- [Kristina] Hi, everyone, Kristina here.
Welcome to another video
at my YouTube channel.
Today, I'm going to be showing
you a mail art envelope
using the Just Batty
stencil from CZ Design
and Simon Says Stamp.
When I showed this stencil in
my livestream on Monday night,
I mentioned that I have
these Batman postage stamps,
and the idea stuck in my head,
and I just had to make
an envelope with it.
I'm starting out by creating
my envelope from scratch,
using the We Are Memory
Keepers 1-2-3 Punch Board.
It has directions on the
inside of the punch board
for a five-by-seven card,
which tells me to cut my paper
to nine-and-seven-eighths square.
So I put down some Bristol paper,
and I'm going to be using
the envelope score line A
on the right side,
and then I'm also going to be referencing
the envelope score groove on the left.
Those are the two things you need to know
when you're making an envelope.
And you also need to know the measurement
of where to line up that
top corner on the left,
which, with the guide on the side
that I have the paper size as well,
it said line it up at
four and one-eighths,
so I did that and then
used that score line A
along the side.
I'm now taking and lining
up that scored line
and letting it fall into that
envelope groove on the left.
I'll punch again, and then
score on that score line A.
So I'm going to keep rotating around
until I've done all four sides.
And if you just remember
that every other time is the measurement
that's on the board itself,
so the four and one-eighths,
and that helps you to make sure
you have a perfectly sized envelope.
So I'm just scoring that
last little edge there,
and now I have my envelope.
If you want to, you can around
the corners on the envelope,
but I tend to not do that.
I just keep it nice and sharp.
So my idea behind this envelope
is I want the main area of
the envelope to be blended
from a kind of an intense purple
to maybe a little bit more of
a bluish purple at the bottom.
So that's exactly what I'm doing.
I'm using Wilted Violet Distress Ink
and an ink blender brush from Honey Bee.
I just blended that up in the bottom,
and then I added some Chipped Sapphire
at the very bottom as well.
Now this Bristol paper is
beautiful for blending.
It keeps the ink on the
surface of the paper
a little bit longer than
a regular cardstock,
so you have a little bit more time
to really manipulate the
inks and get them blending.
So I really do love using
Bristol paper for this,
and the reason why I used
Bristol paper for this envelope
is purely because I
wanted a smooth cardstock,
and the only really large
piece of paper that is smooth
like this was my pad of Bristol paper.
So that's why I'm using it.
For the flap on the envelope,
I've taken the masking tape off the flap
and moved it up to the main area,
and then I'm going to use
that Just Batty stencil.
I'm holding that stencil in place
with a few little pieces of tape.
and then I'm using
Mustard Seed Distress Ink.
I'm adding yellow for all of these bats.
Now the flap's too big for
this six-by-six stencil,
so I'm going to lift up the stencil
and move it over and
continue that pattern.
Thankfully, the pattern is repeating,
so it's super easy to extend the design
past that six-by-six area
of the original stencil.
So I'll ink all that yellow
on and then lift the stencil,
and I'm left with all these bats.
The great thing about Distress Ink,
not only does it blend
really well on this paper,
but it stays wet a little bit longer
than other types of dye ink,
so it's great for embossing.
So I'm gonna go ahead and sprinkle on
some clear embossing powder.
This is Icicle embossing
pattern from Brutus Monroe.
It's just enough moisture on that ink
to attract the clear embossing powder,
and I heat-set that until
it was smooth and melted,
and I could just see when it was melted
by tipping it in the light
and seeing the glossy finish.
So now I'm taking Black Soot Distress Ink,
and I'm going to blend
over the top of these bats,
and it's going to make it
look a little bit more grungy
and dingy, but it also resists...
all those bats resist the ink
because it has that clear
embossing powder on top,
which is a slick surface,
so I ink-blended all that black ink on,
and then I took a paper
towel and kind of buffed off
and wiped off the excess.
So it's not a super,
super dark, intense black
because it kind of just seeps
into the paper a little bit,
but I really love how it turned out.
I wasn't sure if it would work this way.
I'm so glad it did.
So I'm going to take two postage stamps
from my Batman postage stamps,
and the purple on the
background of the stamp
is the perfect purple.
I'm so happy and pleased with
how well these purples match.
And then I had this really
cool circular stamp.
Isn't that just a fun stamp?
It looks like the Bat Signal.
So those posters stamps
are going stay the up there
in the corner while I
address the envelope.
I'm sending this to my friend Kriste.
She did give me permission
to use her address,
so thank you so much, Kriste.
I did a trial run of the
beginning part of her name,
just to get an idea of
exactly the spacing I wanted,
and then I put down some
paper to protect my hand
and the inking while I write on her name.
I'm using a brush Sharpie.
It's a Sharpie with a brush tip.
I'm going to use that for her name.
I will eventually switch
to a regular Sharpie marker
for her address.
So I'm just putting this on here.
At this point, I was wondering,
am I gonna have enough room
for the rest of her name?
It turns out I was able to salvage it
by just squishing the
letters just a tiny bit.
I think it turned out great,
and I'm so glad that that worked
because I really didn't want
to have to do that envelope
all over again, because
I didn't fit her name.
So I'm taking my regular Sharpie marker
and writing her address
here at the bottom.
Really simple writing for this one.
I'm not doing anything super
fancy, just really simple.
So I'm now going to put my return address
up in that top corner.
I have covered that flat with embossing,
so there was no opportunity
to put it on the flap,
so I put it in that top left corner.
In order to emphasize her name
and also the address a little bit more,
I decided to put a white border
around all of this black lettering.
So for the large letters on her name,
I used a Pilot Juice pen.
This is the thicker version.
And then for the smaller
letters on the street address,
I used an Acrylograph pen or
a marker from Archer & Olive.
This is the 0.7 millimeter size,
and I just very carefully went around
all of this black lettering,
just trying to make sure I didn't encroach
on the spacing of the letters themselves.
So I went around and this really gives it
almost more of a cartoon
look, a more comic book look,
which goes along with the Batman theme.
So there's all the lettering.
I'm now going to assemble the envelope.
And I like to use a tape for this,
a really, really strong tape.
So I'm going to be using
some Xpress-It tape,
and I just put that down on the flap,
and I don't go all the way to the corner.
This is the bottom flap, by the way.
I go to, you know, just a
little bit away from that.
That's because when I
fold up this bottom flap,
you'll be able to see that
the very tip top of that flap
is exposed, and I want it to
tape all the way to the inside,
so I just reserved that area.
I'm almost done with my envelope.
The last thing to do is to
make it water-resistant.
I'm using Distress Microglaze,
and I just use a mini-round
blending tool for this
because I don't like to
get my fingers all messy.
So I just dip a mini-round
blending tool in there
and then start to apply the microglaze.
And this goes over every
single section of the envelope,
except for the postage stamps,
and that's because this
microglaze puts a slick surface
or a slick coating across
wherever you apply it,
and if you put it over the postage stamps,
then the postal service
cannot cancel the stamps,
and they run into issues that way.
After you initially apply the microglaze,
buff it in with a paper towel,
and then you're finished.
So here's my envelope going
out to Kriste very soon.
I have no idea if she is a Batman fan,
but I kind of have an idea
that she probably loves ink blending
and getting fun things in the mail,
so I can't wait to send this out.
So thank you so much for
watching today's video.
This used a brand-new product
from the Stamptember release
from Simon Says Stamp.
Check out the link below
to see the entire release.
There are so many fun new products.
I can't wait for you guys
to get them in your hands
and start creating with them.
Onscreen, I've got three more
videos for you to check out.
These are going to be Mail Art videos,
as well as my livestream,
going over the entire Stamptember release.
Thanks for watching,
and I will see you guys in
another video very soon.
