How to Make Plantable Cards

Add seeds to paper pulp to make plantable cards.

If you want to impress the green thumbs on your gift list, make plantable note cards for them. These cards, which contain plant seeds, are as easy to make as they are to plant. Better yet, they cost almost nothing to put together. All you need is waste paper and assorted wildflower or vegetable seeds. However, the process can be messy and time-consuming. To keep you from feeling rushed, it's best to set aside a full day to craft your plantable card.

Things You'll Need

• Discarded paper
• Seeds
• Blender
• Water
• Plastic tubs
• Liquid measuring cups
• Mold and deckle
• Wooden boards
• Industrial polyester felt
• Weights (books, doorstops and other flat, heavy objects)
• Blotters (sheets of thick cotton paper that leech away excess moisture)
• Ruler
• Retractable cutting tool

Instructions

1. Tear paper into 1-inch squares. You can use newspaper, discarded computer paper, junk mail and any other paper product that doesn't have a glossy finish.

2. Fill the blender halfway with water, add two or three handfuls of torn paper squares and place the lid on the blender.

3. Pulse on high for 10 seconds, rest for 30 seconds and pulse again for 10 seconds. Continue until the paper and water have combined into a pulp. If the pulp seems thin, add more paper squares---one handful at a time---until the pulp acquires the consistency of a thick, lumpy paste.

4. Pour the mixed pulp into a plastic tub and continue making batches of pulp until you've used up all the torn paper squares.

5. Fill a shallow plastic tub (the papermaking vat) ... full of water and add six cups of paper pulp. Sprinkle seeds into the tub and use your hands to mix them into the pulpy water.

6. Prepare an area for couching the sheets of paper. Place a wooden board on a flat surface and stack three sheets of dampened industrial polyester felt on top of it.

7. Hold the mold and deckle (a papermaking tool that consists of a mesh or wire screen mounted on wooden bars and a removable wooden frame) on either end and dip it into the vat, leading with the bottom edge. Submerge the mold and deckle under the water, and then pull straight up to create a sheet of paper.

8. Allow the water to run off the bottom of the mold. When the dripping begins to ease up, gently remove the deckle from the top of the mold.

9. Couch the sheet of paper onto your couching stand. Position one edge of the mold on the stand and hold the other edge in your right hand. Slowly push the top edge of the mold down, making sure the bottom edge doesn't lift off the couching stand. When the mold is resting face-down on the stand, slowly pull the lower edge upward to release the paper.

10. Cover the freshly couched sheet of paper with another dampened felt and continue making and couching paper until you've utilized all your pulp.

11. Place a second wooden board on top of the stack of paper and felt sheets and cover the surface with weighted objects. Books, doorstops and any other flat, heavy items work well. This will press water out of the paper and help it dry quickly.

12. Allow the weighted stack to rest for five minutes. Then, remove the weights, arrange the sheets of plantable paper on clean, dry felt and press once more.

13. Remove the paper from between the felt sheets after 20 minutes and stack them between pieces of cotton blotter where they will finish drying.

14. Cut the dry sheets of seed paper to the size your unfolded cards should measure. Use a ruler and a retractable cutting tool to create the most accurate cuts.

15. Fold the cut sheets in half to make plantable cards.

Tips & Warnings

• When making plantable cards, choose seeds that aren't too bulky. Smaller seeds are less likely to come off the paper as it dries.

References

• "Papermaking with Garden Plants and Common Weeds;" Helen Hiebert; 2006

Resources

• Twinrocker Papermaking Supplies