Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Pushing the Envelope

As a die-hard paper crafter, I love making any sort of project creating envelopes and pockets.  I have made them from sheets of music, maps, book pages, scrapbook paper, calendars, catalog and magazine pages, duct tape, and pretty much any other kind of paper and paper-like material I can get my hands on.  Imagine my pleasure at finding a project that used a material I had not yet considered. 

Back in June, Chris (Parabolic Muse) posted a project where she created envelopes from two pieces of waxed paper that she ironed together, trapping confetti between the sheets.  She used decorative packing tape to close up the sides.  I have had the project bookmarked for months, and was pleased to finally give it a try.
I wouldn't call my first attempts a 100% success, but I like the results enough to give it another try, making improvements based on what I learned. 
I used blue scrapbooking paper and a snowflake and swirl punch to create my confetti.  I think that Chris's shiny bright confetti was a little more effective in showing through the wax paper.  I also think I need to iron my two sheets of wax paper a little longer to better laminate the two pages together.  My confetti slides around a little more than I would like, and tends to clump in one area.  Finally, I used decorative tape rather than decorative packing tape, and I don't think it sticks as effectively.  That's a lot of lessons learned, isn't it?
The translucent wax paper makes an exciting addition to your mail box, though, don't you think?  I can just imagine all the postal employees taking a second look to see if they can peek at what's inside!
In addition to the wax paper envelopes, I have been using stitched paper (my favorite!) to create some pretty Christmas envelopes.
Happy holiday envelope-making to you!

9 comments:

Caatje said...

These look nice! They remind me of a stash of vellum that I still have somewhere. I might it use to make some envelopes out of, maybe with stamps on them or something. Might look nice too, I love this effect of pieces in between two layers though.

Curious said...

WOW! they're so nice! Very original :D

scrapwordsmom said...

There is a surprise for you on my blog:)

Cappuccinoandartjournal.blogspot.com said...

I love the Christmas stitched envelopes -- beautiful!

lee said...

wow they are great, and what a good idea, i am going to give them a try

iHanna said...

Great looking envelopes Andria!

Parabolic Muse said...

Andria, thank you so much for sharing my post with people. I had so much fun making these envelopes. I think a whole day of making them with different confetti and different sizes, would be a day well spent! I love the idea of having them ready to go for any use!

I must get more decorative tape, too. Yours look so much neater than mine did!

alexandra s.m. said...

I love your envelopes Andria!
so much inspiration!
Thank You and thanks for your email ;-))

aprilmariecole.blogspot.com said...

These look wonderful, Andria!
Wax paper envelopes, who would of thought... :]
Very inspiring!!
I will have to play around with this idea, in the future, thanks for sharing ~xx