Earth Paper Seed Hearts

Looking for a fun way to celebrate Earth Day (April 22) and look forward to spring? Make these adorable earth paper seed hearts!

Supplies:

– Silicone heart mold – you can also make round earths that you shape by hand if you don’t have a heart mold
– Seeds – we used some I saved from last fall – mostly marigolds
– Construction paper – we went with blue and green to look like earths, but you could use any colors you want
– Bowls (as many as you have colors)
– Sieve
– Food Processor (a blender would probably work too)

First, rip the paper into bits. We used about 16 pieces of paper total (a few more blue than green since we have more water than land on earth) for the 24 earth hearts. Keep the colors in separate bowls to keep the colors separate when they go into the molds. Do a few extra pieces if you want to make some round earths too!

Fill the bowls with water to cover the paper – mush them a bit to get the paper bits separated.

Let soak for at least two hours – overnight works too!

Time for the food processor!

We found that less is better with this (I’d put a few less pieces of paper in the processor than the photo shows), and make sure to have about an inch of water at the bottom. If the processor is not happy, take some paper out and add a little more water!

It will look like this.

And then like this.

Then move the paper clumps to the sieve. Squeeze out as much water as you can!

Repeat with all your colors!

We found it got a little messy, but hopefully our mistakes can be your gains!

Once you’ve processed your paper and squished the water out, it’s time to put them in the molds! You can piece bits in to look like little earths like we did. Fill the mold to about half, and push in the center to make a little divot for the seeds. Put a few seeds in the divot. Try to keep the seeds away from the edges.

Next push paper bits on top of the seeds, paying attention to connect the edges to the bottom section especially.

Once you’ve covered all the seeds, press down on each heart with a paper towel to squeeze out even more water.

We dried these over a heat vent – they took a couple of days to be completely dry. Once they are dry, carefully pop them out of the molds. I had a couple fall apart, but most were good.

Gift them to friends on Earth Day or anyway to plant this spring!