We did this yesterday, and for a first time effort the results were much better than I’d expected.

We ripped up some old paper, soaked it in warm water for about an hour, filled the blender halfway with soggy paper and then to 2/3 with warm water, blended in fairly quick bursts until we had pulp with a smooth consistency, filled a deep pan with enough water to cover the screen and blended in the pulp, lowered in the screen and moved it around until it had good coverage (not too thin, not to thick), and let it dry.

For the drying I tried both onscreen and off, cutting a same size piece of newspaper (I’d use felt or flannel in the future, and I gather glass works well) laying another piece on top and pressing it gently. On screen I sponged some of the water off and then left it to air dry, though it would have worked in the oven too.

Today we had some lovely paper to make cards with – I hadn’t used liquid starch (or one of the other methods to prevent ink bleeding) so we used a metallic silver paint pen on it which looks beautiful!

I’m already drying another piece of the red (the color was from the bright red tissue paper in the scraps that we used) that I added tiny silver stars to (the one in the pic has purple thread in it), and I’ve added blue to the original batch so we can try purple paper next!! (you can freeze the leftover pulp for future use, it’s not a good thing to pour down a drain.)

A fantastic project to do with the kids, and a tangible lesson in recycling with beautiful results. Very worth it, and it’ll be even easier next time (and more fun with all the additional creative ideas flying around).

^{A few helpful links:}

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Paper

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/crafts/crafts-basics/makingpaper.html

http://ericahargreave.com/2008/12/my-holiday-present-to-you-paper-making7 months ago