I never knew how fun and easy it was to jazz up envelopes! I was so inspired after trying out the Polka Dot Impressions Folder on my Club card, and watching the videos Ion Mary Fish's blog, that I had to try some experimenting on my own. These pictures may be a bit hard to see, since they are white envelopes, but I think you'll get the idea.
Decorating with Impressions Folders
In my previous post, I embossed only the flap. Then I tried embossing the flap and the front of the envelope with the Elegant Bouquet folder….oooooh! I slid the folder inside the envelope all the way to the bottom, then ran it through the Big Shot. Very pretty!
Or, how about de-bossing instead with the Finial Press folder…Nice!
You probably can't see much of a difference on screen, so let's add some ink to the textures to make them stand out…embossed first, then de-bossed:
What an awesome, and easy way to dress up that special card! But, wait, there's more!
Decorating Envelopes with Designer Series Paper
Mary Fish also has a great tutorial showing how to add decorative paper to your envelope flaps. You can see it here. It was definitely easy to do for both the straight and pointed flaps:
Then, I added some pretty punched borders with the Eyelet Border, Scallop Trim and Scallop Trim Corner punches. I had to do some creative cutting to get the Corner punch to work on the pointed flap, since it wasn't a right angle. Still turned out great!
Creative Stamp Layering
Next, I wanted to add color to the front of my envelopes, so I tried some layered stamping. First, I rolled on some Soft Suede with my Very Vintage wheel. Then, I stamped the flowers from the Vintage Vogue set over the top. I loved the results!
Then, I tried sponging on a layer of color before stamping with flowers from the Kind & Caring Thoughts set. I masked off most of the envelope with a scrap piece of paper (because the postman likes me better when I do that), then colored my stamp with markers before stamping. Awesome!
Decorating Envelopes with Sticker Sheets
For my next trick, I stamped on a large sticker sheet to create an envelope seal. You could use any image that coordinates with a punch for more of a real "seal" look. But, I stamped another Vintage Flower and cut it out freehand. I also used a piece of my decorated sticker sheet for the trim…
Lining Envelopes
I used the tutorial that Mary Fish did for lining the interior of envelopes (straight flap) for a reference, but altered it slightly, so you don't have to re-gum the flap. I started out with paper from the 6×6" Patterns Paper Pack (it's a Level 1 Hostes
s selection, or you can use the pack from the Sale-A-Bration flyer). If you trim one side down to 5-5/8" it fits perfectly in your envelope for a full lining. Because the other side is just 6", you can pull it flush to the top of the flap, trim around it then push the paper all the way into the envelope and the gum adhesive will show. You can use the same technique to line a pointed flap envelope, too. Here are mine:
Some of my stamping friends have been bugging me for years to stamp coordinating envelopes and it's never had much appeal to me. Until now! And, now that I have created all these pretty envelope samples, looks like I'll have to make some cards to go with them! Got any more envelope ideas? I'd love to see your samples! Email me a photo!
See you next time! ~Angie