Upcycled Envelopes

Things have been pretty quiet around the blog since I've been working on trying to get more items listed in my Etsy shop.  I'm trying to expand on my existing categories so I have more items that are similar and have been focusing mostly on adding more Scrabble items and more Upcycled Envelopes from used books.  I have a fun new Scrabble project I've been working on that I'll share after I finish it (I need to find one more specific item to finish it up).  The past few days I have been focusing on making some new envelopes by using my Martha Stewart Scoring board:

I seriously love this thing.  It's easier and quicker for me to use than tracing a template because I can cut the paper to size, score it, cut the corners, fold it, glue it, and I'm done.  I also love that I can use it to make a nice clean fold line instead of having to score the paper with an Xacto knife and worrying about cutting too deep and cutting the paper in half.  I have gotten so much use out of this, especially after using it to hand make all of my wedding invitation envelopes and using it to fold my homemade wedding invitations in half.  The best part of hand making my wedding invitation envelopes was that I could print the address directly on the 8.5" x 11" paper (blue paper to match my wedding colors) instead of having to hand write each address or use labels.

But back to my more recent envelope activity:

I found a Taylor Swift Fearless Sheet Music song book for Piano, Vocal, and Guitar at the thrift store that I thought would make great envelopes!  The song book includes the following songs: Fearless, Fifteen, Love Story, Hey Stephen, White Horse, You Belong With Me, Breathe, Tell Me Why, You're Not Sorry, The Way I Loved You, Forever & Always, The Best Day, and Change.  Not only are these great for any Taylor Swift fan, but a lot of her songs are love songs so a lot of the lyrics on the envelopes have sweet little lyrics and would be awesome for love notes, a Valentine's Day card, or anniversary card.

Thanks to the large size pages in the book, I was able to make the same size envelopes that I used for my wedding invitations, which fit an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper folded in half perfectly with a little extra wiggle room for adding embellishments to the card.  

To make these envelopes, I trimmed all of the pages to 8.5" x 8.5" squares.  Hang on to the little extra bit that still has music on it; you don't want to throw this away and waste paper!

Fold according to the directions on the Martha Stewart Scoring Board by using the 45 degree piece (at 3" and 3-5/8"), trim the little corners off using scissors, then fold at the score lines.

What I love using to fold is a bone folder.  If you haven't used a bone folder before, it is awesome because it helps you get the nice crisp folds and creases.  It helps so you don't have to use your fingernails and it makes a nice clean line.  I found mine at the craft store after much searching and odd looks from the employees that have never heard of such a thing, but here's one on Amazon that is just like the one I used for making these envelopes and all of my wedding invitations and envelopes:

After folding at the score lines, close the bottom flap to the sides by using either double-stick tape or a glue stick.  I just used a plain 'ol inexpensive Avery Permanent Glue Stick (the kind your kids probably have laying around) and it worked great.  To close the top part of the envelope, you can use the same glue stick, a wax seal (would look awesome!), double-stick tape, a sticker, or really anything you want.

The finished envelopes are about 4.75" x 6" on the outside.  I like that the scoring board makes the music at a 45 degree angle to the envelope so it's not running from left to right on the page.  I think it makes the envelopes look more fun and adds more variety and interest to the envelopes.  Let me know if you make some of your own sheet music envelopes, I would love to see them!  Want to buy these Taylor Swift music envelopes?  I have 40 available in my Etsy shop, in listings of 10 envelopes per listing.  I made 49 total out of the one song book, so I'm keeping 9 for myself so I can send some fun letters!  I'm pretty sure you can send these through the mail due to what I've read online, but I'm going to have to try it out for myself before I can say for sure.

With the leftover parts of the paper, I created some 1-1/2" scalloped circle punched confetti.  I hate wasting paper, especially something that I know could be used by someone else, and I think these would look amazing at a wedding for part of table decor, or to make into gift tags, or really anything that is music-related.  I listed them in my Etsy shop since I don't have a use for them, so I'm hoping they find a new home with someone that has a fun plan for them!

I also created some upcycled envelopes out of a book of Disney's The Little Mermaid.  When I was little, The Little Mermaid was my all-time favorite movie (probably because I'm a redhead).  I had fun looking through the book again since it's been so long since I've watched the movie.

I made these the same as the directions above, using my scoring board, except I used smaller paper since the book was smaller.  I started with pages of the book cut down to 5.5" x 5.5" and scored at the 2" and 2.5" marks using the 45 degree insert (not sure of the technical term, but the piece that came with the scoring board).  

These are so fun and I really want to keep them for myself!!  The envelopes are 2.75" x 3.75" measured on the outside, so they are probably a little too small for sending through the mail, but they would make cute envelopes to add notes to or Valentine's.  

I was able to make 22 envelopes out of the book I used and I'm selling them in sets of 10 in my Etsy shop.  I wasn't paying close enough attention when I was making two of the envelopes because they are somehow about 1/8" larger than the others, so I'll probably be keeping those two for myself!  I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I'm excited for the possibilities.

I also made some 1.5" scalloped confetti punches for these, but a lot of the confetti was wording from the book.  I like that it has snippets of the book so you can read a few words here and there and a few character faces and some colors from the book from abstract shapes.

I have a few more Disney books that I'm going to use to make envelopes and confetti, but I probably won't write yet another upcycled envelope post, so if you want to see what I've been up to with my envelope designs, pop in to my Etsy shop once in a while and see the unique new designs I'm working on!  

Have you used this scoring board?  Have you ever made anything except for envelopes and folded cards? I would love to find new ways to use the Martha Stewart Scoring Board so I can make fun new projects!

I'm linking up my Little Mermaid envelopes here: Alderberry Hill, The DIY Dreamer, 504 Main, Petals to Picots, Be Different Act Normal