Beautiful envelope liners seem to be cropping up everywhere at the moment and I can definitely see why. If you’re anything like me and love print and pattern, they provide the perfect opportunity to compliment your cards, letters or invitations. They are perfect for extra special party or wedding invitations. In fact, I received a beautiful wedding invitation last week which contained an envelope liner. It created a very large smile and just felt so much more interesting and personalised than using plain envelopes.

I’ve created a tutorial for you, which I hope will be very useful if you have any special mail to send within the coming months. It’s one of those tutorials which is very simple, yet extremely effective which is always a bonus for me.

You’ll Need:

An envelope in any shape or size

Paper of your choice

Ruler

Scissors

Glue or double sided selotape

Pencil

Eraser

Blue Tack

Method:

Step 1

Place your envelope on top of the paper you have chosen and draw around it using a pencil.

Step 2

Take your scissors and cut out your template. One finished with the scissors, use an eraser to remove any pencil marks. Slip the liner into the envelope to assess whether you are happy with the shape. You will notice that the liner is covering the adhesive part of the envelope, which we do not want. This is where the next stage comes in handy.

Step 3

Take the liner and position the top of it directly underneath the adhesive seal, ensuring it’s in line with all sides of the envelope. You’ll need to turn the envelope over, so you can use some blue tack at this stage to temporarily keep it in place. You’ll notice the excess paper at the bottom of the envelope. This needs to be trimmed off. Take your ruler, measure the excess and make yourself a straight cutting line. If you’re unsure about the measurement, just cut small amounts of paper off at a time and continue to place it into the envelope to check the size. Erase any pencil marks and remove the blue tack.

Step 4

Once you’ve trimmed the excess paper off from the bottom of the liner, place the liner into the envelope and position it. It should look like this. If you’re making a lot of envelope liners, then I would suggest making a template out of plain paper at this stage, which you can use for the rest.

Step 5

Keeping the liner secure, fold the envelope over as if you are sealing it (but don’t). You can use a ruler to score it at this point. Your liner should now have a sharp fold. Take your glue stick (or double sided selotape) and glue the envelope as shown above. Position the top of the envelope liner over the glue and it should all match up nicely. Rub your hands over the paper and fold the envelope over and back again just to make sure everything stays where it should.

Voila! You have yourself a beautifully patterned envelope liner. Don’t feel like you have to use the same paper either, you can experiment with different pattern and colour combinations and go wild! You may have seen my earlier post on illustrated stationery? If so, these envelopes are made for this kind of thing. At present, I have a small range of illustrated cards and I’m really considering offering custom designed printed envelope liners as an extra option. How amazing would that be?

Do let me know if you decide to get creative and use my tutorial. I would love to know! Do you have any special mail that you’ll be sending within the coming months? If so, have fun and I hope you enjoyed reading.

A polite reminder: This tutorial is for personal use only and should not be reproduced or sold. ©Paper Doily Party Shop