Arnold Grummer's Design Team Blog

There are so many things that you can do with handmade paper!! Today I'm making containers—small bowls that can be used for home decor display, a personal treat dish, or as part of a desk set to hold paper clips, rubber bands, etc. I used two similar, yet different methods for these bowls. For the rose petal inclusion bowl and the blue oval bowl, I started with a piece of handmade paper that I'd made some time ago following these basic instructions . Both of these papers were on the heavy side. I wet them on both sides by passing them under a gentle stream of warm tap water, first one side then the other. I worked quickly because I wanted the paper thoroughly moistened, but not disintegrating into pulp. The thinner your paper the gentler the stream of water needs to be so as not to tear a hole in the paper. Next, I formed the wet paper over the bowl/mold. There were places I needed to pleat and overlap the paper to make it fit snugly. The square, pink bowl was made using th...

Do you enjoy making and sending handmade greeting cards as much as I do? I never miss an occasion to create a special greeting. With St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, I knew that I wanted to make paper castings using molds from Arnold Grummer's. Here are the molds that I selected and the castings that I made: Shamrock Mold Thistle Mold Lotus Mold I followed these basic instructions for making paper castings. But, I experimented a bit. I achieved the mottled green coloring in the top shamrock casting by adding a drop of food coloring to the partially strained paper pulp, and gently kneading the color through the pulp just before plopping the pulp into the mold. I also discovered that if I didn't like the coloration, I could hold the strainer containing the paper pulp under a gentle flow of tap water and the color would, for the most part, wash away!! For the thistle casting, I sprinkled the casting with clear ultra...

My four year old grand daughter was sad to see us take down our Christmas tree and all the ornaments. Even though she help take each ornament off the tree, often she would say, "I don't see why we can't leave the ornaments on the tree. They look so pretty!" So, we decided that we'd have a special Valentine's Tree with its own ornaments. This is an easy project—perfect for involving young children. Chloe had helped make the papers this fall (we followed these basis papermaking instructions ), and was eager to get to use them in a project. Together we selected the papers that we'd use for the ornaments—mostly pink, with the odd purple sheet of paper. We used a heart punch for the shapes. Each ornament requires a minimum of three hearts. For a fuller ornament, just add more hearts. Next, we scored each heart lengthwise in the center. We glued the left half of the first heart to the right half of the second heart. Then, we laid a piece of twine along the c...

If you follow my projects, then you know that I gravitate to jewelry items. Today, I've combined mica, handmade paper and dried botanicals to make this gorgeous OOAK piece. One of a kind because each leaf, each piece of mica and each piece of handmade paper has its own characteristics. I dried the leaves using Arnold Grummer's Garden Press . The paper I made by adding tissue tints and dried rosebuds to the paper pulp. I started with mica tiles from USArtQuest. Mica is a rock that is composed of several layers. After selecting a piece for my necklace, I easily delaminated the layers by gently slipping a fingernail between the layers. Next, I arranged the leaves and paper on top of the bottom piece of mica. I tore the paper so it would have feathered, irregular edges. You can see that the leaves extend beyond the edges of the mica. I used small pieces of Cut-Bond-Create , a double sided adhesive, to bond the two pieces of mica. You can see the blue grid backing on th...

Are you still decorating for the holidays? I am—and probably will be until the wee hours on Christmas Eve. (But, then, I guess that would be the very early hours of Christmas Day!!) Anyway, you get what I'm saying: I'm going to be decorating until the last possible moment. Many of my decorations include handmade paper, and today I'm sharing one of my favorites. It is a 3D angel. She's so easy to make!! I'm sharing the pattern in PDF , MTC (Make-the-Cut) , and SVG formats. Here you can see the angel cut out from a light blue handmade paper. I colored the paper pulp with a pale blue tinting tissue and added botanical inclusions. I following these basic instructions when making the paper, but for this piece I processed longer so the inclusions would be blended into smaller pieces. Next step was to embellish the cutout. I chose a silver metallic chenille stem for her halo and Dew Drops along the hemline. You could also use glitter glues, rhinestones, or othe...

There's always a flurry of activities between Thanksgiving and Christmas—shopping, parties, gift wrapping, Christmas cards. But this year I'm ahead of the game, if only on one item on that list—my Christmas cards. I've been thinking about the design for quite a while. Since this summer, actually. I live in Ohio where we have brisk autumns that move into cold  winters. I like to do my handmade paper making outside, so I try to make lots of paper during the spring and summer fair-weather months. I made the papers for this snowflake Christmas card way back in May or June using these basic papermaking instructions . Since I knew I'd be using these papers for Christmas, I was sure to include plenty of metallics and sparkles along with botanicals . I had the pastel color palette in mind when I selected my tissue tint s to color the papers. I used a variety of Sizzix snowflake dies to cut the individual snowflakes, then layered the four snowflakes on the card base. Las...

I love elegant parties and showers!! And what could spell elegance better than handmade paper. I made the paper following these  basic papermaking instructions . This treat bag and place card are from one sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper.  I used this pattern for the treat bag, and a 5" x 3.5" piece of the handmade paper, folded in half for a finished size of 2.5" x 3.5". I printed the place card text on vellum. The finished size of the vellum is 2.75" x 1.5". I glued it to the folded paper with a couple tiny dots of liquid adhesive. After stuffing the treat bag, I tied the top closed with a length of tulle. Now I'm all ready for a party!! I can think of several ways to use these darling bags at parties and receptions. They could hold mints at every place setting. They could hold grains and bird seed to shower a new bride and groom. What about a take-home gift for shower guests? Maybe a small bundle of empty bags tied with a ribbon for a stoc...

I've really enjoyed paper casting using Arnold Grummer's molds. There are basic paper casting directions on the Arnold Grummer's website. These are a few of the favorites I've been using lately. #711 Gingko Leaf #717 Maple Leaf I found the perfect frame for the maple leaf mold at one of my most-frequented thrift stores. I made several different paper castings of the maple leaf, with and without inclusions. This is the casting that I chose for my frame. And here it is in the frame. Wasn't I right? Isn't this the perfect frame for this maple leaf paper casting? You can enjoy making your own handmade paper and papercasting with this month's 20% discount. Arnold Grummer's November sale!!  Just enter the promo code Nov20 for 20% off your entire order. You can see more projects on my Create & Craft blog . Carole

By: Carole Lassak Recently, I needed a quick, but impressive, gift. So, I turned to my growing collection of handmade papers. I made this gorgeous journal in just over one hour!! So easy. This comes as a complete photo album kit from Arnold Grummer's, but I made a few personalizations :) I'll share the basic assembly instructions, and you can use chipboard and papers to your own dimensions. You will need chipboard, cover paper, liner paper, paper for filler pages, your choice of embellishments. Note: Just so you don't think that you teleported to another blog, the pictures showing assembly feature different papers than the finished journal. Chipboard cover and end boards with cover and liner papers. Completely cover the chipboard pieces with adhesive. I used Elmer's Craft Bond glue stick. Lay the cover and end boards on the reverse side of your cover paper, leaving a 3/16" space between the boards. This allows the finished book to open easily. My ...