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Post by although on Jun 19, 2019 0:43:55 GMT
I like using a punch board to make envelopes out of old maps and such. But, my punch board can't make the rather long and narrow sized envelopes that work best for letter / legal sized paper. It works fine for A5 sized paper or half sheets, but the business sized envelopes (like bills arrive in) just don't work out. I have a couple of typewriter pals, and I find that A5 size paper isn't great in a typewriter. I kept having to use boring old store-bought stuff. I had dissected a business envelope, and the shape was a rather long narrow parallelogram. It takes a pretty long bit of paper. Oh, I suppose I could just trace it out and break out the scissors. But, where's the fun in that? Then today, I had an epiphany! I have a Cricut cutting machine! I've used it for various projects over the past year, but envelope making hadn't occurred to me... So, I break out the CAD software, measure up the dissected envelope, sketch it up, punch out a DXF file, import into the Cricut web-app, and Voila! Machine cut professional looking envelopes made out of an old Tennessee atlas! Granted, by this time, I had expended enough time and effort, I could have probably made 20 of them by hand. But, now that I've got it cutting, I can churn them out at a pretty good pace. I'll have this whole atlas enveloped up in another hour or so.
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Post by hoyabella on Jun 25, 2019 11:38:39 GMT
I am glad you found a way but... couldn't you just fold your legal sized sheets in half and then again in half to fit in an A6-ish envelope? 😉 In general, I tend to disfavour stationery sets where sheets need to be folded in 3 because it is difficult to do a perfect job! For the records: these long envelopes are out of standard in Italy. I guess they are delivered like any standard size mail but they "stand out" in a bunch of regular business envelopes which here are a bit narrower. Years ago, I received one and sadly it was folded at one end, just where the stamps were and one of the stamps had fallen off!
Edit: out of standard... I haven't been precise. This means that one cannot use the cheapest stamp range, independent of the weight. Of course such envelopes can be used but one has to pay more
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Post by allanorn on Jun 25, 2019 14:01:01 GMT
I am glad you found a way but... couldn't you just fold your legal sized sheets in half and then again in half to fit in an A6-ish envelope? 😉 In general, I tend to disfavour stationery sets where sheets need to be folded in 3 because it is difficult to do a perfect job! For the records: these long envelopes are out of standard in Italy. I guess they are delivered like any standard size mail but they "stand out" in a bunch of regular business envelopes which here are a bit narrower. Years ago, I received one and sadly it was folded at one end, just where the stamps were and one of the stamps had fallen off! Doesn’t hold in the USA. Most of the world uses ISO 216 for paper size and ISO 269 for envelope size, which are based in standardized units of measurement and reasonably derived ratios and conventions. In the USA our paper and envelope standards were largely stolen from the British system of Imperial units, which were probably derived hundreds of years ago from a combination of one person’s arm length, phases of the moon, temperature of someone’s tea water, and counting chirps from a single cricket under a full moon.
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Post by although on Jun 25, 2019 22:13:30 GMT
In general, I tend to disfavour stationery sets where sheets need to be folded in 3 because it is difficult to do a perfect job! Oh, I have to disagree with you on that one... Tri-fold is my preferred presentation, and I would never cross-fold a letter! I have no idea where this comes from... But, I feel like putting a vertical crease in a letter just breaks all the rules I also feel like I've done a shoddy job if the folded letter ends up significantly shorter than the envelope it goes in. I've never used letter sets. Feels like cheating I guess I just like for my letters to look tidy and nicely packaged. Now, If I could only make my handwriting look more presentable...
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Post by MKB on Jun 26, 2019 1:26:47 GMT
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Post by filpot on Jun 26, 2019 8:39:49 GMT
You're not wrong about "unnecessarily complicated"............... but I still love it!!
I'm much more prosaic in my envelope manufacture. I fold the letter to the size I want, draw around it on a piece of card, double the length and add a flap, add a couple of "wings" on the sides and BINGO! a template is born.
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Post by mailartist on Jun 26, 2019 13:16:50 GMT
WARNING about glue sticks!
Glue sticks are great for the initial "sticking together" of handmade envelopes, but in my experience, they too often fail in postal sorting machinery.
Word to the wise: REINFORCE EVERY SEAM/SEAL with some reliable tape (i.e., something like Scotch or postal tape. Washi tape is decorative, but often low-stick, so that can peel off as well).
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Post by MKB on Jun 26, 2019 15:00:17 GMT
Guess I have been lucky then with the glue stick. I wonder if it's brand, materials or technique, as I have used this a lot.
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Post by mailartist on Jun 26, 2019 16:03:35 GMT
Guess I have been lucky then with the glue stick. I wonder if it's brand, materials or technique, as I have used this a lot. It is probably more a function of postal machinery (Think: the old American Tourister gorilla commercials). On the one hand, I have received (beautifully intact) letters/postcards that were held together with nothing more than a wish and a lick. Then again, I've gotten envelopes, with no letters inside, because the seams/seals split, and the contents were lost en route. It just seems a pity to go to all the work to write a letter and make a special envelope, and then have it not survive the postal machinery. So I always reinforce every seam and seal with at least an inch or two of Scotch tape. (When I hosted mail art exchanges, and would routinely receive about 20 envelopes of incoming cards that I would then shuffle and swap, it was not unusual for one or two of the mailing envelopes to arrive with significant damage. Some that had split were, in fact, commercial envelopes, but homemade envelopes had a far greater likelihood of arriving with problems.)
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Post by radellaf on Jun 26, 2019 17:55:57 GMT
I've had good luck, but I both am using a Craftbond extra strength glue stick and, probably more important, regular rather than glossy paper. I also use it to add to envelopes that don't seem to have enough adhesive coverage at the corners. Sometimes there's like 2cm with no glue.
My recent issue is with the envelopes that came with a set of cards with photos of the moon. There's some sort of silvery grey coating. FP, stamp pad, or even Gel ink goes on fine but then seems to sink beneath the top layer and get much harder to read. I guess they only tested with ballpoints? I haven't tried, as the sparkly purple G2 seems to stay legible enough to do the job. Weird, though.
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Post by hoyabella on Jun 27, 2019 12:14:37 GMT
Oh, I have to disagree with you on that one... Tri-fold is my preferred presentation, and I would never cross-fold a letter! [...] I've never used letter sets.  Feels like cheating I think I get your point 😊 As a former stationery collector, I have seen unimaginable things, concerning sizes. The worst imho is when the sheets are too big to fit in the envelope if folded in two yet they are way too small to fit well if folded in three or four, as if the dimensions of the envelope had been chosen independently on the sheet size :-0 or perhaps :-D I, too, don't like it when sheets can move too much inside the envelope. One solution would be making a small lateral fold to obtain the perfect sheet size but this is absurd.
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