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hi in this video i'm going to show you
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how to make your own seed paper
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so what you're going to do is make some
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paper put some seeds in it great for
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tags and for cards and any other crafts
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every gardener would love to receive
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this and you can easily attach some
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instructions to tell them what to do how
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is simple just rip it up and plant it
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so i'm christine of christine's crafts
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all about crafting on a budget so to
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make your seed paper you're going to
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need some sort of bowl
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only a small one you're going to need
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some seeds whatever seeds you select
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flowers here but you can select whatever
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you like perhaps something particular to
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you or the person it's for
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you're going to need some sort of frame
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to make your paper in this is a frame
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i've made just using four popsicle
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you could also use an old picture frame
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it doesn't matter so long as you've got
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to attach your cloth to
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you're also going to need some cloth to
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now i've got a piece of cheesecloth here
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it doesn't matter as long as it's a thin
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cloth that your water will easily pass
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you can see it's just larger than my
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frame so that i can attach it easily
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when it comes to attaching it you could
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staple it on but i prefer to use these
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little clips just stationary clips
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holds them on nicely and it helps that i
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can take them off to get the paper out
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when i've finished using the frame
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you're going to need some sort of
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blender or mixer i use a stick blender
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like this into a glass
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you may have one already with a
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container for it doesn't matter as long
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sort of blender some old towels these
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are some old kitchen towels because
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you're going to try and get all your
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and some paper now as you can see i'm
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using up shredded paper
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you don't need to you can use any paper
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key thing is going to be that it has to
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so i find using the shredding paper
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means i'm halfway there already
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so the first step is going to be dealing
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so get yourself a bowl and put some
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i use warm water because i believe that
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it soaks in a lot better a lot quicker
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but i have no scientific evidence for
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so just break your paper up tear it up
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get it nice and small
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and fill your bowl of water now
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obviously the more seed paper you want
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the more paper you need to soak so it's
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entirely up to you how much you want to
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do perhaps you just want to do a little
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you'll also notice i'm mixing some white
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and some yellow so that i end up with
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yellow seed paper that's paler than the
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yellow paper i'm using
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you can try lots of different
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combinations of colors
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paper napkins are a great way to add
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some color to some white paper
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it's entirely up to you get creative
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perhaps you want to color to match the
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so once it's been soaking i usually
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leave mine a good hour or so
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you want to take some of that place it
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and blend it now obviously if your
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blender has a container you're just
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placing it in the container of your
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you'll see i don't put too much in um
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i've found that trying to just do it
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directly in the bowl doesn't work for me
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but if i put it in a narrow glass it
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blends it beautifully
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what you want to end up with is a puree
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so that you can't tell any of the pieces
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of paper that you started with
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it's just a mushy mess
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okay and once you've got it like that
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you need to keep that somewhere and then
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and another load until you've pureed all
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notice if you have a big blender you
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might just do it all in one go
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but i don't so you can see it's just a
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puree paste and that's going to be great
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so i've just got another bowl to tip it
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and then go again with the next load
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and just keep blending once you've got
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it's time to mix your seeds in it's up
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to you how many you don't want too many
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otherwise they'll end up sewn too close
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together but sprinkle your seeds
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and then mix it in it's really important
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that you mix your seeds in
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really well because you want them to be
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spread throughout your seed paper
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you don't want any bits of your seed
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paper without any seeds in it
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so just take the time to give it a
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really good mix you can see i'm just
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doing it with my fingers but you might
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do it with a spoon it's entirely
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up to you just make sure your seeds are
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and then you're ready to make some paper
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so the first thing i do is take one of
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and lay it out on your work surface now
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your work surface is still going to get
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wet so make sure it's okay with that
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take your frame and you're going to
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so mine's a nice piece of cheese cloth
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i'm just going to place it under the
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and clip it on if you're stapling it on
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just staple along one edge like i'm
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and then move on to the side
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and attach that down whether you're
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or clipping and you're then going to
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start pulling this tight
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the idea is that your fabric is taut on
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okay so if you find you can't pull it
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under your clips and pull it so as you
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i would probably recommend that you do
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one side and the side
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opposite to make sure it's taut and then
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on the other two sides does it matter if
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there's a bit of give and it's not
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no because you're going to have your
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towel underneath anyway
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so do the other two sides clip it on
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tight it's just to hold it in place
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while you make your paper onto there
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and then you've got your paper making
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keep it on your towel again if your
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towel's got a smooth surface it'll help
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you get a nice smooth paper
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you can see that mine's quite rough
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doesn't matter i'm happy with a rough
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and now all you do is take some of your
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and push it into the frame now
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the more you push in the thicker your
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so if you want very fine paper make sure
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you don't push too much in
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it's a little bit of a learning curve
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here of just putting it in and trying it
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seeing what your paper is like at the
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and if you decide it's too thick next
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time you do it make some thinner
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if it's so thin you can't get it out of
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the frame you're going to have to add
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so just see how you go just make sure
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the whole of the fabric inside your
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frame you can see i'm just pushing it up
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just making sure it's nice and flat
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and making sure it's completely covered
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just work it with your fingers until
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you're happy that it's got about the
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once you're happy get one of your other
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and press it onto the pulp
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it compresses the paper so that you get
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tight set up so that your paper doesn't
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and it also pushes a lot of the water
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so the water's going into the towel
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below and into the towel above so it's
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starting to dry your paper
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and all these things mean it should hold
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when you try and take it off the frame
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the large amount of water on the towel
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underneath so i've moved it across so
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that it'll soak some more
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and i'm using a different part of the
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top towel to get more and more water out
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the more you can get out
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the better once you're happy you've got
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all the water out you possibly can it'll
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be time to remove it from the frame
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carefully and place it somewhere to dry
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i tend to use a baking tray just because
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i have some large flat baking trays that
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for it so because i've used clips i can
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the fabric and take the paper out if
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you've stapled your fabric on
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you'll just have to be a little bit
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careful trying to lever it out
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so i've just allowed mine to drop
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and then take it off the fabric and
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there's my seed paper
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and just repeat and obviously if you
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want large pieces of seed paper just use
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and that's it leave them to dry mine
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take two or three days but it depends on
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wet it is where you are and how hot it
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is and how dry the air is
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so here are some examples of cards that
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you might use them for
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use them for gift tags anything you like
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bookmarks are a great one too
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so thank you for watching good luck with
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and i hope your gardening friends love
