Dingsi (das_dingsi) wrote in holiday_wishes, @ 2008-11-20 21:02:00 |
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*waves* As discussed earlier, I bring a generic holiday-themed... uh, tutorial thingy. (Also cross-posted to my personal journal.)
When I still did penpalships, I made my own envelopes from all kinds of papers I found interesting - magazine ads, fashion shoots, b/w copies from artbooks, anything that caught my eye. Advantages, obviously: 1. it's fun, 2. it's giving letters or cards a more personal note, 3. paper gets reused. And it's really easy.Step one: grab a piece of cardboard that doesn't tear easily, and use an already existing envelope to draw its outline on the cardboard, then cut it out. This is your template, you can move it over the paper to choose the part that would look best as the front of the envelope. Use a pencil (a biro works best in my experience) to draw its outline on the paper sheet, again with the help of the template. | |
Step two: fold the sides of the paper along the lines. Simply turn it around and roll the bottom of the paper upwards until you can see the biro line and use it as a reference point. (That's why biros work best, they are dark enough to be visible on light colours, and on dark colours the ink reflects the light a little, so you can still see the outlines and fold accordingly.) | |
Step three: cut off the parts in the corners, painted gray in the picture. It's helpful to cut them off slightly angular, just so you can be sure the sides won't get in the way later by going over the folded lines for the back and top parts. (If they do, the envelope won't close properly.) | |
Step four: keep the sides folded (we're still looking at the backside) and put some glue on them, marked by the yellow stripes in the drawing. Then fold one of the remaining parts and press it on the sticky sides, so you end up with an envelope that's closed on three sides. Don't use too much glue, or it will get smeared all over the inside of the envelope. Usually it's enough to put some on the rim and maybe write a glue "X" in the middle. (Glue sticks are different, they don't drip or run so you can use them deliberately.) Now, the only thing left is the fine-tuning - i.e. cutting off overlapping or superfluous parts. Depending on where you positioned the center of your piece, the parts making up the back side can vary in length. That's okay. As long as you have enough left to glue them together and have a strip broad enough to close the envelope, it doesn't really matter. The lines don't have to be super-straight, either - no recipient will immediately grab a ruler to measure if the angles are correct. So don't stress yourself too much, 'kay? |