Make Your Own Note Cards and Envelopes, Part 3

You’ve chosen your paper and you have all your tools together. Now you’re ready to make your note cards and envelopes! This post will be for the envelopes.

**Unfortunately, I’m missing my scorer (aka: hairstick) and had to improvise with a pen lid to score- and what do ya know! it worked just fine!) and please excuse my fingernail polish **

First, you’ll want to decide what size of note card set you want to make. It is important to have envelopes and note cards that fit together. An easy way to do this is to find an envelope you have already. Perhaps one that you received a birthday card in or a sweet little card from a friend or loved one. Depending on the size of paper you have chosen, you can make an envelope just like the one you received- but in whatever paper pattern you want!

I really like simple myself and to make this tutorial easier, I will use a basic envelope.

The envelope is about 5 3/4” wide and since my scrap book paper is 12x12, I will only be able to make one envelope per sheet. (I promise my math isn’t off- you’ll see ) In another part to this tutorial series, I will show you how to make smaller ones but it is based off of this basic envelope.

Gently, very carefully undo the envelope that you wish to use as a template.

The flaps on the sides of my template envelope make the actual size of the envelope that I will be cutting out of the scrap book paper larger than the 11 1/2” it would be if it were two envelopes side by side. Instead the width is almost 7 1/4” inches (too large for two envelopes from one sheet of 12x12 scrap book paper!)

On the paper you have chosen, trace the open envelope with the sharp pencil. With the paper I am using for this particular step, I cannot erase much because the eraser dulls the paper… I’ll just have to be very careful  

On the following steps the envelope that I use for illustration purposes is one of my smaller envelopes. They are 85% the size of the original envelope. The method is the same no matter what size envelope you are making!

Cut out either right on the trace line or a smidgen on the inside of the trace line (that way your envelope doesn’t have pencil marks).

Now you will score the envelope where the side flaps are and also the bottom and top flap of the envelope. It is difficult to show the score marks…I hope you can see them or at least tell what it is that I’m doing Here is when you use the bone-scorer. Using it at an angle and not too roughly, run it down the length of the ruler where it is on the paper. Clear as mud?

Fold the flaps of the side of the envelope in, lift the bottom flap up on top of those and finally bring the top flap down. Don’t press too hard when folding, it could crack the paper (which will cause it to tear and fall apart).

Does it sit right? Is it straight? One thing about these envelopes is that if you haven’t scored them in the right place, you can generally ‘scoot’ the flaps over, up or down to make them line up better without messing up your finished envelope.

Once it is the way you would like it to be, put glue on the inside bottom flaps, close to the edge and just to the top.

Fold the side flaps in and the bottom flap up and press for a few seconds. It doesn’t take long.

Voila! You have made an envelope that you can put your note card into.

Next up: Make note cards to go with your envelopes.