Envelope Book

At the rate I'm going it will take me at least ten years to finally make all the book types on my list. This was one of the easier styles to actually produce, but a bit difficult to decorate. It was a matter of determining what was up and what was down - I didn't always figure it out as you may notice.

I made five of these, to commemorate a wonderful weekend with some dear friends where we talked about family and England, ate great food, and celebrated our love for Cornish Kitchenware. I had photos from the weekend and a Pinterest board of Cornishware to work with. Inspired by the blue sea & sky of Cornwall, which is dotted with the sparkling white cob cottages, it's a color scheme that cries out for accents of yellow and red.

Our Breakfast Table

As you can see, I take Cornishware very seriously

The book itself is a simple matter of gluing the flap of one envelope to the back of another, continue on in this manner until you are done and then fold accordion fashion. I used five envelopes, which given the amount of stuff I put in each envelope was about as many as would have worked. Matching the stripes meant I had to use an envelope with a deep triangular flap. If I were to make another in this style I would want to use a blunt flap envelope - much easier to decorate.

I considered punching and reinforcing the top flap so the book could be hung, but eventually decided against it and chose to close it with a simple tie of yellow and white string. Red was used as the accent on one side and yellow on the other using art and geometric punches. After that it was a simple matter of filling the envelopes with photos and the remaining art.

I will almost certainly make another envelope book at some point, perfect for a trip journal where you want to save bits and pieces of paper souvenirs (you have no idea how many foreign receipts I have stashed away), or any book with a lot of photos.