Making Handmade Paper

Want a project that is FUN for both you and your children as well as an awesome way to recycle and turn it into a beautiful item?!!!

It probably sounds harder than it is but making paper at home is EASY and FUN! Be creative!!!

First you'll need to make a �mold'. You can be elaborate but for our starters we'll make this plain and simple! Get some wire or fiberglass screening (like for windows) and stretch it over a wood frame. The wood frame can simply be 1x1 or 1x2 wood strips nailed or even stapled together to form a square or rectangle however big you want your paper to be, but you should probably stick to �smaller' size frames til you get the hang of this and also to ensure the mold will fit in your sink or in tub as that'll be part of the process. Simply stretch the screen over the mold and up onto the sides of it and staple…making the screening as tight as possible and not have any slack. There you're done with the mold making!

Now the items you'll want to use in your paper can be varied and consist of any or all of the below and remember the colors of the ingredients below will determine the color of your finished project.

�Grass
�Flowers
�Shredded unprinted paper
�Leaves
�Newspaper shreddings
�Construction Paper
�Tissue Paper
�Napkins
�Foil
�Tinsel
�Old Greeting Cards
�Paper bags
�Magazines (though it's better to NOT use �glossy' pages)
�Egg Cartons

1. Round up all of your paper making ingredients and mix them all together by ripping into small bits and pieces. Place in a blender. Fill it about ½ way full with your �ingredients' then fill the blender with WARM water.

2. "Pulse" the blender off and on for 30 sec intervals to start then increase the speed til it's well blended and there are no big chunks left in it.

3. (Optional) add whole flowers, petals, yarn, tinsel to accent your paper! Experiment!

4. Fill either your sink about half way full with water. Add at least three blender loads of paper pulp. Stir the pulp mixture into the water.