Recycling Tea Bags into Art Projects: How to Create Tea Bag Envelopes

A lot has been written about using tea staining in various projects, but what about sing the tea wrappers? Typically, I've thrown away the tea bags after steeping tea to drink or to stain pages with. Not anymore, though!

Steep your tea as you usually would, but rather than throwing away the bag, dry it on a flat surface. If you're the type who drinks a lot of tea or does a lot of tea staining, these bags will multiply in no time. If you're finding that it's taking too long to save the bags, ask your friends and family to save their bags aside for you.

TIP: caffeinated tea works best because it stains the bag more and creates a darker impression in the bag's creases. Herbal teas don't work well at all if you're looking for a dramatic tea stained look.

When you've collected ten or fifteen bags that have been dried completely, follow these steps for creating your handmade envelopes:
1: take apart the bags carefully and dump the tea into a separate container
2: remove any staples and discard
3: open all the tea bag so they're flat
4: using a glue stick, affix all the tea bags together
5: set aside to dry under a heavy stack of books

While your tea bag sheet is drying, take apart an envelope to use as a template. You can also find templates for sale and on line in various sizes. Here are some sites to visit:
1: The Paper Mill Store: free templates
2: Mirkwood Designs: free templates
3: Paper Source: reasonably priced templates
4: Paper Wishes: even more reasonably priced templates
5: Lots of template links: free templates

You've got your tea bags affixed to each other and you've got your templates together. Now, you need a pencil, a good pair of scissors, a steady hand and a bone folder.

Trace out your envelopes carefully and cut them out. Using the bone folder (the edge of the handle from your scissors work well, too), fold and assemble your envelope using the glue stick. Set your envelopes aside to dry under a heavy stack of books.