A few weeks ago, I spotted this Life Nature book at a local thrift shop for $2.

I paged through it, and saw it had lots of nice full-page images that would make great envelopes.

So I bought the book, and the following weekend I sat down with a pair of scissors, a glue stick, and a pencil to make some fun envelopes. I followed the same simple steps that I’ve detailed in this DIY Calendar Envelopes post. (Basically: trace, cut, fold, glue.)

I love how the first five turned out! Making envelopes is fun for me because in a very short time, you can easily create something that will dazzle any recipient. All it takes is a pencil (or pen), glue stick (or tape), pair of scissors, and an old envelope to trace (or not!). Use whatever you have.

If this inspires you to make an envelope from any sort of paper—an old book page, a calendar image, a magazine page, a large piece of paper spotted in (and pulled out of) the recycling bin at your local library with a beautiful bird image (that was me last week!), etc.—I’d love to hear about it!