Envelope Tutorial

I'm going to deviate from the norm today and branch away from quilting. Today I have a tutorial for you on how to make easy decorative envelopes from scrapbook paper! 

We no longer carry scrapbook paper in the store, but we know many of you still keep paper on hand. I was in charge of making invitations to a church event and found myself at home with no envelopes, and no car to run get envelopes. So I had to get creative.

The invitations were quarter sheet sized (4.25" x 5.5"), so the envelope needed to be sized accordingly. I quickly found though that I didn't have any glue (apparently that got chucked out in the move!). However I did have one roll of washi tape. But, it worked out wonderfully and kept the supply list simple.

Here's what you'll need:

1 12"x12" sheet of scrapbook paper for every 2 invitations
1 pair scissors
1 roll washi tape (or decorative seals/stickers)

Following I have step by step instructions with pictures. If watching a video works better for you, there's one at the very bottom of the post.

Start by folding the scrapbook paper in half from corner to corner to give you a good crease to cut on. If you prefer, you could draw a line with a straight edge from corner to corner...whatever suits you tickles me plum to death (name that movie quote!).

Cut the paper on the crease to give you two large triangles.

Place your invitation in the center of the triangle, giving you at least an inch on the bottom and some room above each top corner (see below).

Fold the bottom edge of the paper up over the invitation (don't fold the invitation, just the scrapbook paper).

Next, to make it easier, I turned the paper to the side. From there fold up the right side of the scrapbook paper, aligning the edges of your previous crease.

Fold the little triangle tail in to keep it tidy.

Next, fold over the left side of the scrapbook paper, just as you did with the right side.

Again, tidy up the corner by folding over the point.

This is the trickiest part to explain, but it's not hard to do. Here you want to tuck the two side flaps into each other using the bottom crease/pocket you made in the first fold. Clear as mud? If not, watch the video and you can see what I mean. This step keeps the sides held together without having to glue them.

See...all tucked in, nice and snug.

Fold the top down to form your flap, and your envelope is done! At this point I used a piece of washi tape to hold down the back flap.

The bottom is open technically, but with the first fold you made (folding the bottom of the paper up over the invitation), and by how snug all the folds are around the invitation, the invite is not going to fall out unless seriously tampered with. If you want to mail this, you will probably want to seal the bottom by running a small bead of glue between the two layers. Since we were hand delivering these, we just stuck with the washi tape and called it good.

There you have it! If you're not sure exactly what I meant in any of the steps above, you can watch the video below and hopefully that will help clear things up.