Typography Art Envelope Tutorial

Despite the popularity of minimalistic and modern design, I love the intricacy of vintage typography art. Put something in front of me with handwritten type and flourishes, and I’ll stare at it for hours. I also really enjoy making complicated, vintage-esque pieces {like the Cream with Coffee typography art}. Despite my fondness for typography, it hadn’t occurred to me to use it on an envelope until recently. I created the envelope below in walnut ink and posted it on Instagram — people seemed to like it, so I thought, hey, why not show you how to make your own?

I’m not going to lie to you: this isn’t a ten-second “wow-I-can’t-believe-it’s-so-quick!” project. You need to set aside at least 30 minutes for this baby. But — think of the look of enchantment on your letter recipient’s face when they open their mailbox. They may even let out a little gasp! Also, I can personally attest to the fact that it’s fun to make one of these while you’re watching/listening to a good show on Netflix. Just try it — really. You’ll thank me for helping you to feel so zen.

To make creating this envelope easy, I whipped up a free printable template for you, which you can click here to download. You’ll also need a regular pen or a calligraphy pen; you do not have to know how to use a calligraphy pen to make this envelope. I promise. I’m just using one because that’s what I’m comfortable using.

I made the template to fit an A7 {5.25″x7.25″ (~13 x ~18cm)} envelope. You’ll want to make sure you choose a light-colored envelope because you need to be able to see the template through it. As you get better at making vintage-esque flourishes and typography art, you can freehand and move on to dark envelopes and other colors of envelopes as well. For now, though, humor me and print out the template for use in a white or off-white envelope.

Once you print the template, cut it out, turn it around, and slip it in the envelope.

I know you can barely make it out in this photo, but in “real life” you can see through the envelope just enough to be able to trace over the template. If you have some sort of light box {or can DIY one … I shine a light up through a glass desk, works every time}, even better! If you don’t have a light box, you can also hold the envelope against a sunlit window. Or: you may be able to see through the envelope enough to not need any sort of aid to see the template. It all depends on the envelope!

I went ahead and traced over all the template lines in pencil — but you can skip this step and draw directly over the template with ink. Totally up to you. Pencil just makes it easier for me to show you — and myself! — what I’m doing. If this is your first time trying this tutorial, I’d go ahead and do it this way. As you create more typography art envelopes, you can trace directly over the template with a pen.

First, write in your address in the upper left corner. You’ll see on the template that the space to write the return address is denoted with dashed lines.

Next, write something like “PLEASE SEND TO”, “TO MY DEAR MR.”, “HAPPY HOLIDAYS” … whatever … in the space where I’ve written “PLEASE SEND TO” below.

Now, you’re going to write the letter recipient’s name. To add to the vintage appeal, I like to write their first initial and then their last name; it seems so nineteenth century. But — it’s your envelope, and you can do whatever you want with it! I’m afraid I can’t help you with the typography letters just yet, but I am planning on making a worksheet next month so you can make vintage typography art with beautiful alphabets. For now, write in whatever style you like! Calligraphy would look cool here, too.

Finally, write in the recipient’s address in the three lines at the lower right. If there’s an apartment number, try to include it in the first line.

Once you’re finished with all your address information, you can start going over the envelope with ink! Remember, a calligraphy pen really isn’t necessary. Use any old pen that makes you happy, be it a Pilot G2, a Bic Rollerball, etc.

Below, I’m getting fancy with an RPB left-handed oblique pen for flourishing. I thought it would be really difficult to use, but I really like it and have utilized it on several different occasions despite the fact I have only had it for a week. This pen makes my life easier when creating this envelope, but you’ll be set with a straight calligraphy pen {or, of course, just a regular ol’ rollerball}.

And, really, that’s it. Just trace over the template, and you’ll have a beautiful typography art envelope. Once you’ve traced, you can make sure elements of the template extend to the end of the envelope by lengthening lines. You can also fill in the floral-y knick-knacks I included in the template however you wish. If you scroll back up to look at the walnut envelope, you’ll see I filled them in with lines and more walnut ink. For the envelope I did for today’s blog post, though, I used Finetec gold watercolors. This envelope has a gorgeous sparkle to it!

Basically, the typography art envelope template gives you a good base design; but you have creative freedom to trace over it with whatever color you want, and fill in the spaces with whatever pattern/color appeals to you. I’d love to see what you come up with! You can always post on Facebook or Instagram; just be sure to cover up the street address with something like a pen {or do as I do and Photoshop the address}.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and that it inspires {and helps!} you to make some beautiful mail art. Thanks again for reading!

Warmest wishes,