I mail a lot of stuff including bulky items so I have a few tips. First the machines don’t like unevenness most of all. So there are a few ways to make your envelope flat on all sides. First you can add a piece of box/chip board over your card. This is best for hard embellies like rhinestones that aren’t too high.







You can also add padding AROUND the embellies. This makes the whole card surface even. I do this by adding thin packing foam. You’ll often find it in packages you buy with electronics or other small components. You can also buy it in rolls. I just save it when I get some. This works for even delicate embellies like paper flowers. I trim as many pieces as needed to equal the height of them embellies and then add a sheet or two depending on how thick the foam is. Then I carefully trim holes in it where the embellies are. I use Washi to secure it to the card. This is far better and often more economical than a bubble mailer.







For a card covered in delicate embellies I make a ‘collar’ for it. I measure the height of the tallest embellie. Then I cut a long strip (or more than one and staple together) of box board and stand it up like a little fence around my card. I fill any low areas with the same foam technique as above. Then I add a ‘lid’ with tape. And Washi tape the card on the reverse side to keep it centered in the collar.







If you still worry about your envelope vs a bubble mailer, add packing tape to the outside of your envelope. (Not over the postage) I’ve gotten a lot of packing tape sealed envelopes and lots of bubble mailers and the packing tape covered ones are far sturdier.







Pay attention to the rules of your post office. In Canada, you can mail a half-sized Manila envelope for the same cost as a regular card or business letter size. So mailing two cards side by side costs much less than mailing them stacked on top of each other. Also, don’t assume a thicker envelope will have to be sent as a package. I know it’s only 1/4” in the USA but in Canada and maybe other countries, we can send up to 3/4” as a letter. But if you go into the PO and ask for your ‘parcel’ to be sent, that’s how they will send it even if there’s a cheaper option. Sometimes asking, ‘what’s the cheapest possible way to get this to the address’ will get you a lower price. And always ask for a rate guide or print on out online. I’ve challenged the price given to me at the PO and suddenly ‘Oh, I didn’t know you wanted it sent that way’.









As for calculating the cost, I was fortunate enough to get a mail sorter template from my local PO when they changed a number slightly. But you could make one yourself.




https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.spl...7d6ef7078c.jpg I hope you can see it. Photographing something clear is very hard! The full size is quite large (for parcels) but even if you make a cut out in sturdy board for the allowable thickness, it might help a lot. I’ve found that if I’m mailing a card and then add something else (like stickers or a note if it’s a card I’m selling), it can make the card too thick for the lowest rate. But if I use a larger envelope or sometimes even shift the extra thing over a bit, away from thicker parts of the card, I can avoid paying more!









I use a small cheap scale ($12) from amazon to weigh my envelopes. It works in grams or oz and includes small fractions so I can be very accurate. I’ve never had to pay more due to an envelope being over weight. So between measuring them with my template, weighing them and being creative with how I lay everything out, I’m kind of a cheap mailing expert. Yep, I over analyze it but because I swap Art a lot, I am buying about $30-40 worth of postage every 4-6 weeks so I have to be frugal. Hope this helps.