Arnold Grummer's Design Team Blog

Have you ever needed a quick, last minute gift? And since you're a creator of beautiful things, you know that the recipient expects something handmade. Recently, I was in this very situation. Here's what I made. I used  Arnold Grummer's 52 Card Fan Deck . The fan deck comes with chipboard covers, pages, and a post to secure the pages. I decoupaged the outside of the covers with coleus leaves that I dried using Arnold Grummer's Garden Press . By the way, drying leaves and blossoms is so easy with the garden press, and I have lovely dried elements to include in projects even when the snow is flying. I used USArtQuest's Matte PPA as my decoupage medium, because, unlike other decoupage mediums, when PPA dries it forms a permanent acrylic seal over my project. Other mediums can reconstitute and become tacky or sticky when exposed to humidity or moisture—not PPA. You can see that as I was adhere the leaves, they extended beyond the edges of the cove...

Hi everyone, ready to have some fabulous summer fun? Well, grab your Arnold Grummer products and fun is right within your reach! I really had a great time creating this Flower Fairy out of my Sundrops and  Sea Foam Flowers . I don't know what the flower is called that I used around her waist, so if you do let me know! First I began with a  Sin City  Rubber Stamp, you can use any form that doesn't have too much detail to it and is easily cut out. Keep in mind that some flowers are transparent and you can see the stamped lines through the petals so you want to remove as much of that as you can before assembling the flowers. For the skirt, I cut a piece of yellow cardstock out and glued the petals to it. For the bodice, I took a white Signo pen and marked out the lines. Because I cut out the arm, so it could lay over the top of her dress and hold a Sea Foam flower in her hand I used some Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots to give it some strength and keep it prop...

This week I saw the best Facebook post!  A saying that a friend posted jumped right out at me "Common Sense is a flower that does not grow in everyone's garden!"  I have had a, let's say "challenging" relationship with someone (one that makes a person roll their eyes and think "REALLY??") and this saying made me smile.  Why not use it for a piece?? I began by hitting Microsoft Word and creating the copy and size that I wanted for my piece.  I decided right away that I wanted the saying to be big & bold, so I made it as large as possible.  I also wanted it to be eye catching, so I altered the typeset throughout the piece.  I copied it on regular printer paper although it could be printed on vellum or fancier scrapbook paper.  Once printed, I cut a curve to the edges, checked the size and made adjustments for it to fit on the page. The background page is a piece from my stash.  On the back it is marked "Creative Imaginations" and ...