How to Make Handmade Paper - 4M Paper Recycling Kit

There is a brief tutorial on how to make handmade paper using used paper in this post.

Last Christmas, I bought this 4M Paper Recycling Kit from Lazada as a gift to my 3 daughters. I thought that it would be a nice Christmas gift that could teach them how to recycle paper. Also, the handmade paper they could make can be used for other art and craft projects, such as greeting cards, bookmarks, scrapbook, etc.

Some handmade paper that my girls made last Christmas break

My kids like it and they enjoyed making handmade paper during their Christmas break. The steps in making handmade paper are actually very easy, which is why they loved doing the paper again and again. They even told their classmates in school about it and they were amazed and asked them how they did it.

How to make handmade paper:

Well, here’s a video tutorial of how they made handmade paper. Below the video is a summary of the steps in making recycled handmade paper.


Step 1. Tear old or used paper into small pieces. Actually, the kit includes onion skin paper for making handmade paper. But we decided to use old test paper and notebook pages for making the handmade paper. It’s nice because it adds letter or line designs and also the paper automatically becomes colored because of the ballpen ink used.

Step 2. Boil water and put it in a bottle. Then, add the torn pieces of paper.

Step 3. Let it soak for about 24 hours. After that time period, shake the bottle until the content is mushy. We even had so squeeze the paper using our bare hands to make sure they’re mushy. If you want to fast track this step, you can also use a blender to crush the mixture.

Step 4. Get a tray, then pour the paper-water mixture. You can add more water to make the mixture less dense.

Step 5. Get a mesh tray with a piece of plastic screen on top. Shake the water a bit and then use the tray with screen to scoop the water and the paper. Do this several times until you have a thick enough layer of paper. Be sure that the paper is evenly distributed and that there are no holes.

Optional: You can also add cut leaves or grass or flowers and perfume and dye to the paper mixture at this step. This will make your handmade paper more special.

Step 6. Put another plastic screen on top and use a sponge to press out the water from the paper.

Step 7. Put a layer of old newspaper and cheesecloth (katya) on the table. Remove the paper that is sandwiched between the two screens and place it on the cloth. Again, press with the sponge to take away more of the water.

Step 8. Remove the top screen slowly. Then, hold the bottom screen with your palm and carefully flip it over.

Step 9. Press again with the sponge and remove the screen.

Step 10. Cover with another layer of cheesecloth, then put something heavy (ie book, block of wood) on top.

Step 11. Let the handmade paper dry for at least 6 hours.

Step 12. You can now use the handmade paper for other art and craft projects.

So, that’s it for this tutorial. I hope you and your kids can also enjoy making handmade paper.

By the way, you can definitely do this even without getting the 4M Recycling Paper Kit. Just buy the trays and plastic screen at any craft or novelty store.