Mom’s Day Cast Paper Heart Pocket

Mother’s Day is fast approaching and I have had fun dreaming up inexpensive and easy crafts perfect for gift giving.  This heart pocket can hold a gift card, a little jewelry box, any little gift and is easy to make with paper pulp made from scrap printer paper.

I got my Brown Bag Victorian Heart cookie mold at a garage sale but you can get them on Ebay for a reasonable price.  Or you can use any mold intended for cookies or soap.

 

Supplies:  a piece of window screen, a plate, 2 kitchen towels, WD40, scraps of printer paper, a blender, and a mold.

 

Blend the paper in the water until it is all mushy and no chunks of paper are visible.

 

 

Make sure the paper is thoroughly blended!

 

Cut the piece of window screen to fit your plate.  Then lift the screen and put a kitchen towel underneath.  Next, prepare your mold by spraying it with WD40 which really helps the paper to separate from the mold!

All you need is a very light spray!

 

With your fingers, scoop out a couple of tablespoons of paper and put it on the screen, pressing lightly to squeeze out the water.  The paper with stick to your fingers (like magic!) and you can pat the paper into the mold and start filling up the empty spaces on the mold two tablespoons at a time.  Each time you squeeze out the water on the screen, the paper will stick to your hand and you place it where you need more paper.  When you press the paper into the mold, it won’t stick to your hand as you press it.

 

After the mold is full, now it is time to press out as much water as you can with another kitchen towel.

 

 

 

After the excess water is gone, it is pretty easy to remove the paper from the mold. TIP:  make the bottom tip of the heart a little thicker than the rest of the heart so it is more sturdy.  I turn the mold upside down so gravity is helping the wet paper out of the mold.

Fold the kitchen towel into a cone shape and carefully position the wet heart over it and set aside to dry.  I am impatient so I usually get out my hair dryer and set it next to the towel on low warm.

That is the top of the heart pocket, make another heart for the bottom and DON’T FORGET TO SPRAY WITH WD40 before you put more paper in the mold (Like I did!)

 

After both pieces are completely dry, use hot glue to secure into a pocket attaching a handle when you glue the corners. Ta Dah!  The pieces form a pocket for your Mother’s Day treasure.