Re-Using an Envelope for Pen Palling

Today, I wanted to make a short post to show you how to re-use an envelope.

Pen palling is amazing, but it often means there's a stack or a shoebox of opened letters. I love to save the letters! But sometimes my pen pals send me stickers or other fun things I want to use again, or their stationery is so cute that I want to re-purpose it.

That's what happened with this cute envelope my pen pal (Andrea from Boston) sent me.

I wanted to send my mom this postcard but I didn't want it to get dirty. I really loved this soft green, plaid print that Andrea chose for this envelope. It was made from heavy cardstock, so I decided to re-use it!

First, I carefully took off the postage stamp.

I stuck this to another small scrap piece of paper and set it aside, because I always save / collect the stamps.

Then, I removed the rest of the stickers.

(If you are trying to remove a sticker but it is tearing the envelope, you can just paste over it with another piece of paper instead.)

Then, I got out a few of my own stickers, plus paper scraps or little cut outs… just whatever I had in easy access.

I began to lay out a cute design,
and then glued everything down, covering as many barcodes and stamped areas as possible.

I grabbed this cute sticker that another pen pal, Katherine in the U.K. sent me like, a year ago.

(P.S., Katherine– I just found a letter among the loose papers on my desk… it’s my response to you, and it’s about 9 months late. LOL I am actually going to send it this week… promise.)

(P.P.S., Simi– I still have your Dutch postcard, and I have to choose another American postcard to send with it… coming eventually… I’m about 4 - 5 months late on that. *facepalm) 

Pen Pal struggles, amirite?

SOOOOooooo,...

That almost sums up my envelope re-do. Told you it would be short.

I am excited to send this postcard to my mom. I think she’s going to love it.

I want her to sign up for my postcard-a-month program. She kind of has to, right? She’s my mom LOL

Anyway, and here’s the back! (below)
I quite like doing this. It’s a little stray from the ordinary when the return address is written on the back on the envelope instead of in the upper left hand corner on the front.

Most of the time you can even send it without a return address.

Don't you love the little “With Love” part that Andrea did with her Cricut (I think) ?I think it's so cute. It’s the other reason I wanted to save this envelope. 

Lastly, I simply glued the back down using a glue stick, going right over the torn paper! I use glue sticks a lot. They really work just fine, and other scrapbook adhesives can get expensive. 

But if I’m making something that needs to last a long, long time, like a scrapbook, I might use something like tape, which generally stays adhered better over longer periods of time. 

What do you use as an adhesive?

Feel free to email me, or comment on the post below.

Talk soon!

Xx

Alison

info@amstationery.com

P.S. Look! I even reused the address label to close a different outgoing envelope!

Much better than throwing it in the trash, or hoarding a used envelope forever and ever because its "too cute" (I'm not the only one, right?)