Making Paper

Last week I had mega fun making paper, it's something I used to do as a kid and it felt really calming to get back into it again.

What you'll need

• plastic bowl
• handblender
• mesh paper frame
• 2 sheets white felt that cover the frame
• baking tray with lip
• a lot of scrap paper

First of all I ripped up the paper. I used all the tissue paper that orders sometimes come wrapped in and this meant I had lots of colour running through the paper, I mixed this with some scraps of natural gift wrap and newsprint like the kind you wrap fish and chips with.

I placed the scraps in a plastic bowl and covered with water overnight to break down the fibres.

Next up I blended the mulch with a hand held blender until it was broken down.

Then it's mould time, I packed the pulp into a mesh paper making frame over the sink so I could squeeze out the excess water. Cover it with a sheet of white felt and turn over on a baking sheet and cover with another sheet of felt on the other side. Experiment with thickness of the pulp for different weights of paper.

Then it's time to stand on the paper and frame and get rid of as much water as is possible and make the paper flat in the mould.

I then took the paper out of the frame and left on a piece of the felt and popped it on the window sill to dry.

I have so many different things I want to try next on my handmade paper - pressed flowers and petals, leaves, gold leaf, coffee grounds, tea leaves, pine needles, fine dried moss, thread clippings, small pieces of coloured yarn, fine glitter, metallic confetti, and food and plant juices. What would you pop on your paper masterpiece?