One of the most prominent tips for Etsy sellers and others in the craft and handmade communities is to make your packaging special. Your customer should feel special when opening their purchase. Many crafts people excel in this area, the rest of us lack the time or inspiration to make beautiful, handmade packaging. This week I plan to share a series on handmade eco packaging with a little twist; it is handmade by someone other than you. You can purchase handmade eco packaging elements to decorate and ship your handmade products. Let’s start with envelopes.
There was an overwhelming response to our recent story on Recycling Grocery Bags into Eco Packaging. A quick search on Etsy revealed several sellers that offer eco-friendly handmade packaging and shipping envelopes. Most are about $1 or less per piece. If you can’t make your own packaging, consider supporting handmade and buy your packaging from another crafter. Here are my top picks for envelopes:
- One smart crafter found good use for all those beautiful catalog images that would otherwise end up in the landfill. Karen of Ecogeneration offers these great Upcycled Junk Mail Inner Envelopes. Karen also uses upcycled grocery bags to make outer envelopes for her own shipping needs.
Cassandra of Sunlit Orchard makes gorgeous recycled brown paper bag envelopes using decorative stitching. Technique is an advanced version of what I used for the Security Pattern Business Card Envelopes.
Anna of Lila Ruby King makes these cute little hand-printed map paper envelopes. The envelopes are created from surplus map paper. She uses them for test prints when she is gocco printing and to use up any left over ink on hand. I love how the map paper is on the inside of the envelope.
For the ultimate shipping durability check out these fused plastic mailers made by Stacy of FluffnFixings.
You can choose your own size for these Vintage Map Envelopes by Tatiana of Russian Forest. You could make your own recycled paper envelopes or simply choose from 9 different sizes and your set of envelopes will be handmade for you from vintage atlases.
If you don’t want to make your own business card envelopes, support handmade and buy these japanese magazine business card envelopes by Nina of Noodles After 12.
Amelia of Bombus recycles old books into gorgeous envelopes perfect for sending a greeting card or packaging up a small product.
Stay tuned for more Eco Packaging Handmade For You. Also read:
- Eco Packaging Handmade For You: Tapes and Ribbons
- Eco Packaging Handmade For You: Let Them Know You Care
[Image 1 and 3 by Cassandra Cook for Sunlit Orchard, Image 2 by Karen for EcoGeneration, Image 4 by Anna for Lila Ruby King, Image 5 by Stacy for Fluffnfixings, Image 6 by Tatiana for Russian Forest, Image 7 by Nina Cruz for Noodles After 12, and Image 8 by Amelia for Bombus]
Very cool! I love to turn junk mail envelopes and envelopes sent for paying bills inside out and use them for mailing letters (since I pay bills online).
Love these ideas and will be using them!
These are all so FABulous. How creative and well done!
I have seen these a cople of time now and have been wondering…. do you put these through the Mail??? does the postoffice make you use white stickers for the addresses??
I’m so glad other people are doing like me and making handmade envelopes out of old children’s books and art brochures.
This is awesome! Will save me and more importantly, the earth!
super ideas and sooo beautiful, too! Happy to find you today! – vicki xo
super ideas and sooo beautiful, too! Happy to find you today! – vicki xo
(name corrected)
We watch or read news about global warming and problems on waste management but it seems that most of us are still naive or clueless as to what to do in order to conserve our natural resources.
At home or at work, we can show that we care by opting for eco-friendly items and by being practical.
I have read another piece on getting organized at home to avoid the clutter
and mess:
http://family.go.com/household/article-838900-how-a-work-station-can-help-your-kids-t/
These days, everyone should try to reuse or at least recycle their used items as an effort to minimize our waste in dump sites. This also helps us exercise our practicality as almost all our commodities are becoming expensive. Try shredding your old mail, calendars and other documents to be used as package filling or pet bedding if you have animals at home. Paper documents, old newspapers as well as plastic containers can be recycled and used in various purposes.