Pull out a stack of blank envelopes and let's get to decorating! Why send plain envelopes through the mail when you can add your own personal touch? Click through to learn five fun (and easy) ways to personalize your snail mail!

Five Fun Ways to Decorate Envelopes

As a part of letter-writing month, we wouldn’t want to forget the envelopes! After all, that’s the first thing your friend will see when they open their mailbox. You could absolutely send a plain envelope and no one is going to begrudge you that (after all, it’s REAL MAIL!) but I thought I’d compile five fun ideas along with some inspiration from a couple of amazing artists that will help you in your quest to decorate envelopes this month.

To start, if you really want to be make your envelope “perfect”, you can carefully open it all the way up, decorate, and then tape it back together. I didn’t do that with any of the envelopes pictured, though. It was just fun to embellish them as is.

Five Fun Ways to Decorate Envelopes

Pull out the acrylics. In the main image for this post, many of the decorated envelopes were painted with acrylics. It’s something I’ve never tried before and I have no idea why because it’s so much fun!

Make sure you don’t lay the paint on too thick as it could make the envelopes warp. You can layer the paint but allow it to dry in between layers. You can also write over the dried paint with pens when you’re finished if you want to add additional embellishments. Use sponge or potato stamps to make a repeating pattern. These painted envelopes from Lucy Halcomb are so cute!

Enlist your kids (or your friend’s kids!) I didn’t intend to enlist my daughter to decorate envelopes for this challenge but I admittedly left the envelopes I was decorating out one day and well, she decided to help me out. They were really cute so I decided to add them to the list of fun ways to decorate. Kids tend to go for it when they’re embellishing which is nice. 🙂 Pull out the pens, stickers, and glitter glue and let them go for it!

Sharpie fun. Sharpies come in so many awesome colors now (though I still steer automatically to black time and again.) Use a Sharpie to draw a box around your friend’s name and address or go all out and decorate the whole envelope like the amazing Helen Dardik does here.

Magazines are forever. Making an envelope is super simple—just carefully open an envelope you already have and use it as a template to trace onto whatever paper you want to use. That said, my sister and I used to use magazine ads as envelopes when I was away at college. I kept every one she sent me because they’re so awesome. You could also use wrapping paper, a page from an old book, or copy paper that you’ve decorated.

Gel pens + colored pencils. Have I mentioned before how much I love Sakura’s Gelly Roll pens? (I think I spec them in every other tutorial . . . ) Anyway, I made the polka dot envelope above with a gel pen and colored pencils. It was so simple and I love how it turned out. I also used white and black gel pens to decorate the “hello there” envelope (acrylic was used in the background.)

How do you like to decorate envelopes? Share your secrets in the comments below!

P.S. Click here for MORE letter writing goodness!

Get back into your letter-writing groove with this bundle of snail mail resources! Includes prompts, ideas of what to send in the mail, card tutorials, and printable stationery!


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7 responses to “Five Fun Ways to Decorate Envelopes”

  1. Anna Avatar
    Anna

    I like to use colored or odd sized envelopes and use washi tape, ribbon and stickers (since I am not creative enough to paint or use calligraphy)!! I sometimes embellish the outside with bakers twine, ribbon, etc and place in clear cellophane envelope to prevent the pretties from being destroyed.

    1. Jennie Avatar
      Jennie

      Oh, how beautiful, Anna! It sounds like you’re sending a little present in the mail. 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing. 🙂

  2. Maggie Avatar

    I looove this post! There are few times when I don’t decorate my envelopes, and usually it’s with sharpies! It’s fun to just doodle all over. A lot of times I do repeated little shapes, like hearts or leaves. Using acrylics sounds like SUCH a fun idea too! I should try that!

    1. Jennie Avatar
      Jennie

      I love Sharpies too, Maggie! 🙂 You’ll love playing with the acrylics–just go light on the paint, but you probably already know that. 😉 Have a great day!

  3. Kit Avatar

    Stickers, washi tape, & rubber stamps are my go-to decorating tools. It doesn’t have to be a perfect work of art, just getting something colourful & personalized in the mail is amazing!

  4. A Welsh. Avatar

    I LOVE to decorate my envelope by putting a paper liner in the envelope. It shows true great care for the receiver!

    1. Jennie Avatar
      Jennie

      What a great idea! 🙂 Thanks for sharing. 🙂

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