Envelope Tutorial - How to Make Card Envelopes

Personally, I don’t like the taste of the lick’n’stick kind of envelopes.  If I have to use them, I run water over my finger and then run my finger over the envelope glue.  If I’m doing a lot of them (like at Christmas), then I wet a Q-Tip and use that!  Office supply stores offer water bottles with sponges on the top and other places (like my post office) have a wheel that turns in a mini vat of water.

My dislike of envelope glue is what has driven me to make invitation sized cards (4.25 x 5.5 inches).  I can go to Staples and buy a box of envelopes that are peel’n’seal.  Now, sometimes, I use envelopes that come from charities to which I donate.  I pick a few cards to keep and toss the rest in the recycling box and hoard the envelopes.  Then I cut cardstock to fit those dimensions.

Other times, I make my own envelopes.  I have tried many sizes.  Most sizes were fed to me.  There were instructions that came with my Scor Pal and my Enveloper paper scoring boards.  However, before I splurged on either of them, I used to make my own envelopes.  I prefer my own template over the Scor Pal and the Enveloper.  The Enveloper makes triangle flap closures and I prefer the rectangles.  As for the Scor Pal instructions, I like my side flaps a little wider than theirs.  Here are my dimensions for a standard invitation sized card:

 

Click for larger view.  PICTURE IS NOT TO SCALE!

• Start with a paper that is 7.75 inches wide by 10 inches long.
• With the 7.75 inch side at the top of your page, score down the 10 inch length at 1 inch in from either side of the 7.75 inch width.
• Now turn the paper so the 10 inch side is the top of the page.  Score down the 7.75 inch length of your page at 2.5 inches and 6.75 inches.
• Cut away the corners along their fold lines to create 1 inch wide flaps in the middle of your page.
• Use a corner rounder everywhere.
• The 2.5 inch flap is your finished envelope flap.
• The opposite side is the bottom of your envelope.  Fold in the side flaps and adhere the bottom of the envelope to the flaps.  (Make sure you only put glue along the edges of the bottom of the envelope and not on the flaps because the bottom is shorter than your side flaps.)
• Put double sided tape along the flap closure to create your own peel’n’seal mechanism!

Sometimes, I make bigger cards.  I try not to exceed 6 inches on any card’s dimensions so that I can always get at least two cards out of a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock.  Then I had to make an envelope to match.  Here are the envelope dimensions to hold a card that is 6 inches by 4.5 inches:

• Start with a paper that is 8.25 inches wide by 11 inches long.
• With the 8.25 inch side at the top of your page, score down the 11 inch length at 1 inch in from either side of the 8.25 inch width.
• Now turn the paper so the 11 inch side is the top of the page.  Score down the 8.25 inch length of your page at 3.5inches and 8.25 inches.
• Cut away the corners along their fold lines to create 1 inch wide flaps in the middle of your page.
• Use a corner rounder everywhere.
• The 2.75 inch flap is your finished envelope flap.
• The opposite side is the bottom of your envelope.  Fold in the side flaps and adhere the bottom of the envelope to the flaps.  (Make sure you only put glue along the edges of the bottom of the envelope and not on the flaps because the bottom is shorter than your side flaps.)
• Put double sided tape along the flap closure to create your own peel’n’seal mechanism!

Here is a picture of the comparative sizes of the Standard A2 (1/4 fold) card envelope to the larger one:

Now, I have also made a couple sizes of mini envelopes for my own use as thank-you notes.  It’s a fabulous way to use up scrap paper!  A super tiny envelope is 2 inches by 1.5 inches.  I generally put a single sided (i.e. not folded) note in these.  To make this envelope, here are the dimensions:

• Start with a paper that is 3 inches wide by 3.5 inches long.
• With the 3 inch side at the top of your page, score down the 3.5 inch length at 0.5 inches and at 2.5 inches.
• Now turn the paper so the 3.5 inch side is the top of the page.  Score down the 3 inch length of your page at 1.25 inches and 2.75 inches.
• Cut away the corners along their fold lines to create 0.5 inch wide flaps in the middle of your page.
• Use a corner rounder everywhere (if you have a tiny one).
• The 0.75 inch flap is your finished envelope flap.
• The opposite side is the bottom of your envelope.  Fold in the side flaps and adhere the bottom of the envelope to the flaps.  (Make sure you only put glue along the edges of the bottom of the envelope and not on the flaps because the bottom is shorter than your side flaps.)

 A little bit larger to hold mini folded notes is an envelope whose dimensions are 3 inches by 2.25 inches.  Here are the dimensions to use:

• Start with a paper that is 4 inches wide by 5 inches long.
• With the 4 inch side at the top of your page, score down the 5 inch length at 0.5 inches and at 3.5 inches.
• Now turn the paper so the 5 inch side is the top of the page.  Score down the 4 inch length of your page at 1 inch and 3.25 inches.
• Cut away the corners along their fold lines to create 0.5 inch wide flaps in the middle of your page.
• Use a corner rounder everywhere (if you have a tiny one).
• The 1 inch flap is your finished envelope flap.
• The opposite side is the bottom of your envelope.  Fold in the side flaps and adhere the bottom of the envelope to the flaps.  (Make sure you only put glue along the edges of the bottom of the envelope and not on the flaps because the bottom is shorter than your side flaps.)
• Put double sided tape along the flap closure to create your own peel’n’seal mechanism!

I hope this is helpful to some of you!  You can use almost any papers to make these envelopes now!  You can use scrapbook papers, old calendar pages, a good quality thick wrapping paper, or other papers you can find!  (I would avoid newsprint though, as the ink may rub off on the card inside.)

From OOOPS to TAH DAH! Valentine’s Day Card 2011

So, I got my butt in gear and made my husband’s Valentine’s Day card.  I still have to decide what to put on the inside, but I was very glad that I got it done.  I make cards whenever I can but most of the ones I make I do for listing in my shops.  I don’t often get to make for myself.  Figures, right after I finished this one I realized I have a little boy’s birthday card to make that is even earlier than Valentine’s Day!  Gotta get a move on!  I actually have three male birthdays in February for which I should be making cards right now.  Boy, if shopping for men is hard, crafting for men is too!

I have long since realized that artful projects for men are difficult.  I’ve said before that scrapbooking papers take their cues from the fashion industry and that statement holds true for the relationship of men’s fashion choices to women’s.  There are A LOT more products geared towards women.

Lucky for me, I have a tonne of papers for our wedding album.  Since I am making slooooow progress at those scrapbook pages, I occasionally raid the papers for other projects.  This project actually started out as a scrapbook page for my wedding album.  However, once I cut the scalloped edges, I felt they were too small for my page.  I was a little disappointed because it’s a lovely paper and I only had the one sheet.  I had cut two mats (for facing pages) and now it was ruined.  OOOOPS – sigh.

Or was it?  The smaller scallops suit a card very well because the card is small.  So, I repurposed the lovely paper and trimmed it down for my hubby’s card.  I tied a knot instead of a bow because knots are more manly.  Plus too, I felt a knot was appropriate as a little “love knot”.  TAH DAH!

A little birdy told me I might have a bridal shower to attend this winter, so I made a second one for that.  It’s a perfectly gender neutral card!  The stamp image is from Hot Off The Press.  It’s a small, very affordable set and I fell in love with it when I saw it.  In my view, trees can be seen as masculine (for their strength and rigid steadfastness) or feminine (for bearing fruit).  I knew I wanted to use this love tree stamp for my male-oriented love cards.

I like the design.  I based it on a sketch but the stamp was too big for the sketch, so I altered the design to accommodate it.  Now I can play around with the colours of the paper, the card base and the stamp ink to make variations!

Oh yes, I have plans for this card.

Boys and their Toys (plus a scrapbook page)

So, I'm trying to do some scrapbooking to get through my stockpile of photos.  My desire to take photos diminishes as my backlog grows.  This task requires me to pick and choose the photos I want to develop.  I wanted to share a couple from our holiday battle royales.

My husband, Ryan, always plays with our nephews.  Our nephew, David, is a big Star Wars fan.  Ryan found some light sabers and they often duel.  Our other nephew, Connor, likes Transformers which is a little more gun-based.  At his birthday this past year, there was a water gun battle and both boys really loved it.  So, for Christmas, my husband bought what felt like a whole armory of Nerf guns for the boys and one for himself so he could play with them.  (Isn't it the BEST uncle who not only buys toys the boys will obsess over but who always spends the time to occupy them with those toys instead of leaving he parents to drown in requests to play?)

Not only did he buy the guns, but he wrapped them himself too.  While he was wrapping, he realized the boys have multiple clips totalling 60 darts.  His Nerf gun had only one 25-round clip (of which he did buy two).  He decided the ammo discrepancy was not going to be pretty if two nephews were unloading 60 rounds into him each!  So, he went and got himself a different Nerf gun, which allowed another body to join in the game.

We met with his side of the family first for the holidays, so David got his present first.

He thoroughly enjoyed firing darts back and forth with Uncle Ryan.  His dad and I scrambled to keep the clips filled - chasing darts all over.  Even Poppa was helping to keep the clips loaded.  Once, Uncle Ryan exclaimed "You're out [of darts]!" and David immediately shouted, "Load me up, Dad!"  It sure doesn't take them long to grasp the concepts of weaponry.

A few days later, we met with my family and gave them advanced notice not to come unarmed!

Connor loved the Nerf gun.  His dad, back left, used Ryan's first gun.  Uncle Mike, back right, brought a dart gun with him and Uncle Ryan, in the front, has the same Nerf gun model as Connor.

David's dad, who had to work for the day and could not accompany his family to an out-of-town family function, was invited to dinner.  Ryan persuaded him to "borrow" David's Nerf gun too.  There was a LOT of darts flying around. Here's a picture of the "reload" break.

LOTS of darts.  Connor's baby brother, Callum, who has just started to crawl, was fascinated by the flying darts and kept crawling towards them to snag the ones that landed.  He just wanted to play too, but I'm afraid he's quite a bit smaller than the Nerf guns!

Of course I have to include the third nephew in this post, so here is the most recent scrapbook page I did for his baby book.  This is the most awesome picture I've seen.  It could have come straight from a magazine!  The most amazing part?  It was taken in a grocery store!  Yes, the photo lab at Fortinos (which is the top of the line grocery chain for Loblaws, one of the largest grocery chains in our area) took this photograph.

Who needs props when you've got Daddy's Hands?!

My first blog award!

I have been honoured with a blog award - actually two!  Aquariann, a fantasy art shop on Etsy, passed the Stylish blogger aware and Versatile blogger awards on to me.

A a gracious recipient, I am to:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded me these awards

2. Share 7 things about myself

3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

(Do I even follow 15 blogs?  Guess we'll find out)

I found Aqariann's blog on Etsy.  It might have been in a post calling out to various zodiac signs for interviews.  I can't quite recall, but I'm glad I happened upon her.  Her avatar (one of her own pieces) has such an engaging gaze!  I always spot it in the forums.  Her blog feels like snippets of myself!  We share very much of the same interests.  I like lurking around her blog.  Thanks for these awards, Aquariann!

Now to set about my tasks!  Facts about me:

1. Western Zodiac: Pisces.  I married a Scorpio.  We are both water signs and our signs are compatible.
2. Eastern Zodiac: Horse.  I married a Tiger.  Our signs are compatible.  Surely this is good fortune that we are compatible under BOTH zodiacs!!
3. Favourite colour: blue - must be something to do with the water sign?
4. I love languages and writing.  I wanted to be a translator, but I knew my job would be replaced by machines before I would be ready to retire.  So, I became a Chartered Accountant instead.
5. I can probably count the things that I can cook on one hand.  I think I would starve if not for my husband.
6. I have casually played MMORPG's since university.
7. I have three recurring dreams: two are just strangely disturbing or uncomfortable and one is a night terror.  I've never had the night terror when sleeping with company.  (I shared a bed and then separate beds but shared a room with my sister until the beginning of highschool and now I have hubby!)  I've only had the night terror 4 or 5 times in my lifetime.  Thank-goodness it isn't frequent!

Alright and 15 blogs:
1. Digital Artist Diane Carubia from Di's Digital Downloads.  She frequently posts new drawings and I just love looking at them.  I have a few that I need to try out.  (I'm still hesitant with stamping and digital stamping.)
2. Digital Artist Mo Manning.  I LOVE the flow of this art.  Plus I LOVE that it is multicultural - the same person is published with many hairstyles so that we can celebrate all kinds of people.
3. Nun-of-a-Kind.  Linda has just a fun sense of humour.  It's always uplifting to read about the Sisterhood!
4. Felicity Lingle.  Felicity has a wonderful down to earth point of view without being boring in the least!  I could learn a lot.
5. Quilly Nilly.  Tracey puts a punch of colour in every design.  Her art is very happy to look at.  Being a glass-half-empty kinda gal myself, new posts on her blog always lift my spirits.
6. Jodi Kutz Stampin' Up!  This is my cousins' wife.  Never a dull moment in their house with two children zipping around.  She always weaves a story in with her art.
7. Indie CEO.  Linda offers sage advice and always trying to motivate us entrepreneurs!
8. Embellish Magazine.  The design team for their challenges is awe-inspiring.  I enjoy scrolling through their projects.
9. Etsy for Animals.  The team's treasuries get posted here with items for sale on Etsy that support animal causes.  There are also articles on different animal topics - like care for different kinds of animals.
10.  Tracy's Treasures.  Tracy found me first.  After a while, I realized she is on Two Peas in a Bucket which is the scrapbooking forum I haunt from time to time.  Her blog is the perfect mix of paper crafting, life and food.  It's a great variety with a good story teller fashion.  I imagine Tracy as someone you would hang around at a party with 10 other people enraptured in her tales of life.

That's it.  I'm out of blogs!  Sorry I can't make it to 15.

There's a New Fairy in Town!

I did it.  I drew.

So, I had my banners done by graphic artists.  I do love my blue fairy and the wee ones that inspect my cards like fairy quality control.  However, the font has always bothered me a little and the blue is EVERYwhere instead of just on the fairy.  Okay, to be honest I just get bored of designs from time to time!  So, it was time for a change.

I got in on a sale on Etsy by WinchesterLambourne.  It was an incredibly good deal and Winchester ended up flooded with orders.  So, I had to wait a wee bit but it was no big deal.  It wasn't holding up any launch or promotion.  Once I made my way up the queue, then I got super fast, felt like to-the-minute service!

I chose a stock background design and I decided to keep it simple.  Clean and simple is my style and my selling point.  Clean and simple is easy to mail, hands down.  There were lots of digital fairies available, many of which were breathtaking, but few of which suited what I wanted.  So, I took pencil to paper and made a simple line drawing of a fairy.

She is now nestled in my Etsy Shop Banner with a fancy title, courtesy of Winchester!

Digital stamps is something I've been meaning to investigate further.  I am not very quick at picking up all this techy stuff though.  I spent 3 hours digitally "touching up" the scan of my hand drawn art.  3 hours for something I took half an hour to draw!  Digital stamp work is not something I'm going to go headlong in to.  I will continue to toy with it, as I have been toying with it for 2 years now.

As part of my order, I also received an avatar sized snippet of the shop banner background so that I could tinker with an avatar.  Here's what I came up with after 2 hours today.  It is actually version 5 of 7 attempts.

Do you like it?  I like it.  The question is... how long will I like it for?  Hee hee.

The Power of the Written Word

I wanted to share a blog post I found.  I normally don't just follow random blogs.  I generally only follow the blogs I actually have an interest in.  This one was a random exception though.  I ended up following this person from people posting their blogs on Etsy.  Every now and then I check out the posts.  This one struck me: The Mother Load.

I didn't know until this post that this blogger and artist is deaf.  Her post about the power of the written word is inspiring.  She has pen pals from all over the place and it has filled her with culture and perspective.  I feel ignorant by comparison!  Yet, there are many things I can enjoy that she cannot that I take for granted on a daily basis.

Felicity writes of a mountainous pile of mismatched packages: "Dear Penpals, This is every piece of mail I received in 2010. You know I'm deaf. I can't chat with people over coffee. I can't call people on the phone to discuss banal minutiae. I can't go to the movies or watch TV or discuss popular culture."

I'm afraid the written word is a dying art.  Time comes at such a premium these days, hence the rise of email and texting, and twitter and all other forms of e-spam.  We inundate ourselves with to-the-moment information but what we gain in quantity, we lose in quality.

If you take the time to sit down and put pen to paper for one person and one person only, that means something to them.  Plus, going to the post office is also a sign of that extra nugget of effort.  Emails and mass mail letters are not nearly as special as a letter from me to you.  Yes, you and you alone.  Wouldn't that make you feel special?

The Jim Henson movie, the Dark Crystal, said it perfectly.  Two characters come across symbols carved in a rock.  One says that he knows what it is: it's writing.  The other asks what writing is.  He replies, "Words that stay."

Not long after my mother died when I was cleaning out her apartment, I found some notes of hers in binders - mostly her keeping track of things like car repairs and bill payments and other ordinary things.  I instantly recognized the shape of her letters.  They resemble my grandmother's handwriting and all of my mother's sisters have their own spin on it but Grandma's handwriting is still recognizable as the original matriarch.  I examined the paper.  I could feel the stroke impressions in the back of the paper.  It was so tangible.  It was a tiny, everyday piece of her left behind for me to see and touch.  Words that stay, indeed.

Go ahead.  Read Felicity's blog post.  You will smile.