If you are like me, and probably most calligraphers, you have a treasure trove of beautifully hand-addressed envelopes that you've received from fellow scribes. I carefully tucked these away in boxes, getting them down from the top shelf of a closet only when it was time to add some more.
A while ago, Jean Wilson posted to Cyberscribes a note about using a pleated paper shade to make accordion-fold books to keep her envelopes in. "What a great idea!" I thought, as I saved the email, hoping that someday I would get around to making a few for myself. By the way, Jean has a wonderful blog called "Pushing the Envelopes" where she has posted at least one envelope a day since Feb. 17, 2010. Do not miss this site. It's a real treat.
Recently, I stopped procrastinating and made one of these booklets. I am so pleased with the results. Now I have a beautiful and easy way to display my gorgeous mail. Not only do I enjoy looking at them myself, but it's now so easy to show them to other people.
Here are the directions.
- Go to Lowe's or Home Depot and buy a Light-Filtering Redi Shade.
- Sort through all your envelopes, grouping them by size as much as possible. Most of mine had handmade cards enclosed that I wanted to save as well. I could have left them in the envelopes, but after thinking it over, I decided to take the cards out to save wear and tear on the envelopes, plus being more convenient to view. My first batch of envelopes were the A2 size which is 4.375" x 5.75". I then divided these into two groups, depending on whether the enclosed cards were in landscape or portrait orientation. The first book I made had all the cards in landscape position.
- Place rubber bands on the ends of the shade to hold it tightly closed, as well as another one just past where it will be cut.
- Place the shade on a cutting board and use a nonslip ruler and a box cutter to cut off a piece the length of your envelopes.
- In order to view envelope and card at the same time, I adhered each one of a set to a single pleat. (This particular version will not be turned like the pages of a book, but instead like the pages of a wall calendar.) Put your adhesive on each half of the pleat of the pleat, running it just above or below the fold. Attach the bottom of the envelope on the top half of the pleat, and the top of the card to the bottom half of the pleat, keeping both of them just a fraction away from the fold, so as not to stress the binding. If you have an ATG tape gun, this process will be super-fast, but you can also do it with other types of adhesives.
- Continue attaching envelope and card sets until all the pleats are used.
- Cut two matboards a little larger than your envelopes. Select decorative paste paper, faux momi paper (made from brown grocery bags), or other types of sturdy papers. Cut them so that you can fold over about 1/2" on all sides of the matboards. Lay them face down on some wastepaper and apply Elmer's glue with a wide stiff brush from the center out. It is not necessary to go all the way to the edges. Flip over and smooth with a bone folder. Use a scrap piece of matboard on edge to mark the corners. Clip these about 1/16" away from the pencil mark. Apply glue to one of the longer sides; fold over and smooth. Repeat on the other long side. Apply glue to the short sides and push in the tiny bits that would stick out at the corners. Fold over and smooth out. Tap the sharp corners with bone folder to round a bit.
- Cut coordinating papers for the insides of the boards, making them about 1/8" to 1/4" smaller all around than the boards. Apply these papers with ATG gun or other type of double-sided tape.
I then calligraphed a title on a small card and attached it to the front cover in the landscape position, so it's obvious that it should be opened from bottom to top, and not right to left.
The final step was to adhere a ribbon flat across the back that ties in the center of the front cover. A belly band could be an alternative closure.
You can also make envelope books where the "pages" turn from side to side, which seems to work better when the card is in the portrait orientation.
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