Fabulous & Fun Fridays - How To Make a Decorative Bubble Mailer Tutorial

I love Fridays! It's the start of the weekend, the end of the week and I always have such high hopes going into it!    I wanted to do something fun for Fridays on the blog so each week we will feature something new, exciting and different!  Today I have put together a really fun tutorial that I'm sure all of us could make use of being in the business of Etsy.  I am going to teach you how to make a decorative bubble mailer for under $1.  Not only is this project very affordable but it's incredibly simple and won't take up much of your time at all.  Mailing your product out to your customers in one of these is sure to make a statement and get you noticed!

Decorative Bubble Mailer

Here is a list of materials that you are going to require to make this bubble mailer...

• 2 pieces of decorative paper/scrapbooking paper cut to the exact same size (can be any size you like and the pieces can either match or not, that's totally up to you how you want to design your mailer)
• Bubble Wrap
• Ruler
• Sharp Knife & Scissors
• Glue tape (you can get this at most dollar stores)
• Double sided tape
• Krazy Glue or hot glue gun
• Pencil

First you are going to want to start with 2 pieces of decorative paper that are exactly the same size, they can be any size you want your mailer to be.

Next you will measure down 1.75 inches on one of the pieces of paper and mark with your pencil and ruler on the back of the paper

With your sharp knife and your ruler cut along the line that your just marked, the small piece that you cut off is garbage or can be used else where in another project but you don't need it here

Now you will need your bubble wrap, using the measurements from the smaller piece of decorative paper that  you just cut to size you can measure out 2 pieces of bubble wrap the exact same size as it.

Now using your glue tape apply it evenly over the backs of both pieces of decorative paper ensuring that you  get all the way around the edges of the smaller piece and you only go up to the size of the bubble wrap on the  larger piece, do not apply glue to 1.75 inches of one end of the larger piece of decorative paper as this is going to be your flap of the mailer.

Once you have applied your glue tape to both pieces of decorative paper you are ready to apply your bubble wrap with the bubble side against the glue so that the flat side is facing out.

Once you have applied the bubble wrap to both pieces you will want to check around all the edges to make sure that you don't have any bubble wrap sticking out along the sides as this will make your mailer look messy.  If you find that you do the best way to fix this is by using your ruler and a sharp knife, scissors don't work very well for this.  Now comes the fun part, you will need to go around all the sides and make sure that all of the bubbles that are along the edges have been popped and have no air in them as the air will cause you to not get a good seal along the edge.  If you find any bubbles that still have the air just pop them and they will be good to go.  I told you it would be fun! :)

Once you have everything glued, trimmed, straight, even and bubbles popped you are ready to attach the 2 sides to one another. I like to use either a hot glue gun or krazy glue for this.  You will want to ensure that the glue you are using for this is extremely strong and trustworthy as you don't want your package falling apart in the mail, that would be horrible. The other thing you will want to watch out for is glue that stains the paper because you don't want a glue stain all the way around the outside edge of your mailer as that won't look very nice either.  For the sake of this tutorial I used Krazy Glue.

Lay your larger side out on the table with the bubble wrap side up and start applying the glue nice and close to the edges along both sides and the bottom only.  Once you have applied the glue nice and even along those 3 sides carefully place the smaller side on top with bubble wrap side to bubble wrap side and seal all the edges tight.  Check along all sides to ensure that you have a good tight seal all the way around.

You are almost finished now!  All you need to do is apply a piece of double sided tape along the top flap and you will be finished your decorative bubble mailer.

Make sure you leave the strip of paper on the double sided tape until you are ready to use your mailer for shipping and at that point you can simply peel the paper off, fold the flap over and seal your mailer shut.

Won't your customers be impressed to find this in their mailbox with your product inside! All of which cost under $1 and only about 10 minutes of time to make.