Arnold Grummer's Design Team Blog

We are fast approaching the season of love! I have a fun valentine's day project made with pressed flowers from our yard and recycled Christmas wrapping paper. I hope you saved those crumpled piles of used Christmas wrapping paper because that is what we will be using to make our paper. Luckily many of these papers and red! I also chose one that had a silver design in it. More about that later! Using the Trash to Treasure Book  Follow the directions on pages 52 - 55 for making paper with a Pour mold. Add torn pieces of paper to the blender filled with water and make the pulp.  Pour into the hand mold and then remove the water using first the screen, then the couches. The sheet can be air dried or dried using an iron.  I told you I used a paper that had a silver design. I should have known it would be a problem when I could not tear it but instead had to use scissors. The pulp was filled with pieces of foil. I did continued to finish...

We're had several 80° days here, so I think it's safe to say that spring is leaving us and summer is here!! Our flowers are just beginning to bloom, and so is the greeting card that I made using my own handmade papers and dried botanicals. The paper was made following the basic instructions for making handmade papers. I used tissue tints  and red angel wing dried botanicals  to achieve the coloring in the pink mat. Before adding the angel wings to the pulp, I crumbled two petals into very fine pieces—almost dust. I dry embossed the paper for added texture. Next, I used a die to cut white blossoms and green stems from scraps of handmade paper that I had left from other projects. I never toss even the tiniest scrap of handmade paper. Even if the piece is too small to use in a project, it can always be recycled into paper pulp. Then, I die cut a flower from a dried leaf to layer on top of paper die cut flower. This is the darker flower. The lighter flowers are dried blosso...

Our days are slowing getting warmer, and there is the promise of spring and summer in the air. I'm eager for the flowers to bloom!! But, while I wait for them, I created this spring tag. I included fern fronds and flower buds that I dried last summer using Arnold Grummer's Garden Press.  (Can't wait to press flowers and leaves again this summer!!) I started with a wooden tag that I painted white. The next step was to napkin collage the flower motifs at the bottom and upper right corner. the fern fronds and flower buds were decoupaged in place using PPA.  When the tag was dry I added ribbons and the little bird in the upper left corner, which I die cut from my own handmade paper.  Carole

This card was inspired by a trip to the pumpkin patch with my daughter and 2 of her friends.  It was a lovely fall day and I got to share the day with 3 teenagers who were literally skipping through the pumpkin patch!  I took along my Arnold Grummer's Garden Press ( http://arnoldgrummer.com/garden-press.html ) and filled it with treasures during the day: leaves, flowers, a lucky 4-leaf clover!  Once home, I waited patiently (with the occasional peek) for the pieces to dry.  Instructions with the press say 3-7 days....I left them for the max time before taking them out.  I discovered that a pumpkin flower is not a very good choice for the press.  The flower itself flattened beautifully.  Sadly, it was way too fragile to peel off the blotter...it sadly was lost :-(   The big "reveal" was eye opening as far as what happens to the colors.  Pieces that I thought would stay bright and bold (some Coleus leaves), darkened so much that ...

Hello everyone. My name is Debbie Buckland and I am from New Zealand. I am so excited to be on the Arnold Grummer's Design Team! Well I haven't made paper since before I was married! I think I was still living at home with Mum and Dad as I remember mum complaining there was paper drying everywhere around the house…. LOL Well now I'm annoying my hubby thanks to the Arnold Gummer team! he he I have 7 months to go and I will have my own craft room to work in but until then I am working in the kitchen. I started off opening the Paper Mill Complete Paper Making Kit #301 (Pour Method kit) and watching the DVD provided. (not pictured) and then bought a Blender specifically for the purpose of making paper and a bin. (all on sale of course) Next I followed all instructions that were included and made my very first sheet of paper with used laser printed paper using the pour method… previously I only had ever used the dip method. And the results are so much l...

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...

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 ...