BELLY-BAND-ELOPE: fast envelope fix (and 3 for U bling flowers)

This is a speedy way to make a fancy envelope:
the "belly-band-elope" (heeheehee.)

It was born out of necessity: I was in a big ol' rush! It uses less cardstock than a full envelope and it teases the person who's receiving your creation, since they get a little peek at your card. :0) It'd be ideal for hand-delivered cards, but if you need to mail a card and you like the look of this, you could just mail it all in a plain envelope.

You can lend a corseted look to it using 4, 6, or more brads:

It slides right off of the card, so there's no need to untie it.

To make a super simple belly-band-elope:

• Cut a piece of cardstock that suits your card (suggested measurements: twice the width as your finished card and about 2/3rds of the width--usually you can just use the other half of the piece of cardstock that you cut your card from.)
• Place it under your card to decide where the folds will go
  
• Fold it over your card (scoring first if necessary)
• Add any embellishments you like to close it (the easiest way I can think of would be to tie a ribbon around it.) You could also add one or more eyelet(s)/brad(s)/button(s) on each side and thread/tie ribbon, string, or wire through it.

This one includes punched flowers:
(Three for You punch box set by S.U.)

The flowers were cut out of the card mats to save paper & reduce the weight of the card. (I'm thinking bunches of these would make nice little prezzies for crafting friends.)

Some flowers were embellished to put on the card, using: the stamp from the set embossed, pastels, clear Sakura glaze pen/white Sakura glaze pen, crystal effects and bling (in that order.)

To add the flowers to the belly-band-elope:

• Take 6 little flowers
  
• Punch holes in the center of the flowers (with a hole punch or with an eyelet kit)
• Add them to your card with adhesive of choice
  
• Use the holes in the flowers as a guide to punch a second set of holes through the belly-band-elope (sounds so goofy hey? lol)
• Add brads to the flowers
• Finish by adding additional flowers (with holes in them) to the back to hide the back of the eyelets (please check out the pic at the very top to see how this detail looks.)
  

The little vanilla flowers were embossed with the sentiment from the 3 for You set and then punched out.

I outlined them with a Sakura clear glitter pen. They're adhered to a strip of patterned paper & ribbon (a piece of wide vintage taffeta cut in 3rds.) The patterned paper is by Basic Grey (Stella Ruby: Morning in the heath ste726.) The cardstocks are River Rock & Soft Sky and...

I altered the textured vanilla cardstock with a Sakura glitter pen & distressed it. It's a fun way to change what you have into something new (& you don't have to buy more paper.)

To make your own altered grid paper:

• Cut desired size. Divide it into sections mentally & mark them onto paper (the grid on SU's grid paper makes an easy guide.)
  
• Tack paper down with repositionable adhesive (if desired. I like Dotto.)
  
• Mark with pen of your choice; You may need to let it dry between lines to avoid smudging (the pen used here is a Sakura clear glitter pen.)

To mark my grid I used Tim Holtz's design ruler it's handy & affordable, and It only cost $5.00! It has a great long faux-stitch guide. Although to be honest (no offense Tim) I do not like the paper piercer "needle tool" at all. It slid and closed while I was working with it, & even though I was working in foam, the tip bent. I bought a different one that would fit in the ruler that had a fixed tip and tougher metal.

After marking the grid, I just tore off a layer of the textured paper; the tearing is random or unpredictable, but fun--if you like distressing.

Thank you so much for stopping by! :0)