DIY Greeting Card Envelope Tutorial

 Hello there! I have a couple of Valentine's projects, just little simple things to post, with a ton more awful amateur blog photos. I'm going to share the other thing after he opens his present though, because he might see it here and it might ruin the all sacred surprise. I tend to be much better at surprises than he is; I will get excited, squirrel it all away to be wrapped up all nice and tidy with no price stickers and present it on the morning. He will ask me repeatedly what I want and sometimes offer it to me early. You can forget wrapping. Still, he's a great present-giver. And a great kisser.

 This is an envelope you can put together from any nice scrap paper you have sitting around. While simple, it was surprisingly fiddly, and I tried to give the best instructions I could. I used one A4 sheet for my little card, but as you can see, it could have been done with quite a bit less. The 'template' below is a sample pattern for any old sheet of paper and is not likely to be proportionally accurate to A or B ratio papers, it's just for visual aid.

 Make your folds along the blue lines in the above diagram, making sure that your card is going to fit neatly (not too snug) inside the envelope. Make the cuts to get that funny, almost chevron shaped thing on the right there. Shown folded are flaps D and then B.

 First, fold the sheet in half, then lay it out flat again. Fold flaps A and B inward, then C outward, and in half again inward (D). You might want to take this opportunity to trim off awkward bits of flap, like the very pointy corners at the bottom of flap C.

 Open the thing (put your left hand in and shake it all about), tuck your completed card in the area under the inwardly folded A and B flaps, like this:

 Keep A flap folded down over the card, then fold at D. Fold C over to the back. And that's pretty much that. 

Front:

 Back:

 If it's going to be handled a lot or mailed, I would absolutely glue those C flaps right on down.

 Boom. Gummed. A totally DIY'ed envelope to go with your DIY'ed card, and totally not made of plain old printer paper. I hope that was comprehensible, if not leave a comment. It makes sense to me, haha.

 You might notice I like to make everything myself, partly because it usually works out to be deliciously cheap, partly because it exudes that just exquisite personal touch thing that people love. I did not hand make Paddy's gifts, but I did buy them on impulse, and that's what counts. I'm looking forward to the day myself, I know I'll get spoilt! How about you?!