I recently finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and I thought it was absolutely amazing. And of course, now I am obsessed with WW2, letter writing, and islands.
As an English Literature major, I’ve always loved letter writing and yearned for a time when letter writing was commonplace. Email, with its cold keystrokes, just isn’t the same. But after reading such a lovely book completely composed of letters, all I do these days is daydream about gorgeous vintage letters.
So what’s a girl to do? Naturally, make her own vintage letters. I created two templates and decided to post them here, in case you too wanted to create your own letter making magic. There are two sizes and can be downloaded by right-clicking on the images below and saving to your computer. (Each image must be saved separately.)
The envelope construction was simple. (Check out my YouTube tutorial depicting the entire process.) And yes, I know there are Cricut files and envelope punch boards to make envelope building a breeze, but there was something so authentic about tracing around the template with a scratchy lead pencil, feeling the rough texture of the coffee-dyed paper while cutting along each line and gluing the envelope together.
I created five envelopes — two small and three big — and decided I wasn’t done. I pulled out some used vintage stamps and a rubber postmark stamp and completed the letter look on the front.
I still wasn’t satisfied, though, and decided to trim some paper for accompanying letters, add some doilies and labels, and wrap them up with twine.
My vintage letters were finally complete. I stuffed each envelope and stacked them high, layering with muslin and lace before wrapping with thicker twine. I’m not sure what I’m going to use them for, but I know they are exactly what I have been dreaming of.
Till next time,
ginamakesit.com 
They are beautiful, and the book is a good read x
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Thank you!
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Love them
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What fabulous envelopes. Thank you for the templates. I need to read the book!
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These are just gorgeous! Thanks so much for sharing your templates and your inspiration. I read the book also. It is one of my favorites. Did you know there was a movie made from the book? I believe it was on Netflix. It was a good movie that stayed true to the book.
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Thank you Gina, I could relate to your every word, as an oldie, (77) letter writing and script has almost gone, it is so lovely to send and get an old fashioned letter and sometimes if you’re lucky a hankie would be inside with the letter, it was a weekly event for my mum to write to her mum and her sisters in Melbourne (we lived in the country) even now my grandkids call me “old School” dont really know what that means, most likely “old fashioned. So a big thank you for the envelope download and how your have created such a “want to hold” envelope keepsake xx Cheers and Hugs Sandra x
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