Easy Plantable Paper Project
Create your own plantable paper—a thoughtful handmade gift or party favor—with simple materials you likely already have on hand.
You need very little equipment to create sweet little shaped sheets of paper. This plantable paper project has three lives: Embed seeds into a shaped sheet of handmade paper. Once it dries, turn it into a gift tag, ornament, or card. Plant the card and watch it grow. Now that’s recycling.
Materials
- Toilet paper
- Hardy seeds (such as cosmos, cornflower, zinnia, and/or marigold)
Tools
- Glass jar with lid
- Plastic or wire mesh cut to 5″ square
- Quart-size yogurt container or tin can
- Shaped cookie cutter
- Turkey baster (optional)
- Sheet of newspaper or paper towel
- Sponge or towel
Instructions
- Add six squares of single-ply or three squares of double-ply toilet paper to 1 cup of water in a glass jar.
2. Put the lid on the jar and shake vigorously for 30 seconds or until the paper is completely broken up and the mixture is homogenous.
3. Place a mesh screen on top of a yogurt container or tin can, and set a cookie cutter on top of the mesh. Pour the paper pulp into the cookie cutter and give everything a little shake as the water drains so that the pulp settles evenly into the shape. If the pulp settles too quickly and doesn’t fill the shape, put the pulp and water back in the jar, then adjust the amount of pulp and/or water as necessary, shake it up, and pour again.
4. Sprinkle 5–10 seeds on top of the sheet and press the seeds down into the fresh pulp, or use a turkey baster to squirt just enough additional pulp over the seeds to cover them.
5. Remove the cookie cutter and carefully flip your sheet of paper from the mesh onto a sheet of newspaper or a paper towel. Use a sponge or towel to press the excess water out of the pulp and allow the sheet to air-dry.
Plantable Paper designed by Arnold Grummer, excerpted from The Art of Papercraft © Helen Hiebert.
Paper artist and teacher Helen Hiebert compiles a one-of-kind collection of 40 unique projects, each using just one sheet of paper. Combining decorative paper techniques like marbling, stamping, and stenciling with dimensional techniques like origami, cutting, folding, quilling, stretching, weaving, and pop-ups, The Art of Papercraft offers a rich variety of projects that will delight crafters, artists, and designers alike, including paper votive lights, pop-up cards, folded paper gift boxes and envelopes, woven paper wall hangings, miniature one-sheet books, and much more. Every project is beautifully photographed and accompanied by step-by-step visual instructions. Guidance on selecting tools, materials, and paper selection; in-depth technique instructions; and profiles of contributing paper artists make this a rich and practical celebration of papercraft.
