Arnold Grummer's Design Team Blog

My husband and I have been discussing our 25 th anniversary, which occurs next year. We ’ ve been to Germany, France, and some of the surrounding countries but have never been to Italy. So, after very little debate (it is, after all, Europe!), we decided to head there. One of the greatest challenges for me when traveling is that I cannot carry my entire workshop with me. It is really hard to decide which art supplies to bring. I know that when I travel to Italy, I will want to carry something with me to create with. I could certainly bring an art journal, but I am thinking about how cumbersome that could be unless the art journal were much smaller. I also have to be truthful to myself about just how much time I really will have to create. Keeping both of those in mind, I decided that I could carry several mini journals — about four or five — and create a memento of my time in Italy. This is how the Tiny Traveling Journal was born! Four or five mini journals would not take up too much ...

Sharing food and drink is one of the oldest rituals in the world and what better way to celebrate my 60th birthday  than to share a cup of tea with my besties?  I set about making some place cards for my birthday tea celebration over at Southern Cup of Tea   out of the left over Botanical paper I had on hand which I had created with my  Arnold Grummer  Papermaking kit and the Angel Wings: Multi Color Mix . Using my Tea bag stencil template, I traced and cut them out. Tip: Be prepared for beautiful albeit annoying flaws when writing on botanical paper. For numbers 1 and 2 the fix is simple. You just need to cut out extra "tags" to glue on. 1. This beautiful kaleidoscope of flowers would just overwhelm the text. 2. Sometimes a deckled edge just doesn't work, even as much as I love them and in this case it ends up  looking like an corner that got torn off. 3. No going back from this one really when a dark piece lands s...

It’s that time of the year when people’s attention is focused on the holiday ritual of gift-giving.  I actually started making my Botanical Sticky Note Books back in July, mainly because my paper making studio  aka my garage is not heated, so all my paper making is done during the summer.  And if you want a great gift to give to someone or even to gift yourself then purchase an  Arnold Grummer  Papermaking kit . I used Arnold Grummer's  Angel Wings: Multi Color Mix  to create my botanical paper for my  Sticky Note books.   I love the bright colors which won't fade and the fact that the Angel Wings tear into long thin strips and will give a mulberry type paper effect. I love the different effects you can achieve by varying the amount of botanicals that you add for each batch of sheets in the blender.  If this was to be used as stationery then I would have used less and blended more but I kn...

I love to paper piece and I love using up my scraps of hand made paper that I created from using my Arnold Grummer Pour Hand  Mold . It's just a win-win in my book when I can combine recycling my precious scraps into a brand new card to send to someone.   Did you know that each piece of material that you recycle makes a positive impact on the environment? I love this little scrap of paper that I used for the beach, it has little bits of text and chunks of rose petals in it which gives it some great texture. If you don't have any roses of your own you can always pick up this Botanical Value Set from the Arnold Grummer store . Fellow team member Jean Marmo made the cutest little easel project using her handmade paper scraps too, you should go check it out!

I love adding Arnold Grummer's botanicals in the blender. They really hold up well being shredded and don't turn to mush like fresh flowers can do if you aren't careful. You can experiment and run botanicals in the blender for different lengths of time to get varying effects. You can also use botanicals whole like I did with my Botanical Gift Card .  All my bookmarks were created today using the Medium Template: Tags for cards and pages 1. Put new pulp or paper to be recycled in the blender with water.   2. Select one or several botanicals to be added to the new sheet ( do not overload the first time) Put half in the blender. 3. Run the blender for 13 seconds  4. Add the other half of the botanicals in the blender  and run blender for 2 more seconds.  5. Do the basic hand papermaking steps as Arnold Grummer shows you HERE .   6. Embellish as little or as much as you want. The botanicals look so charming on their own th...

Adding  botanicals  in the deckle and within the  Cards and tags template  can create a very special gift card, perfect for any special occasion. You can break them apart, but I loved the look of keeping one whole and making it the focal point. Make your paper according to directions and add your pulp into the template. Before lifting your mold out of the water you will want to place your botanical in position. You need to get a few fibers over the botanical to tie it into place and you can use your finger to gently push it down into the pulp, then lift your mold out and couch like normal. It is not recommended to dry your paper made with botanical with heat, the preferred method is drying under pressure. I love my paper press for this! Keeping sets of these tags on hand are a great idea so you can be ready for any occasion with a handmade gift card.

I have to say I didn't create any handmade papers today.. (insert - Awwwwe!)  Only because I have created a decent size stash to play with (Yeah buddy!!) Well for a very little while.  I mean.. do you EVER really have enough paper when you are a serious paper crafter? (smiles)  I wanted to play and color on my handmade papers.  I think when you art on top them they add such texture and detail, even before adding color.  Here is a tag I did.  It was such fun to play.. and watch as things as it came into fruition. The supplies I began with were only made possible after using any one of the   Arnold Grummer Paper Mill Kits  to create the papers of your dreams. (smiles)  After you have those, you then need: XL Manila Tag Prima, Bloom Girl Summer Stamp Ranger Archival Ink Pad- Jet Black Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals -Autumn Leaves Sakura Water brush Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue Embellishments Scissors Americana Mult...

Happy Wednesday good people!!  Seemed only appropriate to do something for Valentine's Day, which happens to be this Saturday.. ::insert sappy-like music here::  (chuckles) I am having a ball learning about creating my own papers.  This week I even added *inclusions* (that's when you add things to your pulp y'all)  I added some dried roses I had received from a friend, Tommy Jo, who is a fantastic artist and soap maker!! Let me show you the accordion book I made! I have 2 different types of papers here.  The pink paper was from a previous batch of tissue papers, napkins and soda can boxes.  The green is my rose batch.  Here's a list of the supplies I used to create my project for today..  Any of the  Arnold Grummer Paper Mill Kits Arnold Grummer Zig Zag Book Dried roses Blender Water Pearl Ex- Green-Yellow and Red-Blue Perfect Medium  Brush Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue Fiber/Yarn Paper Flowers (to embellish) ...