Flower Seed Paper Valentines

Looking for a zero waste Valentine idea? These flower seed paper valentines are not only adorable, but give back to the Earth in the most beautiful way.

Valentine’s day is such a fun holiday, but oh so wasteful! All I can think about is the mountain piles of forgotten teddy bears that end up in the landfill. Maybe it is the minimalist coming out of me but why would anyone in their right mind want a teddy bear taller than they were?

What is the point?

Okay, I won’t lie. I was totally dying on the inside to be surprised with one of those $100 bears at school.

But the adult me thinks they are completely pointless. Anyone else feel that?

Add the plastic from candy and chocolate into the mix and you have one big boiling pot of waste.

It’s time to do better people! I want to urge you to try and be mindful of the waste you are producing. Why not start with Valentine’s Day?

These flower seed paper valentines are so easy, even the youngest of kids can help out too. Its fun, educational, and Eco-friendly too!

Flower Seed Paper Valentines Video

What You Will Need…

 

Flower seeds (I bought from Lowes)

A couple of old towels

A mix of paper (I used construction, cardstock, and regular printer paper.)

A screen or other mesh type material

A food processor or blender (Our blender was a fail, but the food processor worked great!)

Hot Water

Optional Supplies

Hair dryer or other heating source (helps dry them faster and prevent early sprouting)

String

Scissors

Heart shaped cookie cutter (if you don’t use this, simply make one large piece and you can later cut out shapes if you’d like.)

Printer (for the tags)

Instructions

After you have gathered what supplies you need, start by cutting up the paper into teeny tiny pieces. I had special helpers with me and the oldest insisted that they were small enough!

They weren’t, but you try arguing with my 3 year old.

Place all of the ripped paper into a container and cover with hot water. The hotter, the better.

Let that sit for at minimum 2 hours, but even overnight would be good! We only let it sit for about 3 hours. It ended up being fine, but would have been easier to blend I believe if we had waited a few more hours.

Blend It!

Now it’s time to use the blender or food processor. As I mentioned above, we did not have a good experience using our blender and it’s high quality too! I’m thinking what happened is that the blades were not long enough in the blender. The paper continued to get stuck to the sides. We had no issues with the food processor though.

Since our food processor is small, we had to blend in sections. First grab a hand full of the soaked paper and place into your processor or blender. Add a bit of water (we just guessed, maybe a couple of tablespoons) and mix it up.

Continue blending until it resembles mush and then transfer into a separate container. Repeat the step above until all paper has been blended.

Add The Seeds & Start Molding!

Add the packet of seeds to your mushy paper and gently mix it together. We just used our hands.

Place a towel down and lay the screen on top. If using a cookie cutter set that down on the screen and add a bit of the mushy paper to it. The layer should be pretty thin.

Repeat above step until all of your mush is gone.

Gently press on the paper with your hands or a flat surface to help squeeze out the water. You may need to change towels.

Help Dry Them

It is better to make these in warmer climate but since it’s winter right now, we had to get creative. If they stay wet too long you will risk the seeds sprouting prematurely.

I transferred the valentines with the screen and placed them on a wire rack for better air circulation. We used a hair dryer to help and then I ended up placing them in front of our little space heater to speed up drying time.

Once they are fully dry you are finished!

Finishing Touches

To make them more presentable add cute little tags! Click HERE to get my FREE printable!

We are going to hand write the type of seeds we used on the back and who it’s from!

To add the tags you just need to punch a hole through your valentine and the tag (I used a toothpick). Tie the tag to the valentine with a string and voila, you have adorable and eco-friendly valentines!

Special Notes

Make sure to NOT blend up the seeds! Only add them when you are 100% sure you are done blending.

If you don’t have colored paper, it’s okay to use a few drops of food coloring.

Use one of your older towels because the dye from the colored paper and/or food coloring may stain.

Make sure to tell your child and recipients that they are not edible (speaking from experience).

Don’t limit these to just Valentine’s Day! They would make awesome birthday party or wedding favors too!

What Are You Doing For Valentine’s Day?

Are you going zero waste for Valentine’s day? What are your plans? Let me know all about it in the comments below!

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