Cards with Molded Focal Pieces

For truly unique handmade cards, nothing beats using one of Arnold Grummer's paper casting molds. These molds are so versatile—besides paper pulp, you can mold a variety of clays. For these cards I used Arnold Grummer's magnolia mold, the dragonfly mold, trifold window cards, and Delight™ by PaperClay.

I rolled out a small ball of the paper clay with a rolling pin to about 3/8" thickness and large enough to cover the mold. The molds were dusted with cornstarch so the paper clay would release easily. I pressed the clay into the mold to capture every detail. I gentle removed the casting from the mold, trimmed as desired, and left to dry overnight on a flat surface.

Paper clay castings drying

I tried a different coloring technique on each of these cards. On the magnolia casting I used chalks for the leaves and petals, and added deeper color accents on the petals with Prismacolor markers. The flower center was colored with a Tombow marker.

Close up of Magnolia paper cast

For the dragonfly I coated the body, head, and wing parts with USArtQuest PPA. Then, I dipped a fine brush into gold mica powders and blended with the PPA that was already on the paper clay piece. I did the sparkly gold background by painting the areas with PPA and sprinkling with Mica Gold Dust.

Close up of Dragonfly paper cast

The final step was to prepare the trifold card blanks. For the dragonfly card I stamped a dragonfly image with Versamark creating a tone on tone image. For the magnolia card I stamped a leaf vine with pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I mounted each casting on a mat and mounted the mat with the casting into the trifold card.

Finished cards using paper casting from Arnold Grummer's paper casting molds

You can see more of my projects on my Create & Craft blog.

Carole