Artline Monday - Christmas envelope art ideas

I love sending (and receiving!) Christmas cards, sometimes they are the main contact I have with some of my far flung family and friends over the year so I like to make them look as nice as possible before I send them out.  Last year I wrote about Christmas card calligraphy and this year I am building on that with some envelope art you can do to make your cards look extra special.  

All set for some envelope art

I have four different designs to share with you can today, some are quick and simple to do and others will take a little while longer.  It just depends on how much time you want to spend on them and how confident you are drawing on the envelopes.

Classic red and gold theme

My first design is a classic Christmas theme, I used my favourite gold Artline calligraphy pen to write the surname of my recipient and then drew some different styles of snowflakes in varying sizes with the Artline 900 and 999XF metallic pens.  I wanted to make the surname standout even more so I drew around it with my black fineliner to give it some depth.  Snowflakes are pretty easy to draw but if you don't know where to start you can copy mine or google "how to draw snowflakes" for some step by step instructions.  

If you don't want to write or draw directly onto the envelope with your pens (in case you make a mistake) you can do it lightly with a pencil first and then go over it in ink when you are happy with how it looks.  

Snowy theme

This second design can be done really quickly but I think it looks great!  I painted a layer of snow along the bottom of the envelope with a white poster marker and then drew two circles for the snowman.  I added some coal buttons, a hat, eyes and a smile with my black fineliner and a carrot nose, scarf and twig arms with my Supreme pens too.

I used the poster marker to write the surname of the family this card is going to followed by their address with the fineliner and then covered the rest of the space with falling snow.  I have left a small space clear for the postage stamp as I want to make sure it is stuck securely to the envelope when I send it.

Christmas decoration theme

The third design features lots of Christmas decorations dangling down along the top edge of the envelope.  I used my gold star stamper for a couple of the ornaments and then drew the rest by hand.  All the pens and poster markers I used to colour things in were metallic for that extra Christmassy feel!

After I had drawn all the decorations on this envelope I made a mistake on the name so instead of throwing it away and starting over again I adapted the design and corrected it by colouring around the name (and hiding my error) with the purple Supreme pen.  If you made a mistake take a minute to look at the envelope and see if you can think of a way to salvage it using the products you have.  If all else fails you could always stick a white address label over it and write on top of that instead.   

Fairy lights theme

My final design is my favourite one, I absolutely love fairy lights so I covered my envelope with a string of them.  I started off by drawing the twisted wire around the top and bottom edges and then added the light bulb shapes.  I chose traditional colours for the bulbs and coloured them in with my Supreme brush markers and a yellow paint marker.  I used the paint marker because the envelope is a grey/silver colour and I wanted the yellow to really standout against it.  I also used my metallic silver Supreme pen to colour in the bases that attach the bulbs to the wire.

After I wrote the surname I added an extra string of lights to make it look like the name was part of the wire connecting the fairy lights together.  The whole thing took me less than five minutes so you should be able to whizz through a stack of cards with this design in next to no time!

So have I inspired you to have a go at some envelope art?  I would love to see it if you do have a go!

Thanks for stopping by!