Seed Paper Hearts

Plantable seed paper hearts are a thoughtful DIY gift that would be great for Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day or any time. We collected some marigold petals and seeds in autumn in anticipation of making our own seed paper.

This is a fun project for children to do. They will enjoy helping tear up scrap paper and seeing it turn into something beautiful and useful.

What You’ll Need

• Scrap Paper
• Blender
• Heart Cookie Cutter (or other mold)
• Sieve or Colander
• Seeds and Petals
• Wax paper (optional)

Instructions for Making Seed Paper Hearts

Tear up paper and place in blender. Blend paper with water. You will drain out the access water so don’t hesitate to add enough so that it mixes easily.

Place pulp in colander and squeeze out excess water. The pulp will be an unattractive color at this point, but it dries to a lovely cream. I added two drops of yellow food color and I don’t know if this is what made the yellow edges on my hearts or if that is a result of the natural drying process. I think you could leave this out and be fine.

You can mix some seeds in now by hand or just add the seeds on top. We did both.

Line cookie sheet with wax paper. This is optional if you have a no-stick cookie sheet. Place cookie cutter on cookie sheet and fill with a spoonful of the pulp. Flatten with your finger so that it fills the mold.

Sprinkle seeds and petals on top. Push down on these to embed them in the pulp. You can also drop more pulp on top and flatten. It depends on the look you’re after.

Remove mold and continue making hearts until you either run out of pulp or you decide you have enough hearts. Place in a warm place to dry. We let ours dry overnight in our furnace room.

After they’re dry, loosen the hearts from the cookie sheets or wax paper. Use a metal spatula if you need to. I panicked a little and loosened some the night before when they were partly dried. This made them shrink and curl up, so just trust they will come off after they dry.

You can fasten them to paper with a dot of glue. We cut up a brown paper bag for the brown cards. You can also click here if you’d like to print out the white card with the flowers.

For more nature inspired crafts and activities, check out my nature calendars.