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  • Time-Saving Printable Mail Art Made From TPK Tutorials (Includes a Freebie!)

    by

    Lindsey Bugbee

    , ,

    The envelope art tutorials on the TPK Blog are designed to inspire you to send beautiful mail. The only catch? Some of the tutorials take a couple of hours to make. If you’re short on time, consider using these printable versions of TPK’s most popular mail art tutorials!

    Printable Mail Art Made From TPK Tutorials (Includes a Freebie!)
    I recently turned eight TPK mail art tutorials into high-resolution printables. You can find them here!

    The TPK Blog has a treasure trove of mail art tutorials, most of which aren’t exactly quick. With two small children running around, a book to work on, and a website to run, I only get the chance to make a highly embellished envelope once every month (if that)! I’d like to send more mail art, and thinking about that made a light bulb go off. I realized that there are a lot of gorgeous mail art motifs here on the TPK blog, and I have high-resolution scans of many of them. So, I set out to make printable mail art templates for myself, and I hope that you can use them, too!

    Meet the TPK Tutorial Printable Mail Art Templates

    Printable Mail Art Templates

    Most of the TPK tutorial printable mail art templates were created from tutorials that are here on the site. These tutorials include:

    Two of the templates — the “Tiles” motif and the “Henna Bluebird” motif — don’t have tutorials attached to them, but they’re still gorgeous to look at!

    Hand-Drawn Tiles Envelope Art | The Postman's Knock
    The “Tiles” motif was created from a scan of this mail art.

    With eight different designs, there’s something for everyone and every occasion.

    Printable Mail Art | The Postman's Knock
    Printable Mail Art | The Postman's Knock

    You can find all these templates in the TPK Catalog. Print them off as many times as you like on your preferred paper! (My favorite paper for printable mail art is 32# premium laserjet, which I use in my inkjet printer. The paper has a nice heft to it and accommodates calligraphy ink.)

    download these 8 mail ART TEMPLATEs

    How to Assemble the Templates

    Once you print out a template, you’ll notice a light gray outline around the design.

    Printable Mail Art Templates

    Cut the template along the gray guidelines, and the result will look something like this:

    Mail Art

    Flip the piece around such that the artwork is facedown on your work surface. Then, fold the bottom flap up.

    Folding Mail Art
    I like to fold my flap up over a flat ruler, which allows me to make straight folds. A thick piece of cardstock or chipboard would work well for this, too! (You can, of course, fold the flap up without using any tools.)

    If you want crisp folds, you can use a bone folder to reinforce the creases.

    Using a bone folder

    Next, fold the side flaps inward. Then, fold the top flap down. Use your favorite glue to affix the side flaps to the bottom flap.

    Gluing envelopes together
    You can choose whether to glue the side flaps on top of the bottom flap or under the bottom flap. Go with whatever you find to be most aesthetically pleasing!

    Then, flip the envelope over, add calligraphy or lettering, and put on a stamp to send your envelope. If you would like to see inspiration for how to position your address and/or what writing styles to use, see the original mail art tutorials (listed in the “Description” portion of the TPK Tutorial Printable Mail Art Templates listing). 

    A Printable Mail Art Freebie

    I made a printable freebie to supplement the eight templates, which you can download here. It was created from a scan of the mail art featured in the Hand Drawn Frame Tutorial.

    Hand-Drawn Frame Mail Art

    To add festivity and color to this motif, try splashing a bit of watercolor onto it and affixing more than one postage stamp, as shown below.

    Hand Drawn Frame Tutorial | The Postman's Knock
    I used Amy Style calligraphy to write the address on this mail art.

    No matter how you choose to embellish the free hand-drawn frame mail art, I’m confident that you’ll love the result! (If you’re anything like me, you’ll also love the time you save by opting to print. It takes a while to draw everything by hand!)

    DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE MAIL ART TEMPLATE HERE

    I hope that you can use these mail art templates to save time and pretty up your outgoing mailbox! Thanks so much for reading, and happy mail-making. 💌

    Warmly,

    Lindsey's Signature | The Postman's Knock

    *This post contains affiliate links to Amazon