DIY Wildflower Seed Hearts

I was recently contacted by The Climate Coalition, who asked me to be part of their upcoming campaign and I was delighted as you can imagine. I’ve had such a good time sharing the work of this important NGO over on their Instagram page, exploring what’s unfurling out in their nature and I felt compelled to share more with you here.  I feel sure you’ll love their campaign too.

The Climate Coalition are a group of over 130 organisations, spanning the breadth of the UK with the sole aim of showing their love for all the things they want to see protected from climate change and ultimately to try to get the government to change their policies within this space. I know from the comments I receive over on Instagram and the beautiful images that are posted there, that you too see a world where flowers, nature and the land are affected by the changing of our climate.

There are many ways for you to get involved with this movement, firstly by simply noticing the changes around you and logging them where possible: this forms part of a wider study by The Woodland Trust and their nature calender which has been ongoing since 2000. The Climate Coalition have put together a handy sheet to enable you to make notes and then share via their website here.

Another way to get involved is to craft and gift a green heart. There are plenty of activities happening all around the UK in the coming weeks where you can go and make your own green heart. This Valentine’s day you could give a gift with a difference and an important message or how about sending one to your local MP telling them you care?

If that’s all too much for you though, and I get that, how about making your own paper seed hearts and gifting them to your friends and loved ones. At the very least, ensuring we see more flowers this year than last. Mine aren’t green however and that is because I don’t like the idea of putting green dyes in the ground BUT that is entirely your choice and you could always use a natural dye to turn them a glorious green (I just ran out of time). This tutorial has been adapted from the Climate Coalitions version which you can find here along with many other great makes.

You will need to gather:

·        6-8 sheets of paper

·        Food processor

·        Wildflower seeds (mine were gathered last year)

·        Heart cookie cutter (any shape will do)

·        Drying rack

·        Greaseproof paper

Cover the strips of paper with water

1.      The first thing to do is to tear your paper in to smallish pieces (a great job for the kids!). I have used natural white paper here for the reasons I explained above but any will do so long as it doesn’t have a sheen to it.

2.      Soak the paper in a bowl covered in water for at least twenty minutes, I soaked mine over night

Mashed up paper

3.      Once the paper is soaked through, drain off most of the excess water and place the paper in a food processor

4.      I found that I needed to add some boiled water to the paper in order for the blades to cut through, so try this if you struggle at all. Whizz until it forms a paste

5.      Once it’s blended, remove and squeeze out any excess moisture (taking care if you have used hot water as the mixture will still be warm).

Add the seeds

6.      Next tip the seeds in to the mixture and mix it around with your hands to make sure all the seeds are evently distributed

Mix together so that they are evenly distributed

7.      Then lay out a piece of greaseproof paper and by filling the heart cookie cutter with some of the mixture, push down until your seed heart is about 2 cms thick

Filling a cookie cutter

8.      Repeat until all the mixture has been used up, I made about 10 with the quantity above

9.      Carefully, using a spatular, transfer the hearts to the drying rack. I used a splatter cover for mine, this allows the moisture to leave from both sides of the hearts.

10.   Then find a place to leave them to dry, I started with a warm sunny window sill and then moved them in to the airing cupboard

11.   And then gift away!

So there you have it, a super simple DIY tutorial for wildflower seed hearts or bombs as some like to call them. It's so simple and such a lovely activity to do with the kids too. Now I can't wait to share the love and see them grow!

Please do join in with the Climate Coalition's campaign these coming weeks, you can tweet and post on Instagram using the hashtag #showthelove, we would love to see what you great this year! And if you're desperate to make more, don't forget about my nature bird feeder tutorial which can be found here.

Happy making!