DIY Bags & Envelope Liners Made From Recycled Arbonne Catalogues

Packaging is a love hate relationship for me. I am caught between - wanting my packages to arrive looking beautiful professional and desirable - & not creating unnecessary waste [most packaging sold on the market today for small business owners like myself is non-recyclable & can be quite costly] & know that as much as I squeal over adorable wrap, I know the truth of the matter is that it will more than likely end up in the trash on arrival. 

What You Need:

~ Old Arbonne Catalogues; Books, or magazine pages are all the perfect (rectangular) shape & you undoubtedly have a few laying around your house unused and dying to be re-purposed! 

~ Pencil / Pen  

~ Rubber Cement / Glue 

~ Ruler

~ Scissors & Wiggly Craft Scissors 

DIY Envelope Liner(s)

1. Begin By Selecting the piece of catalogue paper / image you want to use as your liner. Flip over your page & trace out the shape of your Envelope onto the backside. If it isn't apparent just by looking at the Envelope shape where it folds, be sure to mark this off into your tracing. (as shown in the image above)  
2. Using your scissors, cut out your shape along the inner side of the line leaving just a hairs width of space between your cut and the actual line -- this is to ensure your liner is just slightly smaller than your actual envelope.
3. Using a ruler - measure the distance from the Fold (which you have marked on the backside of your liner in Step 1) to the start of bottom fold of the envelope -- As a reference mine was just under 2".
4. Again using your ruler - Measure out that ^ distance onto your envelope starting at the marking for where the fold would be. Using your scissors trim any access off the bottom. 
5. Slide your liner into the envelope - just under the seal. Using which ever glue your prefer, apply a conservative amount to the back of the liner & adhere in place. - I used rubber cement; it is my absolute favourite 'Glue' when working with paper. It is Very fast drying & once dry you can use your fingers to rub off any access, leaving a flat clean finish. with no pesky pealing corners! 
6.  Voila! 
   

DIY Bag(s)

1. Again; Begin by selecting the piece of paper you want. Be sure to cut or tare them out carefully as you will be using almost the whole page.  
   Lay your paper down length ways & using your ruler measure 7" down each side of the page from the outer/non torn/cut side; & draw a line connecting the two.
2. Using your scissors cut off any access. 
3. Fold the outer corner(s) of the paper together - meeting in the middle & overlapping about a half inch. Press down firmly on the folds to create a crease!
4. Using Rubber Cement (or whichever Glue you have chosen to work with) apply glue along the overlapping outer edges & press down firmly to secure. 
   
   
   
5. Once dry decide which end of the bag your want to be the Top. Measure 2" from the bottom of the bag & Fold the paper one way & then back the other as shown above. (I hope this makes sense) 
6.  Gently open and flatten out the corners in a triangle shape - Again refer to the images above. 
   
7. Adhere this, along just the outer portion. Okay I'm going to Stop repeating myself ; You're going to be relying on the pictures for the majority of this.
8. Now Fold The Bottom & Top of what will become the BASE of your Bag down & adhere them as well!
9. Open your Bag & Gently fold creases from each corner to create a nice shape.
   
10. Using your Wiggly Craft Scissors - Cut the Top of the Bag to give a cute little finished Top! 
    
    

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