Frugal Friday: Home Made Holiday Envelopes - Part 2

This week I am going to show you part two of making your own holiday envelopes, lick & stick glue.

The recipe is pretty simple, gather up your ingredients:


Homemade Holiday Envelopes
Small Paintbrush
White Vinegar
Unflavored Gelatin
Flavored Extract (optional)

In a small saucepan, bring 6 tablespoons of vinegar to a boil, then reduce the heat to low.


Add four packets of unflavored gelatin to the vinegar, and stir until the gelatin is dissolved. The smell is pretty strong and vinegary…do not inhale, in fact I turned on my stove fan to suck up as much of the smell as I could.


Remove the pan from the heat and add a tablespoon of flavored extract, if desired. Mix well.

Determine the overlap of your homemade envelope. If you are using the .pdf I designed, the overlap is approximately ½ inch.

Using a small paint brush, apply a strip of the glue to the top edge of the envelope flap and let dry.




When you are ready to use the envelope, simple lick (or otherwise lightly wet) the glue and seal….simple!

You can store the left-over glue in a small container. When the glue has cooled, it will be thick and semi-firm….to use it again, simple heat the container in a small bowl of warm water. Do not add water to the glue to thin it out.


So was the experiment worth it? Here is the tally:

Cost: I had a bit of trouble finding the unflavored gelatin, but a box of 32 packets (way more than I needed) was $9. Otherwise, the other ingredients were in my kitchen cabinets.
Time: The cooking part of making the glue only took a couple of minutes. Applying the glue to 23 envelopes…another five minutes.
Skill Level: basic

There you have it, Lick and Stick Glue…easy peasy and cheap cheap!