Layout of the Week #5- Using Envelopes to Scrapbook

     This week we will be using yet another office product in our scrapbooking- envelopes! I love crafting with envelopes. I've done several posts already with envelopes: here, here, here, and here.

To begin, you'll want to gather
one piece of 12"x12" card stock
2 pieces of pattern paper (one of mine is a piece of ledger paper)
a legal size envelope
a small envelope like a coin envelope or an envelope from a gift card
letter stickers for your title
trimmer
adhesive
photos

First, you'll want to choose one of your pattern papers for the background. Trim it so you can still see a border on the card stock. I chose ledger paper for my background. After trimming off the edge, it no longer reached across my card stock, but I used it anyway.
Then cut 2 strips off of the other pattern paper. One is about 1/2" and the other is about 3/4". Adhere the smaller one to the top of the pattern paper and the slightly larger one to the bottom.

Now you'll take your legal size envelope and tuck in the flap. Adhere it vertically across the background paper. I liked the look of the back side of the envelope.

Add 2 photos. If you'd rather, you could just use one larger photo. Part of the photo should overlap the envelope.

Place your title in the upper left corner. If yours isn't as long as mine, you can decide whether you want it on the card stock border or on the pattern paper.
Adhere your second smaller envelope on the bottom of your photo slightly overlapping the larger envelope. I put zoo tickets inside mine.

Now you can add journaling on the right side of the pattern paper. I used my own handwriting.
Then add goodies inside your envelope. I placed 2 card stock strips with extra photos and a zoo map in mine. If you want to keep your layout simple, you'll want to stop right here.

To add a little zing, you could pull the flap out of the envelope and cover it with pattern paper (see below). Then use some type of closure to keep it closed; I used a string closure. Then add little word strips to the upper right corner and bottom left corner. (I used 7 Gypsies- again!) 
Voila! A layout using envelopes! 

To add pattern paper to the flap of the envelope, simply trace the flap on the BACK of your pattern paper, cut, and adhere!

Here is another example. In this layout, I took 3 legal size envelopes, glued them shut, and trimmed off the ends. Then I glued them together with the middle one slightly higher than the outer two. I taped them from behind. All three together are 12" wide. 

Each envelope has a pull out with photos on it. This way I was able to add 9-10 more photos to my layout! When I was typing my journaling, I unfortunately ran out of black ink. Instead of fretting about it, I just changed it to color ink that would match the layout!

     Thank you so much for stopping by for the Layout of the Week!

     This post is linked to Project Queen, My Girlish Whims, Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello, Happy Hour Projects and Blue Cricket Design.