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!