We go through paper like crazy in this house and, although I keep a lot of particularly special masterpieces, a lot of it goes into the trash recycle bin.  I can’t promise that we’ll be rescuing all of our crafty leftovers from the trash, but this was a fun way to turn some of it into some pretty new paper.  As an added bonus we threw in some seeds left over from last year’s planting.  If you write a letter and send it to a friend, then they plant the paper and keep it moist they’ll sprout a lovely little garden!

Materials:

• Scraps of paper or old artwork (ours was mostly white and pink copy-weight paper with a sheet of red construction paper thrown in for good measure).  The color of the paper will dictate the color of your finished piece, so choose wisely!
• Seeds (we used morning glories and daisies)
• Screen mold (mine came in a kit a lot like this one, or you can improvise).
• Sponge
• Blotting paper (optional)
• Old towel

1. Fill your blender about halfway full of water.  Tear paper up into approximately 1″ pieces and add them to the water.  Leave a little room at the top so it doesn’t overflow!

2. Put the lid on and pulse the blender a few times to chop the paper up.  Then hit puree and let it go until it’s all pulpy. It won’t be totally smooth, but you don’t want to have whole pieces of paper in there. Add the seeds and stir with a spoon to distribute.

3. Fill your sink with a few inches of water (I used a dish on the counter since our sink is really deep and hard to photograph) and put your paper mold in.  Pour the paper pulp in and swirl the screen around in the water a bit to distribute the pulp evenly.  Lift the mold straight up, let the water drain, and set the whole thing on a towel.

4.  Use your sponge to gently blot and compress the paper, wringing a bit more water out of it and into the towel.  Once it’s pretty dry, peel it off and lay it on the towel.  You can use your blotter paper to remove more water, or just leave it here to dry for a bit.

It has a beautiful texture as is, but if you’re looking for a bit more refined flatness, feel free to press it with a warm iron once it’s dry.