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Amira's DIY Australian Pocket Traveler's Notebook ~ Part 1 ~ Faux Eco Papers

Hi Everyone,

I was SO inspired by the Open Road paper collection from the November Kit that I decided that I wanted to make an Australian Traveler's Notebook just like a passport to have in my back pocket as Aussie adventurers do when they are out and about in the bush.

To start this whole process, I went out into my neighbourhood and picked leaves and flowers from trees and pressed them between coffee stained papers in my greenhouse (yes I know it sounds weird but some of these actually worked and I am so inspired by my faux eco printing papers that I used them in my booklets). So here is my setup.

Firstly, that tray is full of lukewarm coffee and that is a whole pile of copier paper



Step 1- Dip papers into the coffee tray and lay them in the greenhouse (this stops the papers from being blown around all over my backyard and it's pretty warm in there so they dry in no time on fine sunny days).




Step 2- Lay your leaves / flowers on top.


Step 3 - Dip another page into the coffee tray and play on top of the leaves.



Step 4 - Add another layer of leaves / flowers





Step 5 - Dip another page into the coffee tray and play on top of the leaves.


 You get the picture!

I ended up with approx 10 layers of paper on top of one another. 
The more you add, the heavier they press on each other (and create more of a print).

I also experimented with boiling leaves to make them softer and I used that water to stain copy paper a lovely light yellow color.

Here are some successful results.








Some worked, others didn't. 
It's alright. 
I really enjoyed the process and the papers are all so special to me because I made them myself.


You can watch my process for making these papers HERE

I will attempt real Eco Paper Printing,  one day . That is a huge process which I need to acquire some materials for. But for now, this works well enough for me.

Head on over to Part 2 tomorrow to learn how I turned these papers into inserts (booklets) for my Aussie Traveler's Notebook.

xx Amira

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