DIY Weaved Paper Envelopes

I made this project for my month of mail project, but I really want to make a sheet of just as a weaved paper. The paper I used for the example is pretty old, a little brittle and thin, but despite that still worked well for this. I also made a more colorful envelope with some card stock. It bunched up a bit after folding, because of the paper's bulk, but I really love how it turned out. It'd be so nice to recieve one of these in the weaved paper envelopes in the mail...

You'll need:

Two sheets of 8 x 10" paper

Exacto blade

Ruler

Pencil & eraser

Glue 

Printer paper

Small rectangular envelope (as a guide)

Scissors

Bone folder

Tape (optional)

1. Cut one sheet of paper into .5 inch strips (or vary it up, if you like). If your paper has an image on it, keep your strips in order. 

2. On the second paper mark a .5 inch border around the edge of the paper with pencil. 

3. Cut .5 inch strips into the paper, making sure not to go over the .5 inch border around the edge. 

4. Weave the loose strips one by one into the cut slits on the second paper. Alternate lacing the strips over then under and you weave each strip and alternate over, under when starting a new strip.

5. If your paper is thin (like the vintage papers I used) glue a sheet of printer paper to the back of the weaved paper. If your paper is a thicker card stock (like the blue & creme example) you don't need a backing paper.

6. Use a small rectangular envelope as a guide to trace and make a grid on the back of the weaved paper. 

7. Cut the envelope out and cut away the four corner parts of the envelope. Angle the edges of the fold tabs on the sides on the envelope a bit.

8. Score the lines of the envelope with a ruler and bone folder. Fold the edges and glue or tape the edges.

Just in case you need to see these images larger, here is steps 6 & 7

Hope you give this a try! Let me know how it goes, ok?!

Have a great weekend!!