| Wednesday, April 15, 2009 |
| Recycled Paper Revisited |
This is definitely not a craft for the impatient! After the paper soaked overnight, we pulverized it in the blender and put it on the frame we made. We pressed the water out and decorated it, and that was nine hours ago! That's right, nine hours and it's still not dry! Hopefully by the time Goose wakes up in the morning we'll have dry paper.
So in the meantime, let me share how we did it.
I already mentioned that we ripped newsprint (you can use anything if it soaks long enough, you can even toss in dryer lint) into approximately inch squared pieces, then we let them soak in warm water overnight.
Since it's all about Earth Day and reusing things, I used what we had. We had some extra frames around and mesh that our neighbor wrapped some cookies in during the holidays. So we hot glued the mesh into the wooden frame. Other options are wire hangers or embroidery hoops with panty hose. When I was little we used screen door screen, which is great because it's so sturdy, but I don't have that around so no go.
 Then came Goose's favorite--the paper milkshake. Scoop the paper out of the soaking tub and put it in the blender. Add enough warm water to cover the paper, then blend/pulse it until there are no paper chunks.
We did the next part (Monkey's favorite) outside. Set your frame in a basin of water, continue to remove toddler from water until you decide to remove his pants and let him have at it. Put the paper pulp into the frame and work it out to your preferred thickness. Then remove the frame from the water and let it drip excess water.
We then put the frame on a towel and put another towel over the top and pressed the water out. I was nervous about taking the paper out at this point because I didn't want it falling apart in front of Goose--you think the paper's fragile!
After it dried about ten minutes I flipped the frame over so that the paper came out on a towel. We decorated it with sparkles and pressed flowers and there it has been for a very very long time.
We're going to cut it up and put it on an Earth Day card. Very resourceful. Very messy. Very fun. |
posted by Lori @ 11:20 PM  |
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| About Me |
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Name: Lori
Home: Sacramento-ish, California, United States
About Me: I want to make things better.
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