I remember receiving a gifts of life style bookmark after my nephew was killed in Iraq. The 'bookmark' had a prayer on it and seeds inside. It was not made of the white paper that most people are familiar with - the idea was to plant the bookmark and grow flowers from it. I found it a memorable and kind gift idea. The paper decomposes naturally and whatever kinds of seeds imbedded in it will grow with the proper care.

You will need to learn how to make your own paper; it is not that hard to accomplish. (See the resources below for instructions) You can use the same process to make recycled paper, but you will add the seeds to the paper, before it dries. You can sell these sheets for $6 each or more.

Using the same idea, you can sell bookmarks, wrapping paper, wedding favors, envelopes, greeting cards, gift boxes, and more. This is such a great way to make common day items more earth friendly too. When planting the items, you are recycling them into a beautiful living gift. Depending on the choice of seeds, the flowers could also return on a regular basis as a reminder of the thoughtful gift repeatedly.

The uses for this type of paper product are endless. The more creative you are the more customers you will draw to your products, especially now that more people are concerned about the ecology of the planet. Offering an organic form of your product would be a great business idea too.

Your first investments would be in the materials needed to make the paper and buying seeds in bulk. The first choices would probably be the smallest seeds, but also the easiest to grow, then a variety of colors and flower types too. These are all factors to take in to consideration when deciding on the paper types you want to make and offer. After a while of operating your business you will notice if there are strong preferences for some types of flowers.

This would be an excellent choice for a mail-order type of business or also as a web-site business too. Because this is an unusual product idea, you should have many options for growth. New and different gift ideas are always being searched for these days for those many people that just don't know what to get as an appropriate and affordable gift for some people that seem to already own everything. Then there are also gifts like the thoughtful bookmark mentioned at the beginning, for those many people looking for the right way to respond with something encouraging and memorable.

Your advertising could be fun too, by using your own paper for your business cards. Printing your business information on the front and then on the back explain what they can do with the card if they would like to grow some flowers with it. Be sure that you have an easy business name to remember so that if they decide they want to order from you and have already planted your card they will still be able to get a hold of you. If this seems too expensive to do, you might only offer these to customers that are potential bulk buyers.

Resources:

http://www.bloominpromotions.com/products/bookmarks.html

http://www.plantablepaper.com/