Arnold Grummer's Design Team Blog

   The other night, I bought a couple of books and realized I had no way of keeping my place in them.  Then, I remembered the great  Tags for Cards & Pages template from Arnold Grummer's would make the perfect sized bookmarks and it would be easy to do.  I love that I was able to decorate them they way I wanted to fit me and what I was reading.  After I had the sheet of paper, I decided to run it through my die cut machine and cut a pumpkin out in celebration of fall.  I love the fall and it's the time of year, along with winter, that I get the most time to read so why not celebrate it.  I love using different types of bling so I added my favorite dew drops on top of a few pieces of ribbon that caught my eye. This bookmark definitely says "me."  You can make ones that say, "you" just to use and enjoy.  It's fun and easy!  Follow the basic paper making instructions and use one of the kits and you are well on...

Fall begins this Sunday and after having record high temperatures this week, I'm more than ready.  I took some time at enjoyed getting  out our fall decorations, but realized I didn't have anything for my craft area and I don't really have the room to set anything out either. I was disappointed as fall is one of my favorite seasons to celebrate.  I spent yesterday making some paper so I decided to make a little something that I could use to decorate my area and since I've been in the mood to make tags for several weeks I thought that it would be the perfect thing to create.  I wanted to share it with all of you, too.  I used one of the great Papermill Kits from Arnold Grummer's and followed the directions to make some paper pulp.  I, then, used the tag template  and poured the pulp in to form the tag and just minutes later after following all of the basic instructions I had a tag that was ready to decorate.  I...

By: Carole Lassak I've been busy during these last days of summer gathering leaves and petals, and pressing them using Arnold Grummer's Garden Press . Drying botanicals is very easy and rewarding. I harvest the leaves early in the day, but after any dew has evaporated. The leaves are layered between absorbent sheets and stacked in the press. In about five days I have dried botanicals that I can incorporate in my projects. I'm especially satisfied with the dried coleus leaves—I'm amazed at how well they retain their vibrant colors. For today's project I made beads using the dried leaves. Yes, you read that correctly—beads, as in for-jewelry-beads. First, wrap a beading tube (aka: soda straw ☺) with double sided tape. I prefer Great Tape from USArtQuest. It's transparent, acid free, and remains flexible. Note: Straws of different colors can yield beads with slight color variations. Also, you can use any sized straw—from very slender coffee stirs to the ju...

 I had 3 inspirations in creating this card.  First, was the fact I love making handmade paper and secondly I was so anxious to use the casting mold that I had received from Arnold Grummer's.  Now that I've used this one, I definitely want more of them and they have a huge selection to choose from so it's not going to be an easy task.  My third inspiration was the skeleton leaves  .  There were yelling at me to use them.  I think those are one of the coolest things to embellish with on any project.  I began by making a piece of handmade paper using one of the paper making kits and the basic directions .  I tried another great product for the first time, the Tissue Tints , which are used to add color to the paper and I can say I am hooked.  I love the soft color the blue piece added to the paper.  Then, I made the paper casted piece using one of the molds and enough cotton linters to fit ...

By: Carole Lassak This morning we had a nip of fall in the air. Just enough to make me start thinking about autumn decorations and Halloween. I decided to make a Halloween banner using Arnold Grummer's Project Squares  and a sheet of handmade paper that I made using these basic directions . I used my Zing electronic cutting machine to cut the letters and the top layer of the pumpkin motif. The font is Misfits from Dafont.com . The lower layer of the pumpkin motif is my very own handmade paper. I colored it using Arnold Grummer's Tissue Tints . These 8"x8" heavy chipboard squares are perfect for banners. Since they are pre-punched, all I had to do to complete the hanging was tie the tiles together with orange gingham ribbon. I also made a Halloween book using Arnold Grummer's Mini Fan Deck . I'll add photos and journaling about this year's Halloween to this special book. Every other page showcases a swatch of one of my handmade papers. The fan...