Now I am not one to say out loud that I am cheap and easy, but I love projects that are.
I was looking through some of my craft books trying to find an attractive way to make and send out some letters to my friends and family. They all looked a bit too involved for what I wanted to do at the moment so I pulled out some envelopes from my free envelope stash. These were for thank you cards or small note cards so they were an awkward size.
Stationary, office supply or paper stores sometimes have an abundance of orphaned envelopes they are dying to get rid of.
The envelopes were small and didn’t leave a lot of room for stapling or punching holes on the edges. I wanted to use the entire surface so I thought about it a little bit. I came up with this easy idea.
I put one flap inside another envelope and glued them. Like this.
Envelopes in love
together forever
Now I could work on the entire surface. The flap on the second envelope of course gets glued to the facing envelope.
glue both flaps
I put several of these together and stapled them on the “spine.”
6 envelopes
A long time ago I discovered this unusual stapler. What a wonderful little innovation for those of us who want to staple unconventional things. It’s called a Swivel – 2 by the Etona Company.
I made several books for future use, then got out my boxes of craft supplies and went to work writing and decorating.
I covered the spine with some material just because it looked nicer than naked staples. Viola. A finished, one-of-a-kind book you can send out made from orphaned envelopes.
finished project
At one point I pulled out my Box-O-Beads and made short strings of beads. I attach them to journals, letters, round tuits and the like.
Made these while watching TV
There you have it. A fun project for you and the kids when that boring old flat sheet of note paper just isn’t enough.
