I recently remembered that I have a crafty section on this blog and I could be sharing some of the things that I have been working on in 2009. There really isn’t much to share yet, well, besides what I am selling via Emma’s etsy shop to raise money for her friends who have fallen on hard times.

For those of you who were dithering because you don’t have a PayPal account, you can purchase the products with your credit card instead! Just follow the instructions — you will get to a page where you will be asked to pay via PayPayl or by credit card, and it’ll ask for your credit card information. Also, if you live in my city and want to purchase the items I made directly from me, we can do that, and I will send the amount you pay to Emma. If you’d like to go have a look at the lovely offerings there, the link to the shop is http://briar.etsy.com.

Early this year, I was inspired to make pretty envelopes for cards primarily. Because my brain is wired to find the most complicated solution to any conundrum, I decided to create an envelope from scratch, through a process of trial and error, to transform a sheet of 8.5 x 11 inch paper into an envelope. I could have taken apart an existing envelope and used it as a template for my patterned envelopes but that would have been too easy and my brain would have felt cheated of the pleasure of becoming frustrated and annoyed (though in this case I found the road to a successful prototype very fun).

I finally created a prototype that I’m satisfied with, and made a few envelopes using my own template, cut from a cereal box. I haven’t made the coordinating cards for any of these envelopes yet:

A main problem I have run into though is that these envelopes take some time to make, perhaps 10 minutes per envelope. The part that slows me down is the folding: making perfect creases that will ensure that everything meets up in nice, neat corners and looks professional. I use a straight edge and a bone folder but still find the process finicky and a bit inexact.

It turns out I’m not the only one who had this problem because Shannon found a brilliant gadget that will change my life (once I order and receive it): the Enveloper! If you don’t believe me, allow the woman on the web page to show you how it works by watching her video.

If it works as nicely and easily as the video implies, my job will be made so much easier! The contraption allows you to score fold lines so that the envelopes are easy to fold and assemble. It also comes with instructions to make a number of different sized envelopes, while I’d have to go back to the drawing board if I wanted to make a new size of envelope.

I actually went tolook into ordering it once and for all, only to discover that it doesn’t actually make envelopes that would fit the size of cards I make, probably because the product was developed in the UK and the paper sizes differ between here and there. It looks like I may have to start taking apart different sized envelopes and using them as templates after all.

Filed under: Crafty by jummy