A Pocketful of Licorice: homemade envelopes

Today, I spent some time on this little project.

I'm really glad I thought of it for two reasons: First, I've been making a real effort to use up some of my paper scraps lately because my scrap paper drawer is sort of overflowing. I cut paper up a lot, and sometimes I end up with nearly an entire sheet of paper with just a tiny strip or piece cut out of it. So I used up a big stack of them today. And second, I love hidden journaling but I'm running a little low on pockets to stuff it in.

I took one of the few envelopes I have left in my stash and used it as a guide to make a template. I traced the top flap, then sort of improvised on the rest. It's not perfect, but it's close enough.

Then I dug out a bunch of those really big scraps and traced my template onto all of them. I tried to trace on the side I didn't want to show as much as possible.

And cut them all out. This took a while, but it wasn't too bad. I think I cut out 19 of them in all. Once they were cut out, I gently erased any pencil marks that showed on the side I wanted to use.

Then I just folded in the sides, put a strip of glue (from a glue stick) down the inside edge of the outer flap, and glued the sides in place. And finally, I folded up the bottom flap and glued it. Once the envelopes were glued, I clamped the bottom seam down with a binder clamp to hold it in place for a few minutes while the glue dried.

And here's what they look like all finished. So pretty it kind of makes me want to write a letter!

I think I'll make a smaller version of the template so I can use some smaller scraps and have an assortment of envelope sizes. Now I have plenty of pockets for stuffing my journaling in!