Seed Paper

For a while now I have been thinking about dandelions as a food source. They are hardy, easy to grow, and nearly the entire plant is edible. I've already published a post about eating dandelions as a salad. The thing I've been trying to figure out is what the best way to cultivate them might be. Their wispy little seeds do a fine job of spreading the plants far and wide, but what if you are looking to plant them all in one spot? What if you want them evenly dispersed over a specific patch of dirt? I found my solution the other day while exploring the Fireflies and Mud Pies website: seed paper! This way the dandelion seeds should all be stuck in a biodegradable sheet, and would stay wherever you plant them. Genius! In addition to dandelions, you could make this paper for any type of flower with wispy little seeds. I really enjoy Western Salsify plants, so I could make some seed paper to plant them in my flower garden. Likewise, you could make it with sowthistle or prickly lettuce seeds. Both sowthistle and prickly lettuce are, like dandelions, edible greens, and make good animal fodder.

Here's what you'll need for the project:
Wispy Seeds
Scrap Paper (Junk Mail, Newspaper, etc)
A Food Processor or Blender
Cheesecloth or a Flour Sack Dish Towel
An Embroidery Hoop
A Bowl of Similar Size to the Embroidery Hoop
Water
A Rubber Spatula

First, use your embroidery hoop and cheesecloth (or dishtowel) and make a sieve for forming your paper.










Locate a bowl or dish of similar size to your embroidery hoop. This will catch the water as it drains off of your wet paper.










Either a food processor or a blender will work for this project. Don't worry about ruining your equipment, as paper breaks down easily in the water and will wash out easily if you clean it right away.















I used prickly lettuce seeds for this demonstration, but any sort of wispy seed will do. Dandelions or sowthistle if you're growing for animal fodder, Western Salsify, Marigolds, Daisies, or Black-Eyed Susans if you're growing for a flower bed.







Just look to your "to be shredded" bin for paper to recycle! Remember that junk mail or newspaper can be used, but avoid paper with a waxy coating or receipt paper. Regular old dull paper will break down easier in the blender, as well as in the ground.







Tear the paper into small pieces before adding to the blender.

Add water and begin to process. Continue adding water until the paper is broken down into a pulpy paste.










Place your embroidery hoop sieve over top of your bowl.











Spread about half of the paper pulp onto the "sieve." You might need to tighten your dishcloth or cheesecloth at this point, as it will likely sag under the weight.
















Sprinkle your seeds evenly over the top of the paper paste.











Use the remaining paper paste to cover over your seeds.











Allow the seed paper to drain until it is dry to the touch, then move it to a warm area to continue drying. I put mine on top of my clothes dryer for a few days. Once it is completely dry you can store it in an envelope or zip top bag until you are ready to  plant! When you are ready to plant, just put it where you want your plants to grow and cover over with soil. As you water, the paper will break down and allow the seeds to germinate.

Newspaper Owls

This is another idea I got from the nursing home where I work. This was an arts and crafts project they did a while back. I thought they were so cute that I took a photo so I could figure out how to make them.

The first step is to find a sheet of newspaper with a lot of words on it. A long article, the arrests listing, the classifieds, they all make for good owls. Likewise, if you have a paperback novel that you're looking to recycle, its pages would make great owls as well.














Cut some owl shapes out of your newspaper. Just make a round bottom and horns at the top, doesn't have to be perfect.

















Next, find some scraps of colorfully patterned paper. Any color or pattern should do nicely, but I would recommend abstract prints. It seems strange to me to make an owl out of paper printed with pictures of airplanes or ladies' handbags. Just a thought.















Glue your owl shapes onto the patterned paper, leaving plenty of space all around the shape.

















While your owl bodies are drying, cut enough little orange triangles as you have owls. I've used construction paper for this. These will be the beaks.
















Cut some circles out of black construction paper, and glue them to a sheet of white paper. I used a white pencil and traced around the end of my glue stick to get circles which were at least recognizable as circles, and which were roughly the same size.















Cut around the black circles, leaving a bit of white all around. These are your owls' eyeballs. Glue the eyes on first, then position the beak and glue it as well.
















Find yourself some fancy patterned scissors (if you have them.) Cut all around the newspaper owl bodies, leaving a lot of your patterned paper showing.

There you are! Owls! Now, what can you do with them? Glue white ovals on their tummies and use them as gift tags. Punch a hole in the top and string some ribbon through to hang on your Christmas tree. Glue them to the front of a blank greeting card. Make tiny owls and glue them onto suckers to hand out at Halloween time. Hang them in a child's window. Better yet, make them with a child and let them hang their owls wherever they want!

Recycled Paper Easter Eggs

Here's a cute paper project to do with the kids for Easter this year! I saw one similar to this hanging on the door at the nursing facility where I work, and decided to go home and figure out how to do it! Mom gave me a bunch of scrapbook paper years ago, but I never really got into scrapbooking, so I've been trying to figure out cute projects to use some of it up. Here's one of them!

Here's what you need:

Paper (scrapbook paper, construction paper, old magazines, newspaper, etc)

A sheet of white paper

A pencil or marker

Scissors

Glue (white glue or glue stick, whichever is handy)

First, roughly draw an egg shape on your white sheet of paper. Doesn't have to be perfect. (Thank goodness! Look at how awful my egg shapes look! Bleh!) This will be the right side of your work.

Cut your colored paper into strips. I cut mine about 1/2" wide. If you wanted to, you could use fun scissors with zig zags or waves, or other cute patterns. (Especially if your paper is plain.)

Turn your work right side down, and begin gluing your strips to the wrong side. Since your strips are not likely to be completely straight, overlap them just a tiny bit.

Allow the glue to dry and turn your work right side up. Use the egg shapes you drew as a guide to cut your work into the shape of an egg. (You may need to adjust a bit as you cut, if your egg drawing skills are similar to mine.)

There you have it! Cute little stripey eggs for Easter!