Plantable Paper

This past weekend a dear friend of mine was given a surprise baby shower by our Chapel. She is an amazing mother to three boys and is about to have her first daughter. At our Chapel we give a baby shower to the first child you have there. So even though this is her fourth child, since it was her first at our Chapel we threw her a shower.

Seeing as this is her first daughter it was to be a super girly shower. The theme was butterflies to go along with the whole girly thing. While discussing details, the topic of favors came up, specifically who would do them? I happily volunteered myself for the job.

Then I went home trying to come up with the coolest butterfly shower favors that had ever been made. I ran into a bit of trouble. I was thinking of icing some butterfly cookies really intricately. This would have been lovely except that I have three kids which limits the time I have. Plus a favor like that has to be done last minute, and last minute I can't really do (refer back to the whole three kids thing). I went over a few other non-perishable ideas, none of which felt "right". Then I came across a person on Etsy that made plantable paper favors for a wedding. They were handmade paper cut in the shape of flowers with seeds imbedded in them. This got me thinking. So I ran with it.

I collected paper scraps from around the house and purchased some seeds that attracted butterflies. Because that way the butterfly paper will attract butterflies...'cause the theme was butterflies...get it? Maybe I went a bit overboard but I thought it was a cute concept.

I made the paper which although it was time consuming and a little messy, was not difficult to do. I found this video which made it really easy. Before lifting the paper completely out of the water I sprinkled the seeds onto the pulp. Then they became firmly embedded into the paper when I was pressing it against the felt (watch the video if you don't get what I'm talking about here).  I found that the thicker the paper was, the better the seeds stayed embedded. I cut out a butterfly wing shape from card stock and used that as a template to cut out butterfly wings from the handmade paper.

The wings were approximately 2 inches wide an 1 1/2 inches tall. After they were all cut out I made the cards to put them on. Really after they are cut out you can do whatever you want with them. I just thought they would have looked a little silly in a basket by themselves, so I spruced up the presentation a bit.

You can click on the image to make it bigger if you want to see what it says.

I wished that the pink of the paper I made had been a little more pastel and a little less mauvish but in the end I thought it all came together nicely. I thought they had a very vintage look to them which I think suits the mom's personality. I really enjoyed making them for her. I also think it's a very doable idea for Birthdays, weddings, and obviously baby showers, especially for this time of the year.