DIY Invitations Part I: Envelope Liners

Our store bought invitation kits needed a little personalization before they were sent out. The all white envelopes that accompanied the kit were, how do you say, blah. They were boring, white, sterile, etc. and we wanted them to feel elegant, graphic, bold, fun, and a touch preppy. After searching the internet, crafting stores, and not so crafting stores high and low for the perfect paper I crumpled into a tantrum in the middle of HobbyLobby. My lovely finance casually suggested, "What about these?" (*hands paper to me*) and I was sold.

1. To start open your envelope and make a template. This took a couple tries. I used plain computer paper and held everything up to our sliding glass door so I could easily trace the "lick lines" (I'm not so sure that is the technical term for the adhesive bonding on envelopes but that's what I always called it).

2. Create a thicker template from your computer paper draft. I used one of those three tab folders that I had lying around.

3. Trace your template onto the liner paper. I used 12x12 pieces of scrap booking paper and was able to fit three tracings onto each page. My envelopes were 8.75 x 5.75 and came with a BRIDES invitation suite from Michaels.
4. Cut out liners using scissors. Although you could probably use a paper cutter for some of the cuts the majority of this pattern needed to be cut by hand.


5. Use adhesive to attach liners to envelopes. I tried all different adhesives including: Scotch Double Stick tape, hot glue, Scotch Wrinkle-Free Glue Stick, Elmer's School Glue Stick, and Ad tech Dot Glue Runner. Stay tuned for my adhesive review in a later post but the Scotch Wrinkle-Free Glue Stick worked the best for this project.

6. Use bone folder to crease paper. This was somewhat tricky because the paper did not want to fold at the envelope's crease but with a little finesse I was able to crease all the liners.

7. Enjoy all your hard work!!


Time: It took me about one full day to do 120 envelopes including tracing, cutting, and gluing.
Difficulty level: Easy
Cost: Envelopes (part of invitation suite)- Free
Liner paper- $0.59 per page x 40 = $23.60
Bone folder (already had)- $10
Scotch Wrinkle-Free Glue Stick- ~$3.00 for 2 sticks

Total per invitation: $0.30 (includes everything but envelopes)