards. The templates needed to be enlarged using a copy machine (which I luckily have access to at work) so I enlarged some copies and gave it a try.

This is the book that had the envelope templates in the back. The sketches are really simple but that allows for so many different and creative elements! There's also a Birthday Celebrations and Christmas Celebrations in this series, but unfortunately I couldn't find those at any local library. They are on Amazon, though, so maybe someday I'll get around to purchasing them!

The included envelope templates in the book were for card sizes 4 x 9, 4.5 x 6, 5 x 5, and 5.5 x 8. Basically, what I did was enlarge each template to the correct size (I had to use 11 x 17 paper, they wouldn't fit on 8.5 x 11). Once the enlarging was done I cut them out and then glued them onto cardstock paper so that I can reuse the template by tracing it onto whichever paper I want the envelope to be made out of. 

A. 5 x 5 template

B. 4.5 x 6 template

C. 4 x 9 template

D. 5.5 x 8 template

I apologize if it's hard to see in the pictures, but each template has the scoring lines, folding lines and also what percent the template needs to be enlarged to.

Once the templates were finished, I created my first envelope using the 5.5 x 8 template for the birthday card I made for a coworker last week, (you can see that card here). Here's the end result:

I paper clipped the template to a 12 x 12 piece of blue cardstock so that it would stay in place while I cut around it. (It can also be traced and then cut, but I found it easier to just cut along the template). 

Once I folded the envelope according to the lines on the template (obviously those weren't traced onto the blue paper, but, it's fairly easy to "guesstimate" where the folds are supposed to be made based off the design of the template), I attached a little glue dot to help keep the sides together. 

Once the folds had been made and the glue dot had been applied, this is what the envelope looked like from the back. 

And this is the envelope with the card inside. It fit perfectly! 

I didn't have anything that would seal the envelope, so I used some fun stickers that match the card. They worked well at first but later kept popping up, so next time I'll have to find some strong envelope seals.

And that's all there is to it! I hope I didn't complicate the process too much, it's really fairly simple. Just enlarge the template, cut it out, glue it to cardstock (this is optional, I chose to do it so that I could reuse the template and not have to continuously make copies of the original template), and then trace, cut and fold! If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Ashley