From a cereal box to a mailing envelope // TUTORIAL

Yay, this tutorial has been long time coming. Just like all the parcels I've been meaning to send to my family and friends in Finland (they are coming, they really are).

All you people who send mail to your friends and buy those bigger and more firm envelopes from the post office, well this one's for you! It's pure recycling and you can decorate them how ever you want (I did mine with some stamps). And the best part: they are super easy and quick to make!

You can use whatever card board boxes you have, it doesn't have to be cereal boxes. They just make the biggest ones in size. I've used berry boxes and bisquit boxes too. One of them was even pleading to be recycled:

So are you sold yet? Let's start! I've written all of the information in the pictures, but I might just explain a bit in text too, if needed.

Here's what you need:

Stamp and ink are optional because you can just as well decorate them with other methods like drawing or painting. So all you really need is 3 things!! Choose as wide double sided sticky tape as you can. I ran out a while ago, so I just used a bit narrower for this one.

First thing is to cut your box into two pieces, the front and the back piece. Pretty simple, yeah?!

The small text in the previous image might be a bit hard to see, but it just says that you can trim the long sides of the box to make them a bit narrower. This depends on the size of your box. Usually I don't do this, but in this cereal box the sides were very wide, so I just cut a bit off.

I recommend to stamp at this point, because it's still a flat piece. Once you've put the envelope together, it can be a bit tricky, especially if you're using a bigger stamp. But again it's your call. You can decorate it once you've finished the whole thing. If you do decorate it now, you have to keep in mind that the short side's flap is the top of the envelope, the place where everything goes in.

Wow, it's finished! So simple, so easy, so quick. Feel free to ask if some step doesn't make sense. Now all you have to do is to remember to keep those boxes and make some more! And of course send some love to your friends. I bet they'll be super happy to get this parcel!

P.s. if you don't trust in your double sided sticky tape to hold, you can put clear sticky tape around the edges at the post office. It's good stuff!