elevated envelope: part 2

i'm running a bit behind this week so instead of diana travels and collages, i thought i'd share a little behind-the-scenes step-by-step of my envelope creations for the elevated envelope project...

i spent the better part of two hours, sitting in the sun carving my lino block. i appeased my inner perfectionist by drawing some pencil lines to use as a guide and then freehanded the pattern. it was so liberating (cliched but true) to just 'see how things turned out' :)

i think shortly after this photo was taken i decided to carve down the sides of my print to make a border and took a rather large chunk out of my supporting hand with the lino tool. not ideal.

next up, i used a white water-based ink and a couple of rollers to print my design onto kraft cardstock. the ink was a little more opaque than i originally intended but this turned out to be one of my favorite qualities of the print.

after printing and drying, i hand scored, cut and glued each envelope - one of those jobs that seemed to take a lot longer than i had anticipated! i then hand-wrote a short letter, enclosed a couple of my favorite things and it was off to the post office...

and away they went! (yes, someone was watching while i took this photo and they thought i was very strange!)

if you've got some spare time, i'd definitely recommend participating in the next swap - i've had envelopes arriving from all over the world and they are all truly mini-works of art.