Another ATC Mailer, now with bees!

I had so much fun with the Mermaid Mailer I just did, that I had to try another one with a different theme. This one is all about the bees, with a butterfly and some rogue ladybugs thrown in for fun. For this mailer, I chose to embrace the brown of the cardboard and use it as part of the design. I had a great black and white ribbon, and used it to keep the mailer closed instead of the tab and slot in the back. A couple of great charms are wired to the ribbon, and a specimen tag is tucked up under the bow. The ribbon slides off for easy opening; no need to untie!

On this photo of the back, you can see here how the flap is just folded down and held in place with the ribbon. The butterfly is attached to the ribbon with a thin strip of double sided tape. I like the natural color of the envelope showing; it really accentuates the nice curves of the flap.

Let's open it up and see the ATC. The inside is decorated with more bees, a friendly fairy with a lucky four leaf clover, and a loveliness of ladybugs (yes, that is the real name for a group of them!)

It's easy to remove the card to add it to your collection.

But wait, there's more! The lucky fairy is actually standing on a craft paper envelope, perfect for holding a surprise ATC. I added a tab to the edge, so it's easy to remove.

There you go. Let's put it all back together and give it to a friend.

 For a complete list of supplies, click here!

Mermaid ATC Mailer

Alpha Stamps just came out with a fun new ATC mailer, and because we're still in the heat of summer, I decided a mermaid theme would be appropriate. I used some great beachy papers from the Authentique Sea-Maidens 6" x 6" paper pad. I love that these papers include one of my favorite color combinations: turquoise and red! In the collection, there's a great paper that looks like weathered painted boards. I used that on the outside of the mailer.

The collaged area is what shows when the mailer is folded up. This mermaid has found a treasure under the sea: a lovely starfish charm!

Here's the back of the mailer, folded up and ready to go.

When you open the mailer, here's what you find inside - whimsical colorful bubbles, and a mermaid ATC securely inserted into the mailer.

It's easy to pull the ATC out for further inspection.

Here are a few tips on working with the mailer. If you want to cover the mailer with decorative paper like I did, you're really not going to want to cover the folds as the extra paper there will make things too bulky. Therefore, before I added the papers, I painted the folds and cut the papers to fit just within the insides of the folds.

I did want to use the precut flaps to hold the ATC inside, but I didn't want any cuts on the mailer's front surface, so after the inside was covered with the bubble paper, I flipped the mailer over and used an x-acto knife to cut the flaps through the paper on the other side. In the photo below, notice that the folds are painted and the mermaid collage is not yet in place; it was glued on after these cuts to the inside were made.

Now to glue on the front. It's important to not glue the front collage to the flaps. If you do that, they won't flip open to hold your ATC! I inserted a playing card to keep the flaps covered and protected while gluing. I also opted to use some strong double stick taps around the edges, in the middle, and along each flap. This will help hold down that collage. I used a glue stick to fill in the spaces between the tape. Not on those flaps, though - keep them clean! Once the collage is in place, gently remove the playing card and make sure that the flaps are able to open. The ATC will now have a happy home within the mailer.

Now finish that front and give an ATC to a friend!

For a complete list of supplies, click here!