Seed Paper From Used Cardboard Boxes

This Instructable will show you how to make wildflower seed infused hand made paper from used cardboard boxes. Once the paper is finished you can make cards or insert into cards. The paper can be "planted" in your yard or garden to grow wildflowers. The gift that keeps on giving.

Cardboard boxes, bus tubs, blender, wildflower seed, picture frames, screen, towels or blankets, weights.

Soak your cardboard pieces in water for a few hours to make them soft enough to tear up easily. Kitty supervisor is beneficial and entertaining but not completely necessary.

After soaking, drain the water and tear your cardboard into small pieces. Then put the pieces into the blender with more water. Blend until you have a thick pulp. Add more water if it's hard to blend.

To make the sheets you will need a frame mold. This is basically 2 frames of the same size, one with a screen and one without. You can make your own out of wood, but I just used matching cheap frames from the dollar store and goodwill and took out the picture parts. They should be flat on the sides that face each other. ( don't get decorative frames).

On one frame of each set, staple screen material to cover the frame. The matching frame can be left as is.

I recommend doing the remainder of the paper making outside. It can be very wet and messy.
Dump your blended pulp into a bus tub or some container that is rectangular but not too deep. It only needs to be deep, long and wide enough to put your frame fully under the water for scooping up the pulp.

Add plenty of water to the pulp and mix so you have a thin "soup". Next add the seeds and anything else you want randomly distributed in your paper. (glitter, etc)

I added food coloring to one batch and left one batch natural.

Place the empty frame on top of the screened frame - screen side up - so they match up. Hold the two frames together firmly and dip the frame into the pulp and scoop up a frame full of pulp. Let the excess water drain back into the tub. The more pulp you scoop up the thicker your paper will be.

Once the water has drained through the screen, take the empty frame off the top then press the paper sheet onto a towel. You can press the back side of the screen to help it release if needed but it should stick to the towel fairly easily.

At this point, while the paper is still wet, you can add any embellishments you want onto the sheets. I
added some dried and fresh flower petals and leaves and some moss.

Repeat this process until you've filled an area of the towel. Place another towel over the first layer of paper sheets and repeat, layering the towels and paper sheets. For this project I used 4 or 5 towels and a blanket with 4-6 small paper sheets on each layer.

You'll want to keep as much weight on your stack of paper sheets as you can while they dry. If you have a paper press, lucky you. I don't. I used a metal sign to distribute the weight and some very heavy brake drums and metal wheel.

I let my paper dry for about a day and half (outside).

Once the paper is dry, you can peel it right off the towels and it's ready use! Make cards, wrap with ribbon, give it to friends. Accidently drop a piece in that empty lot that needs a little flower action.

Happy Spring Paper Making!