Handmade Paper - Hearts

Today I made something I have been meaning to try for ages....."natural progression" I call it!....I made my own paper....hearts!....and so far I am delighted with the results :)

I have been reading some blogs and tutorials and looking through Pinterest until I found one that was simple enough for me to try without having to buy anything. I ended up using ideas from several.

First I gathered my equipment:-

• Pasta Drainer 
• Hand blender, electric
• Glass Jug
• Bowl of shredded paper, mostly white, from shredder
• 2 small bowls of turquoise and purple tissue paper, hand shredded
• Small amount of dried lavender
• Heart shaped Biscuit Cutter
• Paper Towels
• Baking Paper
• Cardboard

I took it all through to the Laundry Room where it would not matter if I made a mess!

 

First I mixed equal amounts of white and coloured paper in two bowls

Next I covered the paper with warm water and left it to soak

 

 

I kept checking and stirring

Then I started to pull it into smaller pieces

After a while I used the electric hand blender to make pulp in each bowl



Now I had to remove some of the water, I did this by tipping the bowl and just using my hand to hold the pulp in the bowl and let the water drain out. I did this over the pasta drainer so I would not lose any pulp. It quickly got to the point where I could gather the pulp up and squeeze water out.

I laid the biscuit cutter on to a piece of baking paper and put the semi dry pulp inside it, then pressed down until it was even. I carefully removed the cutter and placed a piece of card on top of the heart shaped pulp and flipped it over.

I mixed some dried lavender into the purple pulp and repeated using the cutter. I then put them both in the Sunny Conservatory to dry. I shall move them somewhere warm later. The whole process only took a couple of hours and I was thrilled at each step. The end result looks Fab, I just have to wait and see if they dry ok and don't crack!....I shall let you know next week!...

Now that I know the process works I have ordered a paper making kit, an ice cube tray and some books so I can experiment further!....I want to make seed bombs and pellets and of course some sheets of paper. I am looking forward to trying different colours, well shades of blue!....and textures, so watch out for part two.....coming soon!....

Best Wishes and thanks for your interest!.....Jacqueline xxx

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