Turning a Crafty Ebook Into a Cool Gift part 3: Felt CD Envelope

Today’s project in our ebook-gifting series a simple-but-pretty felt envelope. You can easily buy your favorite crafter an ebook, save it onto a CD, and then package it in one of these cuties.

Today, I’m making these for two of my favorite food ebooks: Hitchhiking to Heaven Prizewinning Recipes, by Shae Irving, and (Not So) Sweets, by Pam Harris (aka my Mom). I had fun picking out jam-like colors for one, and sweet pinks and whites for the other.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Two sheets of felt in colors that coordinate with your ebook’s cover
• One ebook, saved to a CD
• One print-out of the ebook cover (more on that below)
• This awesome downloadable pattern
• Two buttons, at least 3/4″ in diameter
• 10″ length of 1/8″ wide ribbon or ric rac
• More ric rac for trim (optional)
• Scissors
• Tacky Glue
• Embroidery floss and needle

So, download the pattern and follow its instructions to cut out the pieces. You’ll need one front, one back, one flap, and one cover window.

Next, you’ll need to print the cover of your ebook at a smaller size, so it fits on the envelope. I usually print an 8 1/2″ x 11″ cover at 25%. Look at your printer dialog box for a “Scale” capability, like you see here. You might also want to print it on some card stock or photo paper, so you get the cleanest version possible.

(Alternatively, you could print the cover full-size and shrink it on a copier.)

Cut the cover out so it’s about 1/4″ smaller on all sides then the felt Cover Window piece.

Then, lightly glue the cover to the center of the envelope front. (The front, by the way, is the taller of the two envelope pieces.)

Put a little glue on the cover window, and then press it lightly over the cover piece, making sure everything’s centered.

If you like, you can add a little embroidered embellishment at this point. I’m doing a simple running stitch here, but if you’re into stitchery, you could do all kinds of other stitches.

Now, we need to sew on the two buttons that form the closure. Take the envelope flap and lay it over the envelope back, matching the top edges. Position one button on the center of the flap and the other on the center of the envelope, about 1/4″ under the flap. Stitch these buttons securely in place.

Set the flap aside for a moment. Pin the envelope front and back together, matching the bottom edges and sides. (See how the front piece will stick up a little at the top? That’s what you want!)

Sew the pieces together along the two sides and the bottom. I’m hand-sewing with a whip stitch here. You could also pop these onto your sewing machine, if you wanted to do it faster. My pattern has a 1/8″ seam allowance built in, so just keep your stitching 1/8″ from the edges of the felt.

Now it’s time to add the flap. Line it up with the top edge of the envelope front (the part that’s sticking up).

Stitch the flap to the envelope front. Be careful not to catch the envelope back in your stitching – you don’t want to sew your envelope shut!

To finish off your closure, just put a little bead of tacky glue under the button on the flap…

…And then press the end of a strand of ribbon into that glue. Let it dry for an hour or so.

Now you can wrap the ribbon around the buttons to close your envelope! For the pink one, I used some narrow ric rac instead. You could also use some yarn.

If you like, you can also add some other embellishments. I like to glue a ric rac border to the cover window. But there are approximately one bazillion other crafty possibilities (give or take).

I like to slide my CD in, still in its paper envelope. (The pattern is sized for this). You can certainly put the CD right into the felt envelope, but I’m probably over-paranoid about scratches. Anyway, go ahead and slide in your CD, with or without a paper sleeve. And that’s it!

About the Ebooks:

(Not So) Sweets, by Pam Harris, is a collection of delicious dessert recipes for people who can’t eat sugar. (I can say “delicious” with authority, as I have eaten them all.) Learn more, and get your copy, here.




Hitchhiking to Heaven: Prizewinning Recipes by Shae Irving is a gorgeous collection of jam and jelly recipes, combined with all kinds of helpful tips and tricks. You can read my review here, and score your own copy here.








This presentation would also be great for:

Social Media for Your Crafty Business (by me!) is a good starter book for crafters looking to jump into marketing on Twitter and Facebook. You can read more and order a copy over here.