Making and Selling Envelopes from Recycled Magazines - Great Business for Kids!

Handmade Envelopes from Recycled Magazines

It's easy to make envelopes out of old magazines and catalogs if they have pages that are big enough and thick enough. It's also a good way to recycle, and they can be sold for money. Many businesses that use a lot of envelopes in their daily work might be interested in buying handmade envelopes from a kid businessperson. Just be sure to price your envelopes a little less than the ones selling in stores and office supply shops. 

You will need a brown envelope to use as a pattern, some scissors, tape, and a stack of old magazines. 

 

 

First you remove the staples from your magazines and lay your pages flat. If your pages are not big enough, you can always tape two pages together to get a sheet large enough to make an envelope. 

Using your brown envelope as a guide, fold your magazine page over and cut away any excess.

Use tape to secure the edge. Then, fold the bottom end up and tape it.

Then fold the other end over, but do not tape it. This will be the opening of the envelope.

Next, remove the brown envelope that you used as a pattern.

Your envelope is finished!






Envelopes made from recycled magazines can be very handsome, especially those made from magazines and catalogs that use a lot of color pictures. They are attractive, environmentally friendly, and unique. It is a great way for kids to earn money. Ask your parents to help you decide which businesses to approach to take orders.

Singing Telegrams

Photo: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Can you sing? Do you play guitar? A great way to make money is to offer a singing telegram service. These are especially popular around Valentine's Day, but can be done year-round. There are always occasions for a singing telegram. Anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, etc. Talk to your parents and see if they are willing to take you around to deliver your singing telegrams. Practice until you have several songs to offer to customers. Then advertise in local papers or put your flyer up on bulletin boards. You can even make a video of your great singing talent and post it on youtube.com.

For Valentine's Day, you can offer a choice of 3 or 4 love songs. For Christmas, you can work up several Christmas carols. And the same goes for all the other holidays. Even on non-holidays you can come up with some songs that people might need. Perhaps you could learn the song "I'm Sorry" for people who need to apologize, or "Happy Birthday" for people who want to send birthday greetings to someone they love. You could offer small cards, like florists do, that your customers can sign their name to and you deliver when you sing your song.

If you don't play an instrument, you could take along a recorder that will play the music and you can sing to that. You could charge up to $25.00 per singing telegram! It's a great way to make money using your talents.