Our envelopes initially looked a little blah. When I came across Miss Lobster's Save the Dates, I knew what our envelopes needed - envelope liners and a stamped detail. Here's the inspiration:
I didn't immediately rush out and buy paper for our liners or rubber stamps. I waited to see if it was going to be a detail that mattered to me. I asked our blog readership for guidance. And then, after thinking about it for a couple of weeks, I ordered paper from Creative Papers Online and a stamp (and ink) from Blue Moon Scrapbooking.
Even after cutting and gluing the envelope liners (which I did over a couple of days), I would still do it again. I love how they turned out. Here's what I did and the results.
- Fold the paper in half. (It was too big for any of the rotary cutters we had.)
- Cut the paper into three 10 inch sections.
- Cut the sectioned paper in half.
- For a business envelope, trim the halves to 8 3/4 inches. (This is so that the liner slides easily into the envelope and does not cover the envelope glue.) NOTE: In reality, I did Step 5 before this Step 4. Don't do that. Instead of trimming each sheet once, you have to trim each sheet twice.
- Divide the trimmed paper into two 4 1/2 inch tall pieces.
- Slide one of the trimmed pieces of paper into an envelope so that the top edge of the liner is below the envelope glue.
- Bend the liner at the crease of the envelope.
- Cut the edge of the liner so that the cut ends after the edge of envelope glue.
- Repeat Step 8 on the other side of the liner.
- Lay a ruler parallel to the edge of the envelope glue to the end of the cut on the liner.
- Bend the liner along the edge of the ruler.
- Repeat Steps 10 and 11 on the other side of the liner.
- Lay a ruler along the crease and with an X-acto blade cut along the crease.
- Repeat Step 13 on the other side of the liner. You now have a template from which you can create the rest of your envelope liners.
- Slide the envelope liner template into the envelope to double check that it doesn't cover the envelope glue and that it ends below the opening of the envelope.
- Take a handful of trimmed sheets and align them with the template.
- Using scissors cut along the edge of the template.
- Place your template on top of a handful of envelope liners.
- Fold the liners so that they match the template and score.
- Apply glue to the bottom of the envelope liner. (NOTE: One 1 fl oz Elmer's Craft Bond Acid Free Memory Book Glue Pen is not enough glue for 90 envelopes. I ran out of glue with 23 envelopes to go.)
- Slide the envelope liner into an envelope and press to secure.
- Apply glue to the top of the envelope liner.
- Press the top of the envelope liner to the envelope to secure.
- Fold the envelope closed and score. You now have a lined envelope.
- Put books on top of a stack of lined envelopes so that they dry smoothly.
Once the envelopes were lined it was time to stamp them. Hand stamping 90 envelopes took roughly an hour and a half once I figured out how I wanted to apply the stamp. Here's what I did and a sneak peek of the results.
Did you add some pizazz to your envelopes? What did you do?
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