I made these to hold the sticks of incense we will be handing out to guest, but they would be great to put sparklers or confetti in too. I used my wedding theme; stars to embellish them but you can find stamps in every pattern so coordinating with your wedding would be easy. Most of the supplies for this project came from Wal-Mart and the dollar store. You can coordinate the paint, ribbon and card stock to perfectly match your wedding.

Materials Needed

Sponge stamp, star pattern ($2.99 Wal-Mart)
Glue Stick ($1, dollar store)
Navy Craft paint ($1.89 Wal-Mart)
Silver Craft paint ($1.89 Wal-Mart)
White standard size card stock ($2.99 for 120 sheets, Wal-Mart)
2 small paintbrushes (pack of 5 for $1, dollar store)
Scissors
Hole punch (a regular round one works just fine but I used a star shaped one)
Newspaper to protect your work surface
Ruler
Pencil
Curing ribbon ($2 dollar store)
Favors to fill them: I used incense (pack of 400 sticks for $5.99 dollar store) and strike anywhere matches (2 packs of 300 for $1.99 at Canadian Tire)

Instructions

1. Lay the newspaper down to cover your work surface and start with one colour of paint. Apply it to the stamp using the paintbrush for an even coat.
2. Starting in one corner place the stamp and press down evenly. Repeat this in a row; don’t worry about spaces in between the stamps they’ll be covered with the next colour to create the all over pattern.

• Don’t be too worried about if your stamping isn’t perfect the all over pattern hides lots of little flaws and after all this is handmade so it’s not supposed to be prefect!
  

3. When the paint starts to get too light on the paper put another coat on the stamp. When you’ve filled the page with the first colour of stamp, rinse and dry it.
4. The repeat with the second colour of paint stamping in between the first rows of stamps so they slightly over lap.
5. Continue to stamp more sheets of paper while the first ones dry.
6. When dry its time to fold it in to the envelope. With the paper facing you width wise, measure 2” down from the top on both sides and mark, this will become the envelope flap. Fold the flap. You can use the edge of the ruler along the fold to make it more exact.

7. Fold the rest of the paper below the flap in half this makes the envelope.
8. Run a strip of glue along each side of the envelope. Be careful not to get any on the flap. Hold in place till the glue sets.
9. Put the flap down then using the hole punch make two holes that go through the flap and the envelope.

10. Put your items in the envelope. I put 4 sticks of incense with 4 strike anywhere matches in each one.
11. Cut a 4” piece of curling ribbon and thread through the holes, tie in a bow or curl the ends.
12. Attach a favor tag if you want.

The finished product!

These are very easy to make especially if you form an assembly line. I made 80 with a friend in about two hours. She was stamping and I assembled. It’s a unique alternative to buying a favor bag or box and much cheaper. The total cost for eighty was $21.74 and I have paint, ribbon, glue, matches and paper left over. You could also make them using larger sizes of paper for bigger envelopes, or using specialty papers to match your décor.