MAGAZINE COVER ENVELOPE

Are you tied of throwing away your magazines every month? You know the ones you read once, maybe take out an article or two, and then toss it in the recycling bin. Here’s a project you can use the covers for. 

Envelopes!

You can use these for cards attached to presents or if you glue a label on you could probably send it through the mail.

This one is made with a larger than normal magazine. It was about the size of construction paper. Mine happened to be Organic Gardening. This envelope will fit a tri-folded  legal size piece of paper.

And this one is made with a regular sized magazine, folded the opposite way.  My magazine was Ladies Home Journal. This envelope will fit a legal size paper folded in quarter.

Here's how I did it:

Rip off your magazine cover. It doesn't matter if it is not cut, as long as it's fairly straight. This part will go on the underside.

Fold your piece of paper in half, lengthwise. Put just a small crease on the edge of where you want your bottom to be. Or... you can measure and mark this spot. 

This is what it looks like.

Fold the ripped  side over to that center mark and crease down the side. 

Make sure your edge is flush along the bottom.

This pic shows an angle for 

demonstration purposes only. 

Make sure the edges are even!

Fold over the other side making about a ½” overlap. 

Again make sure the bottom edge is flush and crease down the side.

Flush at the edge

Line up your two creases and hold them together straight. Be careful not to crease the folded over part, you don’t want a lot of unnecessary creases in your envelope.

Cut up through both pieces, on the crease line, about 1” and then cut across  the edges to meet  your first cut .

This is what it will look like at this point.

Now, cut  about a 45° angle off of each flap, like so. 

Cut the top flap in the same manner,  then, cut an angle about ½” down on the side to the center cut.

Fold the envelope and crease the  sides well. You could use a bone folder, but I just used the handle of my scissors. 

Glue the overlapped edges together, with the ripped side underneath.

Fold up the bottom flap, crease well  and glue down.

Fold over the top flap and crease , but do not glue. 

This is how the template would look if you needed to do several of these at  once. This one is for the smaller size envelope, but basically the configuration is the same.

I think this one is pretty cool on the front side.