I picked seed bombs as favors because I didn't want to give out “stuff” (i.e. things that will just end up in a landfill), but rather give something small that was enjoyable, expressed our ethos, and was delightfully biodegradable. My husband and I had a great time making these and getting dirty! They were really easy and took no time at all.
I found the recipe for the seed bombs on the Instructables website. But here's how we made ours in particular…
What you will need:
- Clay (found in your area if you're lucky, or the fabulous Crayola air dry clay in “terra cotta” that I found online for cheap). If you can only find wet clay that's also fine! Just use less water to make the balls.
- Seeds (we mixed native flowers with edibles like peas and spinach)
- Water
- Organic compost
- Big bowl for the dry mixture and a small bowl for the water
- Drop cloth/bags (old paper shopping bags were perfect)
- Round circles of fabric
- Ribbon or cord
- Hole punch
- Printed labels (I made the template on Word and printed it on regular paper)
Instructions:
In a big bowl or bowls, mix five parts clay with one part compost and one part flower seeds. Scoop up a little bit of the mixture in your hand, and add a little water. Be careful not to overdo it on the water! Mix into a sticky dough. When it is the desired tacky consistency, roll in your hands to make one inch balls. Set them out to dry for forty-eight hours or so.
And be sure to tell everyone in the house that they're dirt and not chocolate truffles (they look deceiving).
Help your guests haul their stuff with canvas tote bag favors
If you're looking for a super useful favor that probably won't get tossed on the way out, check out Tara and Chuck's idea: reusable canvas... Read more
Now, for the wrapping:
Ideally, a nice organic fabric would be perfect, but I had a remnant stash of old fabric that I decided to use instead. I used a soup bowl for a template, and my girlfriends helped me cut out 70 rounds of fabric.
I made a quick template for the label using a neat Art Nouveau boarder I found online. I figured instructions were important so people knew what they were! Then I cut them out and hole punched the edge (be sure to leave space for the hole!).
When the balls were dry, I wrapped them in their fabric and tied the top with a bit of ribbon, attaching the tag.
This is a great little eco-friendly favor to share with guests, and hopefully they will take them out to the world to do a little guerrilla gardening of their own!
Really cute idea, the label is so sweet. I’m glad you said native species, because invasive species could be far worse for the environment than a few pounds of trash. My local church had to ban tossing seeds at the happy couple because invasive flowers took over and started to kill off some of their heirloom flowers.
If you’re going to have out-of-towners your native seeds may not be native where they live–just something to keep in mind 🙂
Quite true. I wanted to do seed bombs as party favors, but was quickly shot down by, “Honey, all of my family is from England. They can’t take them home.”
Also, I’m quite proud to have smuggled a whole bunch of watercress seeds from England back to the seeds. WE WILL have watercress!!
oh my gosh, i was planning on sending plantable seed thank you cards to everyone and my fiance’s family are all from england! I never even considered that…….!
So sweet! I was thinking of doing something similar. Two questions for you 1)did you use the crayola model magic? Or is there another air dry clay from them? 2) do you think they would work if you molded them with a shaped ice cube/chocolate/jello mold?
As I’ve been preparing for my wedding, I came across this idea also and loved it… except for the messy part. So I kept looking for a way to do something similar but not have all the mess and fuss of clay.
My solution? Seed bombs that are full of flower seeds and encased in a ball of recycled paper pulp.
This is less messy than traditional clay and also lets you customize with colors!
Ooo – that’s an interesting idea! How did you make/obtain the paper pulp?
I, too, am interested in the paper pulp and were to purchase.
I think basically recycled paper pulp means you add paper to water and soak it for a bit and then put it in an old blender or food processor to return it to a pulp state… =]
It ends up looking like this
Maybe I’m strange but I like these favors for an entirely different reason..
They look like the spell packets most LARPs use. FH and I met while LARPing, and at the time – yes, I flung a hell of a lot of spell packets. Oh geekery, I’m excited.
Did you actually use the Crayola dry clay? Can you tell me how many containers you needed to make however many favors? Thank you! This is a great idea. We’re going to tuck ours into shot glasses.
Hi there
how long do these last after making them?