Do It Yourself

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Make it, Fix it, Renovate it, Rehabilitate it - as long as you’ve done some part of it yourself, share!

Especially for gardening related or specific do-it-yourself projects, see also the Nature and Gardening community. For more creative-minded projects, see also the Creative community.

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What do you recommend as a solution to harden paper? (libranet.de)

submitted 9 months ago by petrescatraian@libranet.de to c/diy

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I have a few project ideas, and I thought of reusing the paper from various shop catalogs that I receive in my physical mailbox. I'd like to make it stiffer, something more like cardboard. I read somewhere online that you could use corn starch for this, mixed with water. Would it work? Do you have better ideas?

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[–] apis 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Often don't need corn starch, but depends on makeup of the paper & what you want for the end use, leave to dry. Can add glues for other effects.

Tear up pieces, soak in water, squeeze out excess water, shape as needed. Adjust size of torn pieces for different structural effects, from slurry you can pipe for definition & brittle strength or compression through to large overlaid sheets for sheering strength & flexibility)