HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED
8 by 10 inch wooden picture frame
fine mesh or nylon netting
thumb tacks or a staple gun
newspapers ( for work area, avoid using to much news paper or paper with alot of black text for your pulp or your paper will come out icky muddy and grey looking)
waste paper scraps such as:
plain paper,paper napkins,paper towels,
cereal boxes,junk mail,greeting cards,index cards,
paper bags,tissue paper,toilet paper (I don't know why TP is "scraps" it's not like your gonna wanna reuse it lol) facial tissues,gift wrap,construction paper,egg cartons.
Large mixing bowl
2 cups of warm water
blender
dish pan or baking pan (large enough to hold the picture frame)
towels
damp sponge
rolling pin
HERE'S HOW YOU MAKE IT
1. first you must make a paper making screen.
remove the glass and backing from the picture frame.
Stretch a piece of the fine mesh tightly over the frame and secure it with tacks or a staple gun.( not unlike stretching a canvas)
2. Cover your work space with newspaper.Choose some of the scraps, and tear them into quarter sized pieces.
3.place the torn scraps in the bowl and soak in warm water for about an hour.
4.place the soaked paper pieces in the blender,make sure there is about 2 parts water to 1 part paper to not ruin the blender.
5. blend the paper and water until it's soupy with no chunks.
6. fill the baking pan half-full of water, and hold your screen on top of the water surface.
7.while still holding the screen pour enough of the pulp on top of the screen to evenly cover the screen.
8.gently shake the screen (like your mining for gold) to spread the pulp evenly.
9.lift the screen from the water and let it drain for about 5 minutes.
10.Gently flip the screen over onto to a towel ( this part makes a huge water mess,the more towels you have around to soak up the excess the better,you might even want to do it on a flat surface outside) if the pulp doesn't easily fall off the screen,tap the backside with a damp sponge.
11.carefully fold the towel over the pulp or lay another towel atop it.
12.roll a rolling pin over the towel pressing firmly to squeeze as much water as you can from the pulp.
13.slowly unfold the and let the pulp dry in a warm place.( I am impatient so I actually make two sheets at a time and at this stage VERY carefully peel the damp paper sheets of the towel and place them on a large pizza pan in the oven on the lowest setting and dry it quickly) don't burn your house down !
and that is pretty much it for the basic paper :) There are alot of variations you could do..Like colored paper,scented paper,confetti paper, nature paper. Just add whatever you want to the blender stage like the coffee,inks, food coloring,perfumes,lavender,essential oils, or flowers etc..just make sure you don't care about the towels you are using for the colored. adding bigger torn pieces of random colored paper to the mix after blending will make big chunky confetti effects in the sheets..or you could add actual confetti :) You can also add dried flowers to the wet pulp and roll it in there so it is infused in the paper, I forgot to do that so this one just has a flower glued to the outside. I put coffee in mine so it smells like coffee, mmmmmmm....
Putting the journal together goes something like this : http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-make-book-using-five-hole-pamphlet-stitch-217809/ one sheet folded in half would be kewl for a homemade card for your love! or X-mas cards if you are feeling like super cratfy x-mas card lady . I actually hate doing regular X-mas cards, I always lose everyone's address and have to pester them for it again EVERY year.This might make it more fun.I don't know who has time for that though !
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