I saved money today by making a special gift envelope for my sister using a flashy magazine cover, above. Instead of a boring white envelope, her birthday card will arrive with a bang! Here’s how I did it – for the cost of postage.

I gently pulled off the cover of freshHOME, a magazine that has a really nice glossy cover. (They recently had a story on making your own mosaic pot.) I placed my sister’s card in the middle of the cover at an angle so that the upper left corner of the card and bottom right corner of the card each touch opposite edges of the paper. I folded over each corner so they met and secured my folds with a strip of clear packing tape. Afixed a stamp, return address label, and a blank label on which I wrote her address, and put it in the mail.

Here is a series of photos to illustrate this neat way to make your own envelope!

Using magazine covers, maps, or customized word puzzles, is a fun and free way to wrap a present or card.