How To Trim and Fold Printable Cards and Envelopes

Happy May, everyone!

May is one of my favorite months. There are lots of birthdays (including my own!), Mother’s Day, plus it is the official end of school and beginning of summer! What’s not to love?

Thanks to the Covid-19 situation, going to the store to pick up and read a ton of cards in my attempt to find just the right one, and knowing that countless others would have been doing the same thing, I needed a different option for Mother’s Day, which is just around the corner. So I worked up a sweet little card and envelope that I could print out, assemble, and send to my momma.

If you would like to do the same, you can find this and a few other Mother’s Day card options available as digital downloads in my Etsy shop.

In the meantime, if you’ve already got your card and envelope, and aren’t sure how to go about trimming and assembling, then you’re in the right place!

What You Need

Printable PDFs of the 5″ x 7″ card and A7 envelope template
Color printer
8.5″ x 11″ white cardstock for the card: nothing less than 65#, though I recommend 100# for a more professional look and feel
8.5″ x 11″ high quality printer paper or nothing more than 65# cardstock for the envelope
Ruler
Pencil & eraser
Scissors
Glue stick or white craft glue (not shown)

Printing

If you are printing from home, I recommend printing a single test copy first, to ensure your printer settings are correct.
Print at 100% scale or actual document size (8.5″x11″), be sure to check printer settings to make sure your “fit to page” is OFF.
Print at FULL COLOR – sometimes printers are defaulted to print in an ink-conserving document mode. Make sure this is turned off.
Colors may vary between monitors and when printed

Trimming Your Card

You will notice trim lines are provided on the PDF. Grab your ruler and your pencil and let’s get started!

First, use your ruler to line up the outer edges of your card. You will then trace VERY lightly along the edge of the ruler. Do this for each side, leaving you with a rectangular outline of your card. You’ll notice that there are markings for the center fold as well, but do NOT trace a line down the middle.

Once you’ve drawn each edge around your card, cut along those lightly traced lines, ever so slightly on the inside of the lines. This way, you’re not likely to have any remainder of your traced line. If you notice some however, just gently erase the pencil marks.

With your card trimmed, you’re ready to fold! This is as simple as lining up the short edges of your card and pressing down at the fold.

Pro Tip: make sure your card front is facing down so that you keep any possible residue left from your fingers relegated to the back of the card.

Once you’ve folded it, give it a nice firm crease by using the flat edge of something (like the end of your ruler) to press across the fold. This smooths out the fold and makes it look more professional.

That’s it for the card! It just needs you to personalize and sign the inside and then you’re ready to move on to the envelope!

Trimming and Assembling the Envelope

The first thing you’ll notice about the envelope template is that there is no line denoting the edge of the flaps. That is because when you cut the envelope out, you will cut straight from the edge. Go ahead and cut along the solid lines at each of the corners of the document.

Now that you’ve cut out the envelope, it’s time to fold. Make sure that you fold INWARD so that all the printed instructions of the template will not be visible on the exterior of the envelope. Instead, they will be hidden on the inside.

Start with the left and right side flaps of your envelope, then the bottom flap, and finally the top flap. Use the long edge of the ruler to score your fold line before pressing the fold with your finger. This will help to ensure you fold along the dotted line and not at an odd angle.

Once you’ve folded a flap, use the flat edge of the ruler to press the fold more firmly, just like we did above for the card. Repeat for each flap.

It’s starting to look like an envelope now, right?! Nice work, almost there!

Next you’ll need to borrow a glue stick or white glue from your kids. I opted to use a glue stick so that I could control the glue more easily, but if you only have white craft glue, just make sure your lines of glue are on the thin side.

Apply the glue along the left and right edges of the bottom flap. Particularly if you are using cardstock like I did, you will want to make sure there is a good amount of glue along that edge before you fold and adhere it. Go over it 5-10 times in thin lines with the glue stick. With the side flaps folded firmly inward, fold the bottom flap up and adhere the edges to the side flaps.

Alternately, if you’re using white glue from the bottle, lay down a thin bead of glue right along the edge. You don’t want so much that it will bleed out when you adhere.

That’s it! Your envelope is done and ready for stuffing. Once you’re ready to seal it closed, just grab your gluestick or white glue and apply to the long edge of the top flap, then fold down and adhere to the top of the bottom flap.

Need some quick ideas for gifts? I’ve gathered a bunch of ideas on my Mother’s Day Gift Ideas board on Pinterest. Might I suggest making a set or two of my Bumble Puff Beauty Biscuits? Pair with some luxury soap and a candle, for a mini spa set!

I hope this tutorial helped you out! Don’t forget to call your momma May 10th!

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