Make Your Own
Environmentally Friendly Paper

Have you ever wondered how to make your own recycled paper? Read on for a full rundown!

Hand made paper has a fantastic texture that is unique to each batch you make! You can also colour your home made paper, making it suitable for all of you crafting projects, from scrapbooking to card crafts, and anything else you can think of!

When you make your own recycled paper you also have the peace of mind in knowing that no harmful chemicals have been used to create your paper, unlike many of todays commercial paper mills that pump thousands of litres of toxic & polluted water back into the environment.

Be warned, as fun & rewarding making your own paper is, it is a messy process! Either do it outside, or in the bathroom / laundry - somewhere you can mop down afterwards!

Things You’ll Need;

Paper scraps; You can use newspaper (newspaper makes grey-ish paper). Old Yellow Pages (the phone books - this will make yellow paper), Please note that scrap copy paper (computer printer paper) will makes the best quality paper with this method. You could also use thicker paper/card like packaging from cereal boxes etc. as long as what you use is not overly glossy. To colour your paper any colour you want, just use plain white paper for your pulp, then add in a small amount of coloured paper - experiment, as results can vary greatly - start with a very small amount of coloured paper in your mix, and take it from there.

Screen; If you have woodworking skills (and tools!) you can make your own screen out of timber. If not, you could just use a picture frame (you can pick up cheap 8 x 10 frames at most “$2 shops”, or even Opp Shops. Make sure you get frames with flat/smooth faces as they’re easier to work with. I recently pick up a few large screen printers screens from “Reverse Garbage” that work fine.). The size of your frame/screen will determine the size of each piece of paper you make. What ever you use, you will need two frames the same size. One frame needs to have a mesh stretched over it & fixed in place - use fly screen mesh, or green house mesh from your local hardware store. Tightly stretch the mesh across your frame and staple or tack it securely in place (don’t use glue - if you do, make sure its not going come off once submerged in the water/paper pulp).

Blender; I use a “whisk-stick” with a large blade attachment like a food processor.

Felt; Cut your sheets of felt to the size of your frames/screens. You’ll need a sheet of felt for every piece of paper you’re going to make in the session.

Flower press; A flower press is also a great tool to have - as long as it’s big enough. Again, if you’ve got the tools you could make your own press that can take the size of your sheets of paper. Alternatively you can use a stack of phone books etc to press your sheets of paper flat.

Steps

Tear / shred up the paper you’re going to use & soak it in a bucket of warm water from a few hours to over night - while this step isn’t essential, the longer you soak it, the easier you pulp will be to work with.

Take a hand full of your shredded paper and put it in the blender, then add some water and start blending. You should have more water than paper in there to start with. When the paper stops looking like paper (I call it “mush”) put it into your tub, along with some more water. Repeat this process until you have enough mush (pulp) in your tub to cover the area of your frame / screen.

Your pulp should be mixed with some more warm water once added to the tub.

Next wet your first felt sheet with a little spray of water - this makes it easier to transfer the paper from your mold for drying.

Now take your two frames - the one with the screen goes on the bottom (with the side you stapled the screen to facing up) and put the second frame on top.

Lower the frames into the tub, scooping them under your pulp, and slowly slowly slowly slowly raise them up to the surface being sure to keep the flat/horizontal to the ground as you go. (when I say raise it slowly, I mean slowly!! If you raise it up too quickly, your pulp sheet will be tricky to transfer off the screen & onto your felt sheet)

Hold your frames over the tub to let the excess water drip away for a minute or so, then carefully remove the top frame (the one without the mesh). This should leave you with a very wet layer of pulp on your screen that has nice straight edges, and square corners.

The tricky part is next - transferring your pulp from the screen to the sheet of felt for drying.

Try not to peel up the edges of your pulp - you’ll no doubt reck it if you do! Instead, steadily flip your screen over, on top of the felt (remember you’ve already wet the felt) then, use a sponge to sop up as much water as you can through the screen, gently patting the pulp down onto the felt as you go. (just squeeze the sponge out into your tub)

When you’ve removed as much water as you can with the sponge, gently lift off the screen, and your pulp sheet should remain on the felt, where it can remain to dry. I usually put another sheet of felt onto of the first pulp/paper & repeat the steps until I’ve used up all the pulp in the tub.

Now you can either press your stack of paper & felt sheets in a flower press, or just sit them on a smooth, flat surface and pile some heavy books on top for a few hours.

If you’ve got the time, it’s a good idea to lay your paper out one by one to dry naturally after its been pressed under pressure (keep the paper on the felt sheets for now) - doing it this way, you’ll probably notice your paper has a slight curly/wavy finish, but this can be easily straightened by pressing it again (without the felt this time) between the pages of a thick book, or your flower press (I like to use a set of phone books to do this). Alternatively you could iron your sheets of paper dry & flat, although using an iron to dry it doesn't seem as environmentally conscious as letting it dry naturally!

For something different, you could add some dried leaves or flowers to your mix - either chopped up with the pulp, or left whole. Chopping them up will leave your paper with a great fragrance, and a unique texture, while if you leave them whole (by adding them to the pulp once it’s all in the tup of water) your leaves & flowers will be stand out features of your hand made paper!

Trial and error is the key to success with this project - don’t be afraid to make a bit of a mess and give it a go today!

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