Tutorial: Do-it-yourself lined envelopes.

Between the holidays and wedding plans, we have been hopping.  Since some of Superman's family will be coming from out of state, and will need to make travel arrangements, we decided to send out Save the Date cards.  Ri designed them using Shutterfly.  I kind of wish I posted head shots because they are very cute.

But I digress.  This post is about adding a personal touch to cards, invitations, etc., by linging them with pretty paper.  I saw this idea in a magazine I was looking through recently, and Ri and I decided to try it for her Save the Date cards.  It turned out so well, we might do it for her invitations too, which she also designed through Shutterfly, using a picture she took of one of our sunflowers last summer.  BTW - sunflowers are her favorite flower, and will be the primary flower in her wedding.

All you need is your envelope, a glue stick, scissors, and some pretty paper.

We designed our own paper using some of the gimp brushes Ri has downloaded to our computer for blog designing, but you could copy any pretty pattern.  I've even photocopied fabric to get a design I liked on paper.  A couple of things to keep in mind:  One - I don't know about all copiers, but mine doesn't always copy true to color, so when that happens, we scan it into the computer and then print directly from the image in the computer - for some reason, that works better. And two - you need to use regular paper.  Most scrapbook paper, while pretty, is too thick.  One standard sheet of paper made two envelope liners for our 5 1/4" square cards. 

You have to lose one of the envelopes, so I hope you have extra.

Carefully take it apart along the seams.

There you go. 

Fold it out flat, and then call for one of your kids to bring the scissors you forgot.

Cut across the bottom, just inside the fold.  You are cutting off what was the back of the envelope.

Oh, and when you make that call for the kids, make sure you tell them to bring you a grown up pair of scissors.  The only criteria I gave was for a pair that was for cutting paper (you know, as opposed to my sewing scissors), and I definately could have used a bigger pair since I have rather large hands.

Now cut up the sides, again, just inside the fold.

This will allow for the pattern to be just a bit smaller than the envelope, making it easy to insert the lining later.

Finally, cut off the glue strip at the top.

Now you have a pattern you can use to cut your lining paper.

As you can see, I dispensed with the scissors and used one of my rotary cutters and some acrylic rulers for this part.  Don't worry, this cutter is specifically for paper and never touches fabric.

Cut out all your lining papers.

There you go - now you just have to slide one in the envelope,

and line it up with the bottom of the glue strip.

Fold back the paper and apply the glue.

Then press your lining into place.

After giving it a few minutes for the glue to start drying, go ahead and fold down the flap, pressing well along the edge to crease the lining paper.

And there you go.  From plain to pretty.

We choose the black on white because, as you can just catch a glimpse of, her Save the Dates are black with white, including the photos, and there are a few scrolls thrown in here and there.

  I love it when things coordinate.

Just for good measure, we decided to allow these to dry completely overnight before putting in the cards and addressing the envelopes.