Envelope Art Inspiration {Recent Happy Mail}

| Allison

Hello, dears!

If you’re using letters and mail to keep in touch right now… first of all, YAY FOR YOU. I can tell you, getting a letter in the mail will mean so much more to your friends and family than getting another email or text.

Secondly, if you want to take your letters to the next level, try decorating the envelope for extra fun. There’s all SORTS of ideas you can find, from simple patterns that literally anyone can do to beautiful illustrations if you like art.

So anyway, today I wanted to show you some of my envelope art in case you’re in need of inspiration. 😉 I hope you enjoy!

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Alrighty, let’s get started. I’m going to hand these to you in no particular order, so some of them will be a little out of season since they’re not ALL very recent letters. 😉 First up we have this misty watercolor forest accented with my favorite gold paint pen. 😀 I love the gold and blue together!

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Sometimes I add coordinating “extras” or goodies into my letters, like this one. I used some leaf printables to set the theme with the envelope art. Then I decorated some pressed leaves with, again, the gold paint pen, and carried it over to some quote cards. Also, tip: if you have multiple pages you want to keep together, try punching a hole at the top corner and tying a rubber band through it. 🙂

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A close up of the quote cards… I love sending and receiving quotes and verses! Isn’t that quote from Les Mis great?

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Sometimes the simplest envelopes are the most fun to make. I used a couple of Sharpie paint pens and a white gel pen to draw hearts all over this kraft paper envelope – super easy but cute!

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If you have some simple patterns on your envelope, try carrying them over to the margin of plain notebook paper. Voila! Easy stationery.

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Another themed letter and OH MY, am I still using that same pen? :’D What can I say? I love it. This is the one I have, if you’re interested. For this letter I also edged the paper in washi tape, added a lyric card, and included a magazine picture and some coordinating tea. 😉

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Here’s another simple pattern idea. I painted the background with gouache paint, then added flower-like designs and gold dots on top.

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(Bleh, sorry for the bad picture.) I really like sending playlists to friends as well as stickers or pamphlets/flyers pertaining to things I talk about in the letter. And for this envelope, I made kind of a geode pattern with different colored wavy stripes. It’s quite fun to make. 🙂

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Ooh, I love this one. I feel like I’ve posted this on here before but maybe not? Anyway, I used the negative painting technique with watercolor to decorate both the envelope and coordinating bookmark. It took a looong time, but I love the finished result. I don’t know if I sent those buttercups in the letter or not, but pressed flowers are a fun extra. (Just fold them in the letter so they don’t get crushed.)

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Ooh, this is one of my favorites! I recently discovered that Posca pens look amazing on kraft envelopes. They’re basically acrylic paint in a pen, so you could probably get a similar effect with a brush and paint.

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Heh, I liked this better before I added the address and stamp. 😛 That’s usually how it goes.

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It’s also fun to repeat a bit of the pattern on the front of the envelope and carry it over to the back flap.

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Another one of my favorites! I bought a tiny composition notebook at Dollar General and wrote the letter in that after I decorated the cover. 🙂 I used the same patterns and papers for the envelope – a collage of brown paper, gouache paintings, dried herbs, and magazine scraps; all covered with packing paper to protect it.

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Writing a letter in a notebook is quite fun, but if you write less than 20-page letters usually (I think that’s my average for this pen pal O.o), you’ll probably have to tear out some pages to fill it all.

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I made this one based on a design I really liked that I did before Inktober. You can see it in this post.  I liked it on brown paper better, but I still enjoy the effect of the white gel pen linings here. 🙂

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Heh, so I pretty much blurred all of this out since the main decoration for this envelope was lettering for the address, but… it looked pretty in real life! XD I really like the way gold pen looks on gouache. (But let’s be honest – by now we all know I just really like the gold pen. Ahem.)

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Sometimes I’ll write a bible verse or quote on the back of the envelope to spiff it up a bit. I love this verse!

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Here’s another collaged envelope. These are super fun to make, oh my! Just gather scraps of paper, stickers, pressed flowers, washi tape, etc. in coordinating colors, then layer it on semi-randomly and glue it down. If you’re putting it on the outside of an envelope, again, put packing tape on the outside to protect it.

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I actually used a dip pen and gold ink to write this quote. IT WAS SO FUN. XD

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We shall end with another pretty Posca flower envelope. I really like the yellow sparkles and dots around this one – it gives it more of a magical feeling. Or maybe makes you want to sneeze if you’re allergic to pollen. *shrugs* XD

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So… yep! That’s all the envelope art I have for you today, my friends. I hope you enjoyed that and were able to collect some inspiration for making your own little works of art. 🙂 Also, don’t feel intimidated if you want to make envelope art but don’t feel artistic. You can truly just use some washi tape or a layer of paint and it will look lovely. ❤

If you want beautiful paintings on your envelopes but don’t want to make them, check out my Etsy shop here for some pretty printed options with my art on it. 🙂

Which envelope design was your favorite? How do you decorate your mail (or do you prefer plain and simple)? Isn’t getting a letter so lovely?

Thanks so much for reading, dears, and have a lovely day!

***Allison***

81 thoughts on “Envelope Art Inspiration {Recent Happy Mail}”

  2. My favorite envelope is the flower one for Anna. I like simple envelopes. Sometimes I draw little hearts or smiley faces on mine. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE getting letters!!! I have 5 pen pals. I wrote a 3 page long letter to one of my pen pals for our one year pen pal anniversary! How many pen pals do you have? Have a great day!
    -Lrose5

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    1. That was definitely one of my favorites too. That’s lovely! Simple envelopes are quite fun to make. ME TOOOOO! That sounds so fun. I have… somewhere around nine pen pals? More than enough to keep up with, ha ha! I love writing to them.

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  3. These are all absolutely GORGEOUS!!!! ❤ ❤ You are a wonderful artist; I wish my extremely un-artistic self had some of your abilities! 😉 I've been writing lots of letters during quarantine; they are so fun to send and receive! 🙂 Lovely post!

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    1. THANK YOUUU! Aww, well I encourage you to keep practicing and making art for fun because you really do improve (at least that’s how it works for me 🙂 ). YES, this is the perfect time for happy mail. So glad you enjoyed!

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    1. Ooh, really? I hope you get to because letter-writing is pretty therapeutic and so enjoyable. You don’t have to make envelopes like mine to send a good letter, of course. 😛 Well thanks, Elaine. You’re good for mine too. ❤

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  5. Wow! I love all of these! I’ll decorate my envelopes sometimes, but I’ve never gotten this elaborate. (Most of my fancy art goes on the letter.) Perhaps I should give this a try, though. You’ve sparked my creativity!

    Oh, and I love the verse from Psalms. It’s from one of my favorite passages. 😀

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    1. I’m so glad you like them! Oh that’s a great idea to make art on the letter. That way you get to enjoy while you’re reading. I used to do that but don’t much anymore, sadly. Well YAY! That always makes me happy. Have fun! 🙂
      Yesss, it’s so beautiful. One of my pen pals, actually, sent that verse a long time ago in a letter and I’ve loved it ever since.

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    1. Ha ha! Well most of my letters aren’t that long, but I guess they maybe average 6-8 pages? 5 pages sounds like a great amount! 🙂
      I’m so glad you liked the post, Maya! ❤

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  8. Aaah, those are so pretty, Allison! I particularly like the Posca flower ones. 🙂 Pen pal writing is a lot of fun! It is much more exciting to get a letter in the mail instead of a text message or email! I definitely want to get into enevelope art, but I am not super artistic. 😆

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    1. Eeeep thank you! I love those too. YES, I totally agree. And don’t feel like you have to make super elaborate art – even just, like, some washi tape or fun patterns look so cute! 🙂

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  9. These were just BEAUTIFUL Allison! 😀 What a wonderful job that you did! I can tell that you put real effort into your envelopes and cards! Keep up the wonderful work! 😉

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  11. I absolutely LOVED these!! You are so creative, they are GORGEOUS!!! And yes, I can attest to the fact your Etsy envelopes are epic!!! ❤ 😀

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  14. Wonderful post! Your art is beautiful! During quarantine, I’ve been doing a lot of letter writing and let me just say, it’s sooo fun!! There’s a certain feeling you get when you are holding an un-opened letter from a friend that is so special. I especially love decorating envelopes, it’s my new obsession XD so this post was perfect!

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  22. I like the flowers on top of the blues of Aria’s 2nd one. The whole theme reminds me of fireworks/New Year’s.
    Ahhh the bookmark is so cool! And I love the way the flowers pop on the brown paper too! ❤
    And of course I love mine with all the shades of blue! And gold pen! XD Gold pen is definitely the best art supplies. XD The verse on the back was definitely perfect for right now too. ❤
    Oooooh you actually have a quill pen that you have to dip into ink? That's so cool! Does it work well?

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    1. Ooh yeah, you’re right! I love seeing how people view my pictures or art differently than I do, ha ha. That’s so neat.
      ME TOOO!
      Hee hee, that one was SO fun to make. And yes. *nods vigorously* I’m so glad you liked the verse on the back because yes, I thought the same thing!
      YESSS. I forgot I had one and rediscovered it the other day. 🙂 Well wait… actually it’s not a quill pen, it’s a dip pen, so it has a metal tip. You know those calligraphy pens? Anyway, that’s what it is. It works… well I don’t know it compares to other dip pens, but it seems decent! It’s hard to write evenly and quickly since you have to keep refilling, but it’s a lot of fun to use. 🙂

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  25. AHHH all of these are stunning! 🤩🤩 I absolutely adore your past few collage envelopes. They’re definitely some of my favorite ones ever! I can’t wait to get started on your envelope + letter this weekend. 🙂

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  26. THESE ARE ALL SO BEAUTIFUL!! I loved all of them and that gold pen is so pretty! The flowers are my favorite and those Kraft decorated envelopes are so NICEE! 😀 Loved seeing all of these happy envelope art, friend.
    *hugs to you sis
    -kaelyn 😛

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  27. You make your correspondence so personal to the recipients. I am sure that it makes their day and longer. I have always drawn on my envelopes but not so detailed. Thank you for very inspiring post. I ❤ reading it and seeing your artwork.

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