DIY fantastic: hand lined envelopes

Bit surreal there, we went from high summer in Ibiza to full on winter Christmas mode. Hope that wasn't too much for the senses! Anyway, December in the real world was super busy as usual. We've been beavering away working on our save the dates for the wedding, which we wanted to double up as our Christmas cards, and hence had to be dispatched asap! I shall be sharing all the details of the cards themselves and how we made them shortly, but in the meantime here's part of the story for today - the cute kraft paper lined envelopes we made!

Quite a simple project really. Well in theory it is, until you multiply it by 60 times and then it's a whole lotta envelopes to prepare!!! :s

What we needed:
1. Kraft paper, or any other decorative paper that takes your fancy. For this one, I used kraft paper with small sparky trees on it, for a Chrismassy vibe. But you could easily pretty papers for all other times of the year.
2. Plain coloured envelopes
3. Glue stick
4. Scissors
5. Card to create a template. I used a magazine cover, hence the lovely lady sporting the sparkly dress! :)

To create a template I used a process of trial and error until it was just the right size to fit within the gummed edges of the envelope flap and then on the body of the envelope side was big enough to cover the whole visible area. This was basically the hardest bit! Once you've got a template you're happy with you're as good as done! :p

Steps 1-3 below: Take your template and place it on the face up paper aligned in accordance with the print e.g. to ensure my little fir trees were growing upwards and not down! Draw around it and repeat, aligning them in order to maximise the usage you can get from the width of the paper.

Steps 4-6 below: take an envelope and kraft paper cut out, using the stick glue, cover the back of the envelope an the flap with glue. Carefully slip the cut out into the envelope and align it carefully to leave the gummed area on the flap free. Press down the kraft paper and smooth it out to give a clean wrinkle free finish. Finally flip the envelope over and create a crease to close the envelope.

And that's it, you have your gorgeous hand lined envelopes at the ready for all your snail mail! This could be done with any combination of colours and patterned papers, matching or contrasting, just get experimenting! It'd be cute for personalised greetings cards, thank you letters for all those lovely Christmas pressies you or in preparation for a valentines day cards - to make someone feel that little bit more special!