I saw on a kids show once how to make your own paper from old newspapers and I just thought it was the coolest thing to do. It may not be as easy as going to the store to buy paper, but you will save trees and have the satisfaction of knowing that you made your own paper – how cool is that?
You will need a food processor or blender (you may want to use one you don’t plan to put food in anymore), an electric iron, a wire hanger, a pair of old pantyhose, white glue, water, a strainer (or an old screen will work), food coloring (optional), and newspaper.
This can be a messy process, so make sure you have room and towels for covering the floor if needed. Bend your wire hanger into a square (or whatever shape paper you want) to make a frame. Take the pantyhose and cover the frame with it.
Cut your newspaper into 2 inch sections. Put a handful in the food processor with a little water and blend on high. The newspaper should being to get mushy. As the first handful gets mushy, add more newspaper and water. Once you’ve blended enough paper, let it sit for two minutes. After two minutes, you can add food coloring if you wish. What will also work is the papery skin of a white, red, or yellow onion blended in with the paper.
Fill a sink, tub, or large container that the frame will fit into with four inches of water, add 2 tablespoons of glue, and then add the food coloring and paper pulp. If you want to really jazz up the paper, you can add dried flowers or leaves at this point. Mix well with your hands.
Lower the frame into the mixture then rise it up very slowly. Count to 20 when doing this to make sure you do it slow enough. Let the water drain off the frame for about 60 seconds.
Hang the frame outside in the sun to allow it to dry. Once the paper is completely dry, you can peel it right off the frame.
Turn your iron to hot and iron the paper to flatten it. Using multiple frames, you can repeat the process until you have used all the paper pulp from the sink, tub, or container. Here’s another way to do it from a Montessori teacher’s page.
(The copyright holder of this image hereby releases it into the public domain. This applies worldwide.)
