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Junk Mail to Flower Garden: How to Make Recycled Plantable Seed Tags
![Adrianne Surian](https://cdn-fastly.hometalk.com/media/profile/2015/02/08/2345790.jpg?size=91x91)
by
Adrianne Surian
(IC: blogger)
$25
1 Hour
Medium
If you're looking for a great project, this is one of my favorites. I recycled some of my junk mail to make my own paper tags, adding wildflower seeds so they can even be planted right in the ground to start your own flower garden!
These tags can be tied onto gifts (maybe a little pot, for planting!) or added to greeting cards to show your love of being green. They're also beautiful additions to wedding invitations and reception favors, ways to celebrate a new baby, or have a garden-themed party! After learning the technique for the first time, each tag only takes me about 2 minutes to make now.
Begin with an old blender, some of your pile of junk mail, small scraps of colored paper, wildflower seeds, a small framed screen (which I found at the hardware store), a plastic tub that the screen fits into, a cookie cutter, a sponge, a piece of wool felt, and some newspaper for drying your tags.
Add plenty of water to your blender, and a few scraps of blue paper, and blend it well to create your paper pulp.
Set the screen in the bottom of your plastic container, and fill it with enough water that it covers the screen by about 1/2 inch. Set your cookie cutter on top of the screen - the water should come up about halfway, but not go over the top of the cutter.
This next step seems confusing, but when you do it, you'll be amazed! Gently place a piece of wool felt over the pulp, and then place a dry(ish) sponge on top of the felt. Press most of the the water out of the tag through the screen, and absorb the water in the felt through the sponge. You may need to squeeze the excess water from your sponge more than once when you do this - the end result is that everything will be slightly damp, but not soaking wet. You'll know that enough water has been removed when you peel back the wool felt and the tag clings to the felt.
Finally, transfer the tags to your newspaper to dry by pressing the felt down on the paper. You will be squeezing the last bit of water onto the newspaper - the tags will automatically cling to whatever surface is the wettest, so you'll just need to squeeze more water into the paper than what's left in the felt. I never had any issues with the tags absorbing the newsprint ink, because the pulp you make will be slightly rough.
Enjoyed the project?
![Adrianne Surian](https://cdn-fastly.hometalk.com/media/profile/2015/02/08/2345790.jpg?size=91x91)
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Published April 18th, 2015 11:03 AM
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Cheryl on Apr 19, 2015
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Christina Bevins on Apr 19, 2015
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Adrianne Surian on Apr 20, 2015
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