Tag: envelope liners

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The Easy Guide to Stress-Free Invitation Envelope Assembly!

Giving envelopes the full VIP treatment can be quite the process! While it’s certainly a fun process, it can quickly turn into a chore when you’re forced to toss a fully stamped, addressed, and lined envelope because you goofed a letter in the return address. Womp, womp.

Even when you’ve been doing this as long as I have, occasional mistakes are bound to happen. To keep my stationery machine running smoothly and efficiently, I’ve got my envelope assembly process down to a science. Keep reading for all my tips and tricks on streamlining your envelope assembly process!

STEP 1: Guest Addresses

I like to start with the step that I’m most likely to make a mistake on – guest addresses. They’re all different, the names and streets are unfamiliar, and it’s easy to misspell something, get a line off center, or drop of a glob of ink on your envelope. Ugh.

Trust me, though. It’s SO much less painful to toss a half addressed envelope than it is to throw out a fully lined, stamped, and return addressed envelope. Do your guest addresses FIRST and get that hurdle out of the way before you move on to the easier stuff (and then you can double check those addresses at each step to be triple sure you’ve got them right!)

STEP 2: Return Addresses

Next up are the return addresses. These are all the same so it’s easier to get in a rhythm and you’re less likely to bugger one up. It’s also nice to make sure all the ink is dry and put away before you bust out your liners and gorgeous (and expensive) vintage postage. Trust me.

Now, there is an exception to this rule. If I’m digitally printing return addresses, I’ll do those FIRST. It’s so easy to print off an extra 3-5 return addressed envelopes in case I goof a guest address. So much easier than feeling my blood pressure go through the roof as my hand addressed envelopes journey through my printer. I mean, I’d honestly feel more comfortable putting my calligraphied envelopes in my second grader’s backpack than my printer…

STEP 3: Envelope Liners

I like to do my envelope liners after all the addressing is done (and double checked!). They’re relatively easy to assemble, and so as long as your tape gun doesn’t go rogue, you shouldn’t have to worry too much about messing up your lovingly addressed envelopes.

Liners are also pretty inexpensive, so if you do have to rip one out, it’s not the end of the world (or your budget). Just be sure your hands are clean for when you make your folds, and that you have a plan to get rid of any excess stickiness so you don’t end up with a massive glob of envelopes.

STEP 4: Stamps

Stamps are probably the priciest items of the envelope bunch, especially if you’ve gone the vintage route. This means you want them to be the very last thing to go on your envelopes.

At this point you’ve triple checked your addresses for correctness, so you shouldn’t have any OOPS moments (and if you do, head to my Instagram highlights to learn how to remove stamps). Again, make sure your hands are clean and lick and stick away!

And that’s how I batch out my envelope production processes! I hope this was helpful and saves you a few stamps, envelopes, and clumps of pulled out hair. Happy enveloping, friends!

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DIY ENVELOPE LINERS

Envelope liners are my favorite little bit of awesome to make an invitation POP! And the best part is that they are SO easy to do yourself!

I’ll walk you step-by-step through the process – let’s get this party started!

MATERIALS ROUND UP

You’ll Need:

scissors
pencil
ruler
double sided tape
sheet of paper or cardstock
envelope liner paper
envelope you’re lining
paper scorer*

*nice to have but not essential

PRO TIP: Head over to my Etsy shop for a huge selection of unique liners perfectly suited to any style or color scheme!

STEP 1: TRACE YOUR ENVELOPE

Place the envelope you’re lining in the corner of your cardstock and trace around the outside edges. Tracing it in the corner rather than the middle saves some paper and reduces the amount of touching between your envelope and pencil, in case you’re worried about keeping those envelopes pristine.

STEP 2: MEASURE YOUR ADHESIVE

Measure the thickness of the adhesive on your envelope flap. It’s probably between 0.25″ and 0.5″, but it depends on the envelope. This will help you figure out the right liner size so your liner fits inside the envelope and doesn’t cover up the adhesive. That would be awkward.

STEP 3: DRAW YOUR LINER

Go along the edges of your envelope outline, measuring inward the width of your adhesive, and making a small mark every few inches. Then use your ruler to connect the dots, creating an outline for your liner. If your envelope has any rounded corners, you can trace those onto your liner to get the curves to match.

STEP 4: CUT OUT YOUR LINER

Cut out the liner along the line you just traced. Ignore the original envelope tracing – we were just using that as a guide to make the liner!

STEP 5: TRACE THE LINER TEMPLATE ONTO YOUR LINER PAPER

If your liner paper design goes in a certain direction or doesn’t have a uniform pattern to it, you may want to play around with the leftover paper from your liner template to figure out what area you want to use for your liner. In this tutorial, I used a piece of alcohol ink art and wanted to make sure I had the most interesting areas showing in my liner before I started chopping it up.

Once you’ve figured out what area of the paper you want to use, trace the liner template onto it and cut out your liner!

PRO TIP: If your liner paper has a uniform pattern, or you just want to pick a random part of it, trace the liner on the back of the paper so no pencil lines show!

STEP 6: FOLD YOUR LINER

You’ll want to fold your liner before you insert it into the envelope so it doesn’t pucker or tear when you go to seal your envelope. Just slide your liner into the envelope printed side down, make sure it’s centered and lined up properly with the adhesive, then make a mark on the edge of the liner back where the envelope flap fold is on the left and right side. Then pull out the liner and make a crease across, using your two marks as a guide. This is where the scoring tool comes in super handy, but it’s not crucial. Just make sure you make a nice, tight crease with your fingernail or another smooth tool.

STEP 7: INSERT YOUR LINER

First you’ll want to put double-sided tape along the edges of the flap part of the liner, being careful to get as much of the point of the flap as you can so it doesn’t come unstuck when the envelope is opened. Unstuck liner flaps are like the skirt-tucked-into-your-underwear of the stationery world.

Slide the liner into your envelope and make sure it’s centered and the folds line up. Press the liner firmly into place onto the flap of the envelope, making sure the envelope adhesive isn’t covered. the bottom part of the liner that will go inside the envelope. We’ll leave the bottom part unstuck so it has some room to flex around the invitation.

STEP 8: PAT YOURSELF ON THE BACK!

Only 99 more to go…! You got this! Or you can pay me to do it for you…