Tutorial to make your own padded envelopes using reclaimed materials

Materials you will need:

Paper – something strong like book pages/wallpaper. I wouldn’t recommend magazines.

Bubblewrap – I get mine free from the fruit and veg aisle at the supermarket. Just make sure you ask first!

Scissors

Double sided sticky tape along with normal sticky tape

Paper cutter (optional)


How to do it:

Gather two pieces of paper and ensure that they are roughly the same size (you can trim stray edges later). Choose which is going to be the front of the envelope and which is going to be the back. The back piece needs to have about half an inch cut off it at the top.


Turn your back piece over so that the inside of the envelope is facing up. Don’t start with the front piece as the bubble wrap will end up in the way later! The add a small strip of double sided tape around the outside of the paper.

Cut yourself 2 piece of bubble wrap that fit inside the tape and then peel the backing off the top strip of tape and stick one piece of bubble wrap to it. You may need additional tape behind the bubblewrap near the bottom to secure it firmly.

Take your second piece of bubblewrap and place it on top of the other piece. Add tape to the back of the bubblewrap as seen

Peel off all the backing and place the front of the envelope onto the top of the bubblewrap.

You’ll need to postion it carefully but don’t worry if the edges don’t match up perfectly – you can trim them later. Your envelope will now look like a sandwich

You will now need to press around the outside of the envelope to stick the 2 pieces of paper together.



And voila – you have a padded envelope made from reclaimed paper!

You can have fun and use lots of different papers. The extra inch on the front piece can be folded down to make the lip of your envelope which can be secured by tape. I also keep scraps of plain paper to use as address labels.