Winter Theme Collage: Learn to Create Beautiful Envelope Art

1. Envelope Art Intro: Hi, friends. My name is Tammy, and thank you for joining me today. Today we are doing envelope art. If you have never received a piece of mail from a friend that had incredible art attached to the envelope, you're missing out because it is such a joy to receive this kind of art. I used to do this on my Christmas cards. I'd love to decorate doodle. And I have been challenged recently to make a winter themed envelope, and that's what I have for us today. We're going to do this together. Go ahead and collect all your scraps of papers and stickers and maybe even an inkpad. And let's make some envelope art. 2. Supplies and First Layer: What I have for us today is an envelope. It's just a plain white envelope, and we are going to decorate inside and outside. And I've collected a few things. I have some washy tape samples that are with winter themes. I have blue and snowflake. I have the glue stick that I really love the Elmers Craft bond. Find some stickers. I chose this because of the polar bears. I thought those would be fun. I like some vintage things on here. I'm trying to choose things with blue and white. I have some papers. I have something that kind of reminds me of snowflakes. I have some other snow paraphernalia, inkpad. And if you had a gel plate, use a gel plate, but I have a piece of glass and a spray bottle. You can use gel pens to decorate. I have some text. I have some miscellaneous vintage paper, but I also have this calendar page with a beautiful snow image. So these are some of the supplies. You grab what you have, get your plain envelope. I actually practice a bit with the ink and the glass, and this is what I came up with. I want to start there. I want to show you exactly how I did that. One of the biggest problems people face when they're starting with the right page is knowing what to do first or how to get over that white page problem. Have you ever felt stuck just looking at a white page, it kind of messes with your head a little bit. Now, you can get envelopes wet. It's okay. Yes, it'll take a second to dry. But that's what I want to remember. I love that I made the sample because it actually put ink on the side that that's where the name would go. I really want to remember to try to leave some space there. So I want to get a print on this side, touch and lift. Touch and lift. In fact, even do the back. Touch and lift. And we're just making a mess. And that is exactly my point. I want to make a mess and just to feel the freedom of being okay, getting messy, doing something new. That is all part of the process of doing something new. Alright. I'm done. I'm going to set that aside. And this will just take half a second to dry. Two things I was imagining when I was looking at my paper was doing an insert. Have you ever opened an envelope that had a really interesting piece inside the envelope? I was thinking maybe even doing this winter scene inside my envelope. If that sounds cool to you, I want to make that happen. So I think I actually am going to do this winter scene. It goes right up to that sunset. But I think I want that inside my envelope. So let's mark this and then get our cutter and trim that up. Have you ever seen my videos of making envelope art from paper, and you actually create your own envelope, it is so fun. In fact, save your calendar pages. They make really fun, ready to go envelopes. Just going to trim up my calendar page. Let's see here. That's right. Let's take it to the top. In fact, I want to double check. I don't need to go all the way up 'cause that's where my glue is. But I did kind of want to see that's pretty sunset. So, boy, things are just bouncing all over the table today, aren't they? Alright. We can always trim up later. M and then it was this wide. Alright. Right there. Here we go. Now, let's trim this up. Make sure my insert will fit inside my envelope. It's slightly wide. So I just want to trim that up with my scissors. In fact, I think I like that post. So let's just take it right here. I like that this is a very thin paper. It's not gonna add a lot of bulk or weight to my winter envelope. And here I'm just below the glue line. Let's practice folding. All right. And then we can trim the sides. I'm just gonna do this by hand. I'm not gonna make this too complicated. Yep, that fits right inside there. Now, what's great is these beautiful papers can work really nicely on the outside as well. Now, what's fun is all I need to do is really glue this top down. If at any point you feel like this looks like enough. Like, I love this look. Then you can leave it or you could doodle snowflakes or Snowman. I'm gonna keep going. I'm kind of excited for this project. 3. Collage Touches: In fact, maybe this tree. Oh. In fact, I think I will. Um, let's do some tearing. I don't know what it is about torn papers. That always looks so like you really are a paper crafting artist. Which is fine. It kind of takes the pressure off things. Being so perfect. They don't have to be at all. This is just you having fun. You experimenting. That's why I love doing collages. You're just going with the flow and Whoo, having fun. Sorry for shaking you up there. Now, what else do I have? I have my washi tape. I have Now, one of the things I really like to think about is having a focal point. We may or may not use all of these things. In fact, I'm really loving this vintage photograph. I found vintage photos that a Gosh, now I can't quite recall where I did see it. But look how it's it's just so easy to come together and put things in places and imagine a look. It's Oh, what if this was on the back? Yeah. We're just having fun with this. Fact, this I don't know. That just seems to work for me. I love that. And don't feel weird that your images might be thick or card stock. I've really never had an issue with getting my mail with things on it. You can always insert your envelope in a clear envelope if you were really worried about having the most perfect untouched Um, envelope. That's possible. Just get a clear envelope. Make your own. I made a clear envelope once. I used, um, what is that? I used have I'm using the warm hand press if you've watched any of my videos. Helps get that glue stick extra. Oh, what was my idea? I just lost my train of thought. Okay. I made with a page protector. And then I sewed around the outside to seal my package inside. That would protect this, but then you outside. Envelope that was sewn around the outside. Oh, my goodness. How cool is that? The only thing about mailing envelope art is you might need to check your postage. If your envelope does not feel flat, then yes, you may have an issue with it going through the postal system. This is especially in the US. And you have to add extra postage. So they call that non machinable. You might need postage for non machinable. If you want it hand canceled, look for that non machinable postage. This was such a fun idea to just stretch the imagination of what it is you might want to do. I'm looking for that itty bitty sticker. Here she is. Just because it was blue, I thought that was neat. I thought it made a cool addition. Are you getting a winter vibe on this? I sure hope so. Here, up, up. How about this corner? And then on the back, that's so cool. Alright. I'm just going to glue half because then when I put my contents in, I can glue down the other half. Love that look. And here's the inside of our envelope. That blue wintry Hey, we, like, covered that up a lot. If that bothers you, let's get a little bit more blue on there. I think I do. Touch. Yeah. In fact, I like that so much. I'm going to do some more on top of my images. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay. So here is my This is waxy, so it's gonna wipe right off anyway. Maybe. Is there a snowflake. Oh, look at that one. Okay. If you ever do a washi tape swap, That is how people like to do it. They put it on playing cards. Because of that waxy part on the playing cards. Yeah. This is fun, fun, fun, fun. Should I do another? I think I should, especially since I tore so badly. Here we go. Wow. This one's extra sticky. The only reason I put glue on my washi tape is because sometimes that washi tape peels up And it's nice to have that extra glue. Oh, my goodness. That looks great. Now, you're probably wondering, how am I supposed to do? An address. So let's think about this. Now, you're ready to put the address on the envelope. What if you had some little decals that you could put right on there? Now, if your handwriting is tiny, this would be a great solution. But if you need a bit more writing, just use a white piece of sticker, cut it to size, and then you can use that as your address label. And there you go. Now, I have generally written my return address on the back of the envelope instead of trying to write it on the front. But this is just one idea of having envelope art. Now, I love this idea so much that I wanted to just even decorate the paper of my label. You could do the ends. Make it bit of a border on there. There you go. And I can write the address. And there you go. 4. Wrap Up: And there you go. I hope you enjoy today's envelope art. We did a winter theme or we just took a plain envelope and went to town collaging. Inks and papers and stickers. So thank you for joining me. I hope you take up the challenge of creating some envelope art for yourself, share it for a holiday or a birthday special occasions. Thank you for joining me. My name is Tammy. I would love it if you would evaluate this video. Let me know if it met your expectations. Did you learn something new? I need that feedback to help me create more and more videos. Thank you for joining me. You all have a great day.