Arnold Grummer's Design Team Blog

Things are getting hectic as Spring arrives; graduation parties, spring cleaning, outdoor socials and more! This week I was grateful to have a large stash of hand made papers already on hand to make this quick and easy "Congratulations" Card for a graduate. SUPPLIES: AG Papermill Kit AG Additives Corner rounding punch, rhinestone flourish, fern rubber stamp,  Green ink (Bottle-Ranger Ink) 3-d Butterfly sticker, markers, PC to print sentiment INSTRUCTIONS:  1. Select coordinating papers that work well together. 2. Print the sentiment on your PC, or use a rubber stamped sentiment. Trim to size and round the corner and adhere to the background. 3. Stamp ferns onto green paper, accent with light and dark green markers.  Trim the shape and adhere to the background paper. 4. Affix the flourish and butterfly, accent butterfly sticker to "pop" with paint pens or markers. 5. Mount the card front onto blank card form. I hope you had a fabulous Mother's ...

I've been a very good girl this year, so I'm anticipating lots of goodies from Santa. So, in preparation I've made this Pretty in Pink thank you card using papers that I made following these basic instructions . Here's how I created this card: Sponge Vintage Photo and Barn Door distress inks on the front of a blank card. Cut a piece of old sheet music with deckle-edge scissors about 1/2" shorter and narrower than your card. This piece was already aged, but if you're using a new piece you can give it an aged look by lightly sponging with Vintage Photo distress ink.  Deckle the edges of your handmade by painting a line of water where you want the edges of the paper to be. Gently pull the paper apart along the water line. Cut your handmade paper with your selected die. I used the bubbles from Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Collection. This is a small die, so I cut it twice. Emboss your handmade, die cut paper. I used a thank you sentiment. Mount the...

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...

I have jumped on the box card bandwagon in a big way!! I love three dimensional projects, and this twist on a greeting card really resonates with me. Box cards look extraordinary, but actually, are quite simple to make. I sized this box card to be appropriate as a gift enclosure card. I used regular solid colored cardstock for the box card and the insert base. The decorative side and flap panels are handmade papers. After cutting the pieces for the flap panels, I embossed them using a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The flowers were cut with an embossing die. Adhere the decorative panels to the box card base, then form the box and glue the tab in place. Next, position and adhere the flowers to the box card and the insert base. The insert base is glued to the inner sides of the box midway from the front and back. Here's my finished box card with decorative panels made from handmade papers. I've included a PDF file you can download to make your own box card. ...

Hi all Today I bring you a simple greeting card with the bug paper mould..... You will need: plain white greeting card base dark brown handmade paper brownish grey handmade paper paper pulp and mini bug paper mould paper trimmer and adhesive brown stamp pad 1. make your paper pulp as per usual but instead of making it into a sheet of paper put it into the mould squeeze out the water with a cloth over top of the paper pulp and the sponge till the sponge is not squeezing out anymore water. take out of mould carefully then let both dry well. 2. with the light brown ink pad and a water mister (in my case anyway - it helped spread the ink better) apply stamp pad over moulded paper cast. 3. Carefully rip the little squares of bugs apart from each other. cut the dark brown card stock to 3 3/4" x 5 3/4" and cut the grey card stock to 5 half" x 2" 4. I used double sided foam pads for stickin...

I've often wondered if you could print on handmade paper using an inkjet printer. Well, now I know—yes, you can. It works! I used a carrier for my handmade paper. I taped the handmade paper to a sheet of cardstock with painter's tape. I used features in Make-The-Cut software to position the greeting and picture, then print them on my handmade paper. This just happened to be my software of choice, but other graphic or word processing programs would accomplish the same thing. [The graphic is from The Graphics Fairy .] A piece of ribbon and a card jacket complete my Mother's Day card. [The card jacket was cut on my electronic cutting machine use a file from Birds Cards .] I'm thrilled that I can use my inkjet printer to print directly on my handmade papers. Through the end of May use coupon code SPRING20 to save 20% on your entire order. You can see more projects on my Create & Craft blog . Carole

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...

Hi all Debbie Buckland here again. Every year Pantone (the design industry leader in colour consistancy) announces their colour of the year. Last year you may have noticed the world went bit huts on Emerald Green… well that was the colour of 2013. Pantone influences graphic designers, fashion designers all the way down to paint, paper and paper making designers…. This years colour is Lilac (with fuchsia, purple, pink undertones) - 2014 here we come! Pantone says that Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health. With that I made a greeting card using this colour in mind… For this card i had a bit of Stampin ups rich razzleberry card stock scraps left over from a project….. bits that were not big enough for anything even flower making with bits of pink tones of other scrapbook card stock. So I recycled these into my own handmade card stock using the Arnold Grummer's Papermill complete paper making kit #301  which makes the perfect sized paper ...

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...

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...

By: Carole Lassak I love tags. They are so versatile. Tags can be used as a greeting card or tied to a special package. I made this handmade paper tag using Arnold Grummer's Tags for Cards and Pages Template . I made the paper using these standard papermaking directions . I tinted the paper pulp with tissue tints  and added Angel Wings Multi Color Botanical Mix . The butterfly embellishment is from the PSX Garden Sticker Set. To make the butterfly three dimensional, I powdered the wing of one sticker, leaving the body of the butterfly sticky. Next, I scored a line on each side of the butterfly's body and gently folded the wings up. This sticker was positioned directly over a matching sticker. I glued skeleton leaves to the top center of the large tag, pierce holes in both the large and small tags, and set eyelets in each tag. The finishing embellishments for the large tag included the letters for the sentiment and rhinestones. For the small tag, I dipped the lower ...