In the blistering heat of mid summer, I find my mind drifting off to the cool, damp groves of my childhood home in the Pacific Northwest. It never seemed to get too hot there, instead remaining blissfully cool, with every available space crammed with deep green ferns. Sadly, I’m no longer living in the land of lush forest undergrowth, but that doesn’t mean I can’t bring a little bit of fern love into my house to remind me of those more temperate climates. These newsprint ferns are a funky twist on botanical prints are look great hanging on a wall, turned into a bookmark or adorning a thank you card.

While magazine paper is easier to cut, newsprint makes for a prettier print. Look for pages without photographs as images cut from solid text look the best. Think about the size of the finished project your after when printing out your template, here I printed out on a sheet of 8-1/2″ x 11″ paper, but a larger piece could be made by printing out your templates in pieces and gluing them into one larger image onto the newsprint.

Things you need:
Printed fern image (feathers would look pretty too!)
Newsprint or print only pages from a magazine
Spray Adhesive
Scissors
Pinking shears

Things to do:
1. Print out an image similar to what you’re looking for. Do an Internet image search for your subject and paste it into a word document, dragging in or out to size it to your liking. Don’t forget to save your ink and print on your fastest draft setting!

2. Spread out your newsprint or magazine pages with the side you want out facing down. Press folds with a dry iron if necessary to obtain a perfectly flat medium.
3. Spray a thin coat of glue onto the back of your image and press firmly onto your newsprint, smoothing out any bubbles as you go.
4. Using a pair of sharp scissors cut the image out as precisely as you can. Use pinking shears to achieve the ribbed edges of fern leaves.

5. Mount to your chosen display and enjoy your bit of newspaper nature.