Random craft.

It's Memorial Day today. Yeah for long weekends.I've been working on the x-stitch pretty consistently (check out the updated slideshow a few posts down), but I did find the time to do a little craft I haven't done in years and years. Envelop making! I don't write nearly as many letters as I used to. I used to write tons. But for the few letters I do write, I still like to send them in fun envelops. Plain white is just so... plain. Coloured envelops are good. Pictured ones are better.

It all started when we had a ton of leftover paper from when my dad would bring my mom flowers. What are you supposed to do with that paper? I think I used it once as wrapping paper, but then one day I got this great idea that I could turn it into an envelop. After I made my first one I was hooked. I've made them out of tons of things. The flower paper, wrapping paper, newspaper, magazines, and calendars. So I got the idea to make some more this weekend when I was looking for something in my cupboard. I found a horse calendar. I have absolutely no idea how it got there. It's even a 2008 calendar, but I definitely didn't buy it. It's not the one I got for Christmas, since that is up at my desk at work. So the mystery of where this one came from remains. And since I wasn't going to use the calendar, I figured I should do something useful with it. Envelops. So, here's the general way that it goes. 

1) Rip open an old envelop that you can use as a pattern. (save this to reuse.)

2) Find the paper that you are going to make the envelops from. In this case, I ripped the calendar pages into individual sheets.

3) Decide what you want to have in the center of the envelop. Trace the pattern onto the paper so that you have the picture in the middle. 

Note: this can sometimes be tricky since the part you want is not in the middle. If that happens, then trace it like you would for the picture to be in the middle, even if the pattern goes off the edge. From the left over paper, trace what you need to complete the envelop.

4) Fold the paper into the envelop shape. Tape seams.

5) Marvel at your beautiful envelop. 

6) Write a letter to a friend so that they can marvel at your handy work.