Seed Paper Bouquet

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

• Construction paper
• 1 brown paper bag
• Pack of wildflowers (use seeds native to your area)
• Glue stick (nontoxic)
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Paper towels
• Hand towel or kitchen towel
• Rolling pin
• Blender
• Water
• Piece of scrap yarn, ribbon or twine
• Scrap piece of cardstock for tag
• Template

DIRECTIONS:

MAKING THE SEED PAPER:

1. Rip the construction paper into 1" pieces and place them into the blender.
2. Add 1 cup of water and blend until a pulp consistency.
3. Remove the blade from your blender and stir the seeds into the pulp mixture.
4. Place the towel onto your work surface, then place a paper towel on top of the towel.
5. Scoop the pulp out of the blender in handfuls and place it onto the paper towel. With your hands even out the pulp as much as possible. Press down across the pulp with your hand to flatten as much as possible and push out some of the excess water. Once you have it roughly flattened out add another paper towel on top.
6. Roll lightly with a rolling pin over the paper towel. Try to avoid adding too much pressure or the pulp will separate and cause holes. Lift the paper towel and check the thickness as you go. Once you have your desired thickness remove the top paper towel. You will want the paper to be about 1/16" thick. If your paper is too thick after it dries it will have a tendency to break when folding.
7. Place a dry paper towel on top of the flattened pulp and flip the paper over onto the dry paper towel using the wet one underneath. Remove the wet paper towel.
8. Set the seed paper aside to dry, leaving it on the dry paper towel to help pull away the moisture. If you have a drying rack you can set it on that to help the airflow. This may take 24+ hours to dry completely.

MAKING THE BOUQUET:

1. Using the template cut 3 flower shapes from the seed paper.
2. Fold the flower shape into a cone and overlap 1-2 petals to create the desired shape. Glue in place using a nontoxic glue stick. Use a paper clip to hold in place while it dries or hold with fingers.
3. Repeat so you have 3 flowers.
4. While the flowers dry, deconstruct your paper bag, remove the bottom and cut up the seam so you have a flat piece of brown paper.
5. Cut a 9" square from the paper.
6. Place the square on your work surface so that the corners are up and down and at the sides. Fold up the bottom corner so the point is just past the middle.
7. Fold in each side corner to make a cone shape out of the brown paper.
8. Use ribbon, yarn or twine to tie around the base of the cone to secure it in place with a knot.
9. Cut the scrap cardstock into a tag shape and write your message or use the free printable with the templates. Poke a hole with your scissors or use a hole punch.
10. Thread the tag through the end of ribbon, yarn or twine tied onto the brown paper and finish with a bow.
11. Glue the three flowers together and to the brown paper, inside the top of the open cone shape. Use the paper clips to hold them together when drying if needed.
12. Use the template to cut 5-6 leaves from the brown paper. Fold a crease long ways down the middle. Slide the leaves in between the flowers.
13. Your bouquet is ready to share!

JOANN HACKS:

• Use a paper clip to hold the flower in shape while the glue is drying.
• Have an extra hand towel around to wipe up the excess water that comes out of the pulp as you roll it out.
• To speed up drying time after a couple hours of air-drying place the seed paper into the oven at the lowest setting (no higher than 170 degrees and bake until the moisture is removed.)