Seed Paper - Making a Valentine’s Day Gift

Alicia W
by Alicia W
6 Materials
$5
2 Hours
Easy
Now that we’re in Old Man Winter’s clutches, I’m wishing for days filled with warm weather and planting in my garden. A trip to my garden center answer my wish...Seeds for sale!
I couldn’t resist buying some seeds but it’s early to even start plants so I decided to make something with them - seed paper.
While I was at the store, I picked up a sliding window screen to use for this project.
You need to remove the corner pieces (circled in blue), they just pop off. By removing them you have two screens to work with.
Gather your junk mail and any recycled paper. Remove the cellophane windows (red “X”s) and throw them away. You don’t want to use them for this project.
Tear the paper into small pieces
Place the pieces into a bowl and cover with water.
Allow the paper to soak overnight.
Place the soaked paper into a blender (I have an old one that I only use for crafting) and add water.
Blend until you have the consistency of oatmeal, adding water as needed.
I also experimented using bath tissue.
A-I removed the center cardboard roll, placed it in a bowl and poured in water. The paper soaks immediately so you can being blending right away.
B-I placed half of the roll into the blender along with water and blended it
C-Until it was the consistency of oatmeal
For another twist, I blended the other half of the roll but this time I added glitter and blended it.
Once you have your blended paper,
A-Place a 8.5”x11” plan on your work surface.
B-Place one screen on top of the pan
C-Spread your blended paper on top of the screen (I apologize that my paper looks like dog food :()
Lay a sheet of wax paper on top of the blended paper
And roll with a rolling pin. This will squeeze the water out of the blended paper and the water will collect in the pan under the screen.
Once you have a lot of water squeezed out,
A-Lay your blended paper onto a heavy towel and sprinkle on your seeds
B-Lay another sheet of wax paper on top
C-Use a rolling to press the seeds into the paper and to squeeze out more water.
Place your seeded paper back onto your screen and allow to dry.
Once your paper is dry, you can cut or tear the paper into bookmarks
Or you can use cookie cutters and cut out shapes for party favors and/or gift tags by punching a hole and adding some ribbon.
You could also cut out hearts and use them as gifts for Valentine’s Day.
The possibilities are endless.
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Frequently asked questions
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  • Christie Decker Christie Decker on Dec 16, 2021

    Why not use recycled paper for this project? If you shred your waste paper (make sure no glossy or plastic pieces included) and soak it overnight, you can blend it easily in an old blender. Using that will reduce some waste and you can go from there with your instructions. I've done this with children at a Vacation Bible School. We used large cookie cutters to 'mold' our paper in, when you have blended the pulp, just pour it into a cookie cutter, and then made cards for the children to give away. They loved it, it reduced waste and was good for the environment. Blessings!

  • Floyd Floyd on Dec 18, 2021

    Could you plant these in the spring? Plant and add water?

  • Kelly Cason Kelly Cason on Jan 29, 2023

    You said to pour the blended paper over the screen which sits over a pan to catch the water, then to roll it with a rolling pen to extract some of the water. My question is, if you pressed on it at all, the screen would collapse. Am I missing something?

    I absolutely LOVE this idea!


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  • Syb76061887 Syb76061887 on Jan 30, 2023

    I have done this and just rolled out between two pieces of screen on flat service . If you don't have old screen you can squeeze as much liquid out with your hands and spread out as thinly as you want ( depending on what you are doing with finished project ) . I have made seed cards as gifts ( any shape you want ) they become a double gift because yes they can be planted . I love to do marigolds like this and plant as a border in my garden to help keep pest away . I've also scented with oil like cinnamon or clove . Later you can take the dried flower petals sprinkle on your wet paper and you can make beautiful stationary . The only thing to be careful of is to make as thin as possible because you don't want it to mold . If using screen you can always help it along with a blow dryer .


  • Smt51668926 Smt51668926 on Jan 30, 2023

    Glitter is not bio-degradable, I wouldn’t recommend using it, especially since you were specific about removing the cellophane.

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