Making Envelope Albums and Journals

Envelopes are one of my favorite things in my scrapbooking stash, and I think that they're something completely overlooked by the scrapbooking community. There's a lot that you can do with them besides use them to send cards and letters! Not only do they make a great addition to a page for holding journaling and mementos, they can also be used in many creative ways, such as to create journals and albums. Here are just a few ideas to get you started creating with envelopes; feel free to take these ideas and run with them, experimenting on your own.

By envelopes, I don't just mean the boring ones that you can buy at office supply stores-they come in many colors and sizes, and pretty envelopes can be bought without cards. My favorite envelopes are made by the Paper Source (I usually use the A2 size), but you can find similar envelopes at many places. The nice thing about envelopes is that they're inexpensive, so pick up a couple packs of them, and you'll be able to try both of the projects below.

Envelope Accordion Album

The wonderful thing about this version of an accordion album is that you can make it as long or as short as you'd like. My favorite feature of the album, though, is that the envelope's pockets are still usable, so you can fill them with ephemera or journaling.

To create this album, begin by gluing the flap of one envelope (the side that you lick) to the back of a second. Repeat this step until you have a "chain" of envelopes as long as you'd like. When you're done, fold them in a zig-zag pattern. The flap of the last envelope can be folded towards the front to create a closure for the album. That's it!

Once you've made your album, you can decorate it however you'd like. Photos could be affixed to the backs of the envelopes, or right over the pockets on the front. You could string ribbon around the folds of the accordion, or around the entire album to keep it closed.

Two-Envelope Journal/Album

To begin this journal, start the way you did for the above album, by gluing the flap of one envelope to the back of the next. Fold this in half; this is the cover of your journal. The flap of the second envelope can be folded towards the front to create a nice closure for the journal.

Now you'll need to make the pages. Choose the paper you'd like to use-normal printer paper will work, although I like to use cream-colored paper sold for printing out resumes. Using the envelopes as a template, cut your paper to size-you want it to be slightly smaller than the size of the envelopes unfolded, minus the flap. This will depend on the size of envelope that you're using; I was lucky and was able to simply cut the paper I was using in half. Decide how many pages you'd like- I use only four or six, which in the finished album will amount to 16 or 24 pages . When you've cut the pages to size, fold them in half.

The next step is to bind the pages into the journal itself. I used a simple bookbinding technique to sew the pages into the book. If you don't know how to do this yourself, any beginning book on bookmaking will show you how. You could also simply staple the pages into the book, although this doesn't look as nice.

Once you're done with this, you can decorate your journal however you like. I call it a journal/album because it would also be nice as a small brag book or gift album. Because it's small, it would make a great travel journal for a short trip. Another idea I've done is to use it to write a long, heartfelt letter and give it as a gift, such as to a mother on Mother's Day or to a child at graduation.

I've begun with these two projects and done dozens of variations on them, but I'm sure that with your own imagination, you'll be able to think of even more! Don't be afraid to add envelopes to your scrapbooking supplies; they're versatile and can do almost anything, as I've shown here.

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