Today is the last Monday of the year...and the last of the easy projects from my Simple 6 series...inspired ideas for simple gifts to make by hand and give from the heart.
I know that Christmas is over (and hope that yours was everything you wanted it to be) but this idea is perfect for after Christmas...or as a New Year's activity...
I'm a believer in sending mail...through the postal service...
actual greetings that arrive at your doorstep...and brighten your day...
The holidays usually means gifts...and I believe in the reciprocal gesture of thank you...so why not send out thank you notes...made from something you have around the house...recycled stationery made from magazines...
I am a magazine whore, so I have no shortage of raw material for this project...the envelopes will be made from inspiring magazine pictures...so I perused my stack and had a bevy of images torn out of the mags in no time...
I had a simple paper template to determine whether or not the chosen image would work or not...a downloadable copy of the template I used is included at the end of this post...
Step 1 : As I began positioning the template to trace around the image, I discovered that I could only guess on placement...and then I had a eureka moment!
Step 2 : Why not cut out a portion of the inside rectangle so I could see how the image would look on the completed envelope...brilliant!
Step 3: After tracing around the template, I cut out the envelope...
Step 4: And begin folding...
Step 5: I found my brayer helpful in getting a crisp fold...a bone folder would work just as well...
Step 6: The completed envelope...a small amount of gluestick is used on the flipside to adhere the bottom flap to the side flaps...
I was on a roll...and made several sets of envelopes...finding a theme among the images I chose...the monthly design magazine, WSJ, had beautiful photos to use...
Don't have any magazines handy? how about leftover wrapping paper...or your 2013 wall calendar...or paper bags...
After the envelopes were complete, I cut a single flat card for each envelope, using leftover card stock...a quick embellishment of washi tape added an extra flourish on the white cards...
When mailing these envelopes, you might want to use a white address label on the front...and you can use a sticker or a dab of gluestick to seal the envelope before mailing...
the striped cards are perfect for sending a sweet note through the mail...
an aside...my newest pen love...these fine tip Sharpies...in gray! my fave!
So lets start the new year off right...lets have a little giveaway...leave me a comment and I'll put your name in a hat...and draw out 5 names...each to receive one of the recycled stationery sets I made...deadline is midnight Friday, January 3 to enter...make sure that if your profile doesn't link to your email that you include it as part of your comment...otherwise I have no way to get in touch with you if you win!
I hope you've enjoyed my Simple 6 series...a link to the other five projects are on my blog sidebar...and these projects aren't limited to the holidays...be inspired to create whenever you need a simple gift throughout the year...
right click on envelope template to save it to your computer and then print it out...I used cardstock for printing to make a sturdy template...
