Newspaper flowers

I found this great idea while browsing the web. It was for valentines day, so I modified it for Flower Madness!

What else can you do with left over newspaper besides take it to the basement?! Make flowers out of it!!!

First, put some hot water into a bowl. Shred the newspaper into it. Kneed the newspaper until it becomes pulpy like the picture below.

Now, you are going to need something to shape the newspaper past onto that won't fall apart when it gets wet. The tutorial I found online used tulle. I used coffee filters. I don't recommend using a piece of cloth unless it is not fuzzy because the newspaper paste will stick to it.

Unfold your coffee filters and lay them on an absorbent surface. I used a towel.

Take some paste (you don't need much) and squeeze some of the water out. Don't squeeze it all out because you need the past to be mailable.

Put the paste on your coffee filter and make a rough shape.

Once you have your shape made, put another coffee filter on top of the shape.

Press firmly to remove the water. (If your absorbent surface becomes full of water, you may need to find another absorbent surface).

After you press some of the water out, check your shape. It will probably have morphed into a blob. Re-shape it and press again until most of the water is gone. You should be able to gently pick it up.

Place the new shape on paper towels or another surface where it can dry. Avoid moving the shape because it can fall apart easily if moved too much.

When the paste has dried, use it for something cool! You could paint it, tie a string around it, put it on a package, hot glue it to a chopstick, get creative! I am going to put magnets on mine and write different letters on each that spell S-P-R-I-N-G