Dog, Star, Moon, Cake Envelopes By Judi Kauffman for The Queen’s Ink

I had such a good time spending some of my Garage Sale store credit at The Queen’s Ink the other day. I took home four stamps and immediately whipped up a big batch of envelopes! I plan on using them for birthday cards, of course, but having a stamp that says ‘I hope this year is a piece of cake’ makes them equally appropriate for anniversary cards, UN-birthday cards, and sending good wishes to someone with a new job.

Stamping and coloring a batch of envelopes is fast, easy and fun, relaxing and yet engaging enough to feel creative, and affordable (envelopes cost only pennies and are meant to be tossed!).

Design Strategies:

Start with a dark color ink (I went for Espresso), stamp the images in a variety of combinations (variety is the spice of life, after all), and then get out your favorite markers, pens, colored pencils and color as much or as little as you choose. I don’t recommend watercolors for envelopes because the paper is so thin, but there are no rules – use whatever you like best!

Fill in the background, or not. Choose a frame-style stamp of some kind for the address block, leave the area free and clear, or add hand-drawn lines. Doodle a little or a lot. If you like a sketchy look, don’t worry about coloring inside the lines – let juicy marker inks spread and mix. (You’ll see a lot of that on my samples!) If you want to stay firmly planted inside the lines, then colored pencils may be the best bet.

Your Turn:

1. Order the stamps I used from The Queen’s Ink, or choose any four that you think will work well together. For the address block, include one that is a frame of some kind.

2. Practice the compositions on inexpensive copy paper or head straight for the envelopes. Stamp at LEAST a dozen. (The more you stamp the more ideas will pop into your head…) Do a little masking here and there if you want elements to overlap, for example, the New Moon can peek up inside the Stardust Frame.

3. Color. Color some more.

4. USE the envelopes. Fill them with newspaper clippings, cards, letters, dried flowers or whatever you feel like sending to friends and family. Get them out there… Kids LOVE getting mail. College students love getting mail, too (though you might have to send them a text message to remind them to go look in their mailbox or your missive might languish for quite a while).

SUPPLIES

Stamps:

• Stardust Frame DB4923J (RubberMoon)
• New Moon KP5009F (RubberMoon)
• Hope This Year is a Piece of Cake EG5561E (RubberMoon)
• Laurel Burch Dog Tail Run (Stampendous)

Other: 

• Ink in dark color of choice
• Markers (Shown: Winsor & Newton ProMarkers)
• Pens (Sakura Pigma Micron 01 in black, Gelly Roll Medium in white)
• Envelopes (Shown: A2 size)