Plantable Seed Paper

Making things is fun.  Making things with your kid is more fun.  Making things with your kid to give to other people...most fun of all.   I stumbled upon this project on Wedding Bee, I think.  I then proceeded to look up variations on Pinterest until I found something that I thought would work.  Shortly I found out that it didn't turn out like I'd expected.  The long and short of it is this: I tried three different methods of making this seed paper and none worked out exactly like they had promised, so I made this tutorial that actually does work!  

What exactly is seed paper, you ask (?).  Apparently it has been around for quite some time now and has been popular as an Earth Day craft for kiddos.  Technically, seed paper is just a term for flower/veggie/assorted seeds that are embedded in paper.  I know, it's pretty self explanatory.  But why?  Why would I want seeds in paper?   Ummm...because you just take pieces of the paper and put it in a hole in the ground and plants magically grow from it.  This alone makes it one of the coolest crafts ever.  Bonus:  it is relatively cheap and easy to make.  Bummer:  it takes a while to dry (i.e.- no instant gratification).  Additional bonus:  you can use it as party favors, teacher gifts, or to make the other PTA moms feel subpar because you're doing an eco-friendly craft and giving back to the Earth which gave you life and sustenance and meaning (my personal favorite)!!! 

Let's get to this!  

You Will Need

• Tissue Paper
• Seeds of choice (we used a wildflower mix)
• Wax Paper
• Paintbrush or sponge
• Flour
• Water
• Wax Paper (to protect your work surface)
• Scissors
• Hair Dryer/Embossing Gun
• Books (to lay over your paper to flatten it)

• Additional/Optional: hole punch, twine, stamps, ink, paint, other embellishments 

Directions

The first thing you are going to want to do is to make the paste that we'll use for binding the paper.  Several tutorials I saw used Elmer's Glue, but that didn't seem like such a good idea to me.  After all, it seems like it would prohibit the seeds from growing and it's not organic. Instead, what I did was mix regular flour with warm water until it reached a thin glue-type consistency.  I did this several times while attempting different methods and found it no less effective when it was thinner. However, it is much easier to spread onto your paper if it is thinner.  

Next, I took a piece of tissue paper and cut it into quarters.  I used each quarter as an additional layer and my paper was still pretty thin.  Feel free to use more layers if you want thicker paper, but drying might be an issue.  

Lay the first piece of tissue out flat on your wax paper and spritz the tissue lightly with water.  

 Next, use your paintbrush or a sponge brush (a squeegee?) to apply a thin layer of the flour/water paste to the paper; make sure to get the edges really well.  Be gentle with it though, tissue paper tears especially easy and it is worse when wet.  

After your first layer is coated, lay another piece on top of it and repeat the process.  This second piece will mark the middle of your paper, so make sure you put a good thick layer of paste on it; this is where your little seeds are going to live!  Sprinkle them over the paste when you get the paper covered.  I tried to keep mine about 1/2 inches in from the edges because my paper edges didn't line up perfectly so I had some to trim off and I didn't want to kill any potential flowers.  

 You have to look really closely to see the seeds in the second picture.  Sorry about the paper but it looks really cute when it's dry.  In retrospect, I probably should have used a solid for this tutorial.

After your seeds are sufficiently spaced, lay another piece of paper on top of the seeds.  It's really easy to tear the paper with the seeds, so spread the paste with caution.  By this point, you will probably not need additional water spritzes, the paper will likely be pretty saturated.  Top this paper with the remaining sheet of paper.  You don't need to add paste to the top of it, just make sure that it is sufficiently bound to the sheet under it. 

It's a good idea to go over the edges again and make sure all of your layers are stuck together with minimal air bubbles.  

This will be your finished product.  Now let it dry!   I used an embossing gun to jump start the process (a hair dryer would work just fine).   Then I topped it with another piece of wax paper and layered a few books on top to make sure it stayed (relatively) flat.  My paper was done in about 2 hours, though I flipped it over a few times and hit it again with the embossing gun.  


My idea was to make my paper into tags that I would display on a small tree at my baby shower for guests to take with them.  I used 100% hemp cording to tie on my tags so that the whole thing can just be popped right into soil.