From Combat Boots to Rubber Stamps: Ask, and ye shall receive....

I had so many requests for instructions on my little envelope (see the post below) that I created a mini-tutorial really quick and I'm posting it here for you. It's so easy, and I even had to make it without a lot of my regular stamping supplies!! You'll see what I mean....Also, bear with the "steps" as this is only the 2nd tutorial I've done and I had to take the pictures with my left hand sometimes so they're not perfect either :)

For starters, if you have an envelope template that's probably the easiest and cutest. I don't have any here with me - my template is in storage with the rest of my stuff in Delaware, so I just thought of a quick little template of my own for a box and some envelopes.

As you can see below, the first picture just shows you how I came up with my box template. After I determined the size of my card (3" x 3" per the SCS TLC171 guidelines) I knew that my envelopes and box had to be big enough for my cards in the envelopes with a few layers/embellishments on them to fit in it. So, I need to make sure that my box had extra space. I made my box 3.5"x3.5"x1" and I used a scratch piece of the SU! grid paper for the template. The ghetto part of it all is that I don't have any rulers here with me (don't I miss my metal ruler now?!?!) so I had to use CS as a guide. If you do this - make sure your CS is straight!!!! :)

So, this picture shows how I made little dots (you can see them at corners) for the size template I would need. I started with the right side of the template and made a square that was 3.5"x3.5" Next, I added on flaps that would end up on the SIDES of the box. I extended my 3.5" square by one inch on each side of the square so now I have a rectangle that is 3.5" x 4.5" if that makes sense. Below my original 3.5" square I planned for the base of my box. I wanted it to be an inch wide, so I made dots to form a 1" x 3.5" rectangle that attach to the original square. I SHOULD have made this rectangle extend on either side by 1/2" so that there would have been a flap which would have not left a tiny little gap at the bottom sides of my box, but I was in a hurry with kids interfering, so I did what was easiest. Next, I just mirrored my first square and it's additional rectangles for flaps on the other side of the base and cut it out. Then I just folded where I needed to with my bone folder and closed the flaps with some sticky tape. Clear as mud?
Supplies:
3.5" x 6.5" piece of patterned paper or CS
hobby blade
cutting mat
ruler
glue or other adhesive
1 1/4" circle punch
embellishments

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Cut a piece of patterned paper 1/2" wider than your card, and at least 1/2" longer than twice the height of your card (assuming you're using square cards - and in this case a 3x3 card - the height and width are the same) and fold it in half. My piece of paper was 3.5" x 6.5" I made it 6.5" so that when folded in half it would be 3.5" x 3 1/4". I wanted the top of the envelope to extend a tiny bit above the card inside so I DID NOT make the strip of paper 3.5" x 6" which would have yielded an envelope the same height as my card. If you did, usually that makes the envelope shorter than the card once the card is inside because you're putting something with a little dimension inside of it and it doesn't look as nice.

2. On one end of your paper you are going to make little tiny cut marks at 1/4" in from the right and left sides. You could use a pencil to make these marks if you would prefer.

3. Using a ruler (CS in this case) line up with your cut mark and beginning at the crease in your paper, cut to the bottom where your cut mark is. Then, remove this strip by cutting along the crease of your card to the edge. See the next two pictures.