This coming Sunday, June 21, is Father’s Day! No matter how you choose to celebrate the day, a nice Father’s Day card is always a welcomed surprise. From funny to mushy, it is nice to remember your father, grandfather, father-in-law or any father figure with a lovely card during this annual event.

Father’s Day greeting cards are a great opportunity to let someone know how much they mean to you. Even if just a father figure, a heartfelt, handwritten message is a very personal expression of love sure to be treasured. Often these cards are displayed for weeks to come and may become keepsakes.
Don’t forget to honor your father this weekend!

You can have fun and easily make a very special envelope all by yourself. All it takes is a piece of paper, scissors and some glue along with your creative imagination!

Begin by finding a sample of the size envelope you want to make. Carefully pull it apart so that it becomes a flat template or pattern for your specially made envelope. Don’t worry if it doesn’t come apart perfectly. Next, find a colorful piece of paper that will become your new envelope. Wrapping paper, scrapbooking paper or even pages from magazines work well. Or, color your own piece of white paper with your own unique design. It is even more special if the design is on the front and the back of the piece of paper.

Now lay your pattern on top of your new piece of paper and trace around the edges. Cut along your traced line. Next, look at your pattern and mark the fold lines on your new piece. Fold the sides in and the bottom up, gluing the flap carefully so that you can still slide your card into the open envelope. Remember not to glue the top flap down until you have your contents inside!

Once you have made a few using a pattern, you will be ready to create envelopes for any size letters or greeting cards you wish! You can affix mailing address labels or leave blank spaces for addressing if you’re coloring your own paper. Experiment with different sizes, styles and paper and have fun using recycled materials to make earth friendly envelopes too!

Almost every day we receive envelopes in the mail that we don’t use and throw directly into the trash. They may come with bills that we pay online or in junk mail that we may not even open. Rather than discard these unused envelopes, here are some suggestions for re-use.

1. Use them to collect your grocery store coupons for your next trip to the store.

2. Write your shopping list on the outside of the envelope.

3. Organize your receipts by collecting them each month in recycled envelopes so you’ll have them easily accessible for comparison when your credit card bills arrive.

4. As mini file folders, you can label the envelope and collect magazine or newspaper clippings or photos inside. For example, keep an envelope for easy craft ideas, keeping the instructions inside.

5. Use envelopes as dividers and shoeboxes as file drawers. Label the envelope and put contents inside or between.

6. Keep recipe clippings organized. You can label the envelope so that appetizers are in one envelope, desserts in another, or keep all chicken recipes together at least until you have time to properly add them to your more formal filing system.

7. Envelopes make great dust or crumb collectors. Hold one under your next drilling project to collect the loose particles.

8. Many envelopes can be reused simply by marking out the pre-addressed information and putting a blank white sticker over the area or gluing a piece of white paper securely in place. Your postage stamp will cover the presorted mailing indicia.

9. Recycled envelopes make great bookmarks. Cut them to a slimmer size if you want to.

10. Use them as scratch paper. You can take it a step forward by trimming them to leave the adhesive on one edge so they end up being sticky notes.

You can always add them to the recycling bin but I’m sure we’d all like to hear any other ideas you might have for repurposing envelopes!

Before stuffing your business correspondence in any old envelope, stop and consider the possibilities these small presentations bring. Envelopes can do much more than just hold content, they can help promote your business and insure the important paperwork inside is actually read. Your printed return address is standard and for no additional cost, your business envelopes can be designed to draw maximum attention and stand out from the rest of the mail received that day!

To understand how to discuss cost savings with your envelope supplier, you first need to know how an envelope is constructed. For printed envelopes, flat sheets of paper are printed that contain several envelope shapes that are “nested” or positioned on the sheet so that they can be die cut out later. A remoistenable strip of gum adhesive is added in position as well. Once the envelope shape is cut out, the envelope is “converted”, meaning each envelope is folded and glued, leaving the remoistenable glue flap open. The parts of an envelope are:

Front or face. This is where the address and postage is displayed and normally, your return address.

Back. Opposite from the front, duh, this is where the flap of the envelope meets the body of the envelope when it is folded and sealed.

Flaps. These are the parts of the envelope that are folded in to hold the contents. Usually the side flaps are folded in first and then the bottom flap is folded up and glued in place. Once the contents are inside, the top flap is folded down and then sealed. The top flap comes in different styles—square, pointed, and sometimes with a tear-off section for remittance or a special offer.

Envelope Marketing Tip #1- If your business envelopes are printed with your return address you can add even more printed copy at no additional charge, if printed in the same ink color or colors. Perhaps you would like to add something special to call attention to an important offer inside or let the receiver know that the contents are time sensitive. Maybe you would like to include your website address on the envelope or just add a simple design element. If you are printing your return address anyway, be creative and use the blank areas on both sides of the envelope to promote your business and add interest to your mailings.

Did you know that an envelope can be just as important as what is inside it? We all know that envelopes can come in all sorts of sizes, colors and styles, but often the look of the envelope itself may influence whether or not the receiver even bothers to open it.

A hand addressed envelope is much more likely to be opened than one with a label or an automated address printed on it. An envelope with a postage stamp glued to it is also viewed as more important than one on which postage is printed on it by a postage meter.

In future blogs we will discuss the finer points of the envelope. Taken for granted, this piece of folded up and glued paper can be quite exciting! Tomorrow we’ll discuss ways to use envelopes that you may not have considered previously, so stay tuned!