Make Your Own Paper?

You may wonder why a website that sells Paper Stock may want to teach you how to make it yourself? Well, its great fun, an exciting thing to do with the children or friends and gives you an insight into how paper is made. At the end of all of that we hope you will consider buying some of our production and print ready paper over in our shop.

So what is seed paper? Seed paper is recycled paper that can be decorated, cut to size, incorporated into a range of products and given to your friends and family. Once they use the paper for its main purpose, they can plant it and seeds will grow.

The main ingredient in home made seed paper is recycled pulp. This is mixed with the seeds of your choice and then pressed into the shape you wish. You can use newspaper, printer paper, junk mail, old books or many other kinds of paper as your donor material - just avoid any glossy paper as this is really hard to pulp.

This simple paper making process doesn't require any special equipment. The end result is a textured paper with a more natural look than store-bought options.

Types of Seeds Used to Make Plantable Paper

You can use any seeds to make seed paper, but the smaller the better, our ranges include Wildflower Mix, Celosia, Rudbekia and Poppy. These would be a great place to start, but feel free to try any, we have seen some great papers made with herb seeds.

What do I need?

 

The good thing is, you dont need too much to make Seed Paper, the following is a list of tools and ingredients to have handy before you start.

• Paper, to make paper pulp
• Water
• Seeds
• Mixing bowl and blender
• Towels or cloths
• Cookie cutters to make tag shapes, if desired
• A piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper

Now stand back, this is messy and wet, your kids will love it, but make sure you protect the area you will be working on.

Step 1

Shred your paper into small pieces and place in a blender. Add twice as much water than paper and blend! This will create a mushy pulp, quickly transfer this to a mixing bowl and use your hands to squeeze out all of the liquid.  

Step 2

Add your chosen seeds to the paper pulp, ensure these are well mixed into your paper, use a spoon if you wish, or get your hands dirty. Don't use the blender at this point though as it may damage the seeds.

Step 3

Take a piece of parchment and mould your paper into the desired shape. This could be using a cookie cutter or stencil, free form, or fill to the edges of a square baking tray. The thinner your paper is, the quicker it will dry. Use a towel to press as much water as possible from the pulp.

Step 4

Place the seed paper in a warm, but not hot environment. An airing cupboard is ideal. If you can add some ventilation from a fan or hair dryer (on cool) it will help. If you leave paper wet for too long, the seeds will germinate and start to sprout!

Once the paper is fully dry you can decorate it as you see fit, we find home-made paper makes for nice gift tags. 

If you found this fun, but you are looking for a more professional finish, our papers are made using industrial machines to get a high growth rate and nice printable finish, so hop on over to our shop and checkout some of our pieces.