Post Office Day& Envlope Tutorial

...yup... that's what today was...

Today I spent the entire morning  making envelopes, addressing them, stuffing them, then filling out customs forms.... sixteen of them to be exact. Then I went to the post office, where I handed them all over in order of weight/size to make it quicker... then one of her coworkers helped slap the sticky parts on while she input all the info and weighed them. 

Why so many? Well, I saved up all the giveaway stuff from October to do at once... plus there was one left over from September that didn't get me her info on time, and a couple from just this week that I slipped in there too.

Don't believe me?  Here's SOME of them...I actually did up four or five more after I took this picture.

The giant butterflies are photoshopped in to hide the addresses ;)

So Pam, Kristen, Tiffany, Jami, Kimberly, Marla, Gina, Zan, Rita, Susan, Jennifer, & Beti  .... your giveaway goodies are in that pile there. Along with two prizes for Marlene Cupo's Non-Blogger & Blogger challenge at BSC, a thank you to Marlene for starting it & hosting it, and one PIF.

So all of you I just named, watch for the butterflies in your mailbox... I didn't stick any notes in them to let you know what it is... I was lazy >.< lol So  butterflies = goodies from Skye ;)

AND... since I made all of those, I took pictures to give you a simple tutorial on how to snazz up your mail, or recycle those bubble envelopes :)

    First off, you'll need the following items :

Pretty paper - here I'm using butterfly giftwrap

tape

scissors

gluestick

envelope - I'm using a new one in this photo, but you can use an old one as well... trust me, several of the packages in that photo above are recycled bubble mailers.

  

Lay your envelope on top of the paper to measure how much you'll need. 

I cut a long strip to fold up from the bottom, leaving the top open.

Take your glue stick and run it around the outer edges on the BACK of the envelope first, then across the middle in an 'x' . I find this gives good coverage, but you can cover the entire envelop if you want.

No, my glue isn't pretty colors...I just photoshopped it to show where the glue is....if you look, you can see that the glue covers MORE than just the colored part.

Place glue side down on the paper, putting the edge of the flap at the edge of the paper. Smooth it down so it sticks firmly. 

Add glue to this side as well, stopping at the edge of the ENVELOPE .. do NOT glue the flap.

Add this point, if you want to, you can fold the side in to make a nice crisp edge. I didn't >.<

Your envelope should look like this. 

Trim the edge around the flap. Fold the sides of the paper in to fit the envelope.  IF you folded the edge inside in the last step, you'll only have the one layer to fold over, and it will be considerably neater. If you didn't (like me), you can trim one side to make it shorter, then fold the longer piece over top. 

I taped all the sides down for security, but if you feel your glue is strong enough, you could just glue them.

 So now all your paper edges are folded and secured, and you have a completely covered envelop. 

Write the addresses out on plain white paper and tape them in place - this lets the address stand out from the picture.

I COMPLETELY cover the address with tape to seal the ink to prevent it from smudging and becoming difficult to read.

You now stuff it with whatever  you're putting in it,  fold and stick the flap ( I tape it down as well... extra secure ;) )   And you've got a pretty package already to go!

If you're using a 'pre-used' envelope, leave about an inch of paper extra to act as the 'new' flap to seal your envelope when it's done :)

Easy Peasy :)  If you have spray adhesive, this would be even easier...I don't ;) I think I'd make waaaay too much of a mess with that.. but that's just me :)

So now you know, if you open your mailbox and see a pretty package with butterflies on it, it's from me :D

I also have rainbow paper with butterflies on it... I used up an entire roll of the blue and white paper today and went to buy more...but they were out >.< so I got the rainbow butterflies instead ;)

~ Skye