frantic pants

After seeing crazy amounts of adorable hand-made envelopes all over Flickr Groups and Etsy I decided to go ahead and make my own. The materials are few and the process fairly easy. To create these envelopes all you really need is… an x-acto knife with a new blade, any old magazine or book you are willing to sacrifice to the craft gods, a good glue (I like this ph neutral book binding glue), a random piece of card stock or thin cardboard, a ruler, and a surface you can cut on (I use a self healing cutting mat but the back of a magazine or a piece of cardboard might do).

So step one is to find a simple note-card sized envelope and gently disassemble it, or If you can use my Envelope Template printed on letter size paper. Use the template (or disassembled envelope) to trace on to the backside of the ad. Using your straightedge and x-acto trim out your envelope along the traced lines (if using the template these are the solid black lines). Fold along the dotted lines of the template and place a thin line of glue along each skinny flap. To finish simply press the bottom flap (see template) to the flaps where your glue lines are. After I glue each envelope I place it in a heavy book like the dictionary, or my favorite Vanity Fair, and after a few hours of drying (depending on your glue) you will have an amazing set of old magazine envelopes!

To turn this craft into a gift all you need is to make a matching set of 4-5 envelopes from an ad series (my set was created from a 7 page ad spread in Vogue…which I landed on for because of its heavier matte paper and vivid imagery). Then just add address labels, seals and wrap it all up in a cute matching box.