Teeny Little Envelopes for Junk Journals - Inspired by Jen Miller

Hi everyone. I was drooling over all of the wonderful details of a mini junk journal I purchased from one of my favourite YouTube artists, Jen Miller, when I came upon one of her teeny tiny envelopes. As well as creating her own envelopes out of book paper among other things, Jen sews the edges and then inserts little folded papers for "all your journalling needs" as she puts it (and makes me laugh every time). I decided to take a page (or an envelope) out of her book so to speak, and create my own teeny little  (1.25 x .75 inch) envelopes...minus the sewing because I don't think I have the patience for that :) Jen is amazing!

I downloaded several free templates from the internet and chose the shape I liked the best, mounting it to cardstock so it would stand up to repetitive use. I then traced the shape onto various coffee dyed paper scraps including book text, vintage music,  kraft and graph paper. All of the outside edges as well as the inside edges of the flaps were edged with Coffee Archival Ink and a tiny red heart was drawn on the point of the flap using a fine Sharpie. The flaps were folded using a ruler and a bone folder to help coax the paper into shape without tearing the vintage paper especially. The bottom flap was then adhered to the side flaps where they overlapped.

The fronts of the envelopes were decorated with the tiniest scraps of designer or vintage paper, tiny punched flowers, and little crocheted doilies created by my 85+ year old neighbour. Buttons, pearls, and butterflies punched from corrugated coffee sleeves were also layered up. Tim Holtz Remnant Rubs made their way onto several envelopes as did some faux stitching. Really I used whatever was on my desk or in the cup where I throw bits and bobs left over from previous projects. It's a great way to use them up and just play.

The back of the envelopes open so I was able to place a little something inside each one, again drawing from the little pile of scraps on my desk, and inking the papers with Coffee Archival Ink.

The photos above and below show the papers used in a few of these envies. Stamping was done with the same Coffee Archival Ink and the backs were left without decoration.

These teeny envelopes look wonderful tucked into little pockets, mini journals, or just as an embellishment on a cluster or tag. I loved making each one and I know that I will be adding to my pile of them again soon. Special thanks to Jen Miller for the inspiration both in her awesome YT videos and in the little journal I was lucky enough to purchase from her Etsy shop. Major score that day...her art is very popular and sells so quickly...and rightly so! I will have the little book and tin worn out in no time because I keep studying it :)

Life is good; so is art.

Bonnie