As many brides know, lining your envelopes is a great way to spice up your invitations. It truly is the "icing on the cake" of invitations, and they look so cute!
Generally if you were to buy envelope liners, they range in price from $.50 - $1.00 each depending on whether the artist/distributor you are buying them from is making your invitations as well or if you are buying them separate. Depending on the amount of invitations... some brides could be spending from $50 to $100 dollars on liners alone. As a bride on a budget, I knew that wasn't going to be the case for me! And here I'll show you how to do it yourself! It's easy and cheap!
Materials:
- All of your envelopes
- A scrap piece of thin cardboard (think cereal box or thick magazine cover)
- Pretty paper to line the envelopes
- Scissors
- Glue runner (this stuff is amazing!)
For paper I would suggest a complimentary color to your envelopes in either a simple print or solid color. It doesn't need to be too elaborate, just enough to 'pop!' when the envelope is opened. The paper needs to be relatively thin, because it needs to fold easily with the envelope and not obstruct it from staying closed. I would suggest looking for bulk colored printer paper (it's thin enough and inexpensive) or hunt down paper from bulk/discount scrapbook stores!
For the ultimate scavenger, you can try and find your paper for free, using recycled or other sources! For paper, I used recycled AAA maps of northern california. It is the perfect thickness, and it tied in so nicely with our outdoorsy theme and colors. Best of all, they were free!As soon as you have all your materials ready, it's time to start tracing and cutting your liners. The easiest and most efficient way to trace the liners out of your paper is to create a durable stencil that you can reuse. While they sell envelope liner stencils in most craft stores, it's simple (and free!) to make your own.
Creating the Stencil:
To create your stencil, You must take an envelope, open it with the flap up, and with pencil trace the entire envelope onto the cardboard. Cut this piece out. Now we need to cut the stencil so that it will fit inside the envelope. To do this place the top rounded portion of the stencil, just underneath the glue line of the envelope flap. You will see that the curves of the stencil match the glue lines all the way down to the fold. Note where the rectangular part of the envelope begins, and make a vertical line on your stencil a half an inch in from the edge of the envelope on both sides. Cut these strips off. Lastly, you need to measure and cut the bottom edge. Place the top of the stencil, again, beneath the edge of the glue line on the flap. Bend the bottom of the stencil up so that you can see how deep the liner needs to go. It only needs to go down as far as you can see the inside of the envelope. Mark a half inch below this spot, and draw a horizontal line on the stencil, and cut at this line. Now you have your stencil! It should be able to slide into the envelope now and if you place the top of the stencil underneath the glue line of the flap, it should not be covering any other part of the glue on the envelope.
Tracing and Cutting the Liners:
Take the liner and place it on your paper. Line it up with the edge of your paper, and alternate the direction of your stencil to get the most tracings onto a page. Then cut them out!
Gluing and Placing the Liners:
Use the glue runner, and line all edges of the liner. Carefully place the liner inside the envelope, making sure that the top rounded portion is underneath the envelopes glue line at all points (so that you can close the envelope later!) I have found that the easiest way to place the liner is to line up the top portion first, and smooth out the entire "flap" portion of the liner. Then carefully pull the rectangular portion of the envelope open a bit and tuck the corners into the envelope. After it has been smoothed out, you can give it a quick fold to crease the liner, and then set it aside to dry!
Find a friend to help you out and let me know how your project goes!
You can definitely comment any questions, tips or tricks below! (you don't even need to have an account to comment!)
Enjoy!
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