Arnold Grummer's Papermaking - Red, White & Blue Banner

Banners can be a simple decoration to be used around the house for any occasion. Celebrate the beginning of the summer season on this Memorial Day, with this red, white and blue banner.  It can remain up as a decoration all summer long or all year long as a simple All-American sign.

To make this decoration, I made three sheets of paper for the base of each of the three pennants.  Using sheets of red, blue and white papers, I cut them into thin strips before processing in the blender.  The red and blue strips were pre-soaked.  I created a thicker sheet of each color using the pour method.  NOTE: I started with the white sheet. Use the water in the blender from the red and blue soaked paper shreds. Continued with the red and blue, cleaning all items used and changing water between the colors in the container.

Once the sheets are formed and dried, trim them each to measure 5 1/4" x 8".  I scanned and printed images from a "flag" book to be used on each of the pennants.  NOTE: Any images can be used, such as photos, drawings or other patriotic images.  The images were layered onto glittered card stock in coordinating colors before being attached to the handmade sheets.

Rosettes, in two sizes, were die-cut from vellum.  Discs and stars, as added embellishments are also die-cut from coordinating papers.  NOTE: Any embellishments of your choice can be used to decorate each pennant.

The three pennants are attached with tiny wooden clips onto a thin length of red, white and blue ribbon for hanging.

Go the Arnold Grummer website to place an order.  Use the code SPRING20 for a 20% discount.

Arnold Grummer's Papermaking - Paper Layers

Using a variety of papers, some handmade along with other types, then layering them creates a keepsake card.

Begin with a piece of white textured card stock that is cut and folded to make a card measuring 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  The next layer is a a patterned vellum, cut 1/4" smaller then folded card front.  All four sides of the card are trimmed with a deckle decorative scissor.   Glue onto card front with Zip Dry or a narrow double sided tape.  The next layer is a piece of hand made paper.  This piece was made by adding some dried leaf bits with stems.  The processing breaks these down but gives the paper some great texture.

The large butterfly started with another piece of plain handmade paper.  The paper is colored by spraying the paper with color spray.  NOTE: Use whatever method to color the paper.  If the method uses some form of rewetting the paper, press the paper an iron to help dry and smooth it.  Use a die-cut or a butterfly pattern of choice to cut the shape. Cut a butterfly body from a small piece of brown paper.  Cut a short length of wire, form it into a "V" shape.  With round nose jewelry pliers, twist the ends of both to make a slight curl.  Glue the wire shape onto the colored butterfly shape, then glue the brown paper cut-out over the wire and center of the lower shape.

To finish off the card, stamp a short verse onto a strip of ribbon and affix the ribbon on the card.

A casting, using the Arnold Grummer #704 butterfly mold,  was added to the card.  This casting was made with an epoxy resin material instead of paper.  The mold had been used several times to make casting with beeswax before making a casting with the resin product.  NOTE: To use the molds with resin I believe the molds need to be treated in some way to help release the resin.  Testing with an untreated mold was difficult to release.  The mold was placed in the freezer and then I used an X-acto knife blade to carefully lift the resin casting from the mold.  I used thinned Distress Paints to color the butterfly image on the casting then added a litter glitter glue around the image for some sparkle.

Check out the Arnold Grummer website for products and use the discount code SPRING20 for 20% off an order.

Designer Craft Connection - How Does Your Garden Grow

These days, my garden consists of small potted plants, hanging baskets, and container plants for the summer.  Space is limited now and I am beyond the work of a large garden, rose beds and perennial gardens.  Those are things I now enjoy at other locations, like the yards of my three children!

With Mother's Day just a few days away I crafted a floral pin that can be given as a gift.  

For the two flowers, begin with two pieces of fabric that are fused together with a double sided iron on interfacing.  (NOTE: Use something like Steam a Seam or Heat n Bond lightweight.)  Do the same with a green fabric for leaves.  The larger flower was die-cut, using Eileen Hull's Flower, Trinity die (658443), the smaller flower uses Scrappy Cat die, Flower, Rose 3-D (658504).  Leaves are cut using the medium and small size from Eileen Hull Leaves die (657119).  (NOTE: All dies are from Sizzix.)  

The edges of the flowers and leaves are shaded by applying some coordinating Distress Ink colors to the pieces.  Form the flowers according to directions of twisting them into the flower shapes and glue in place.  Iridescent beads are glued to the center of each flower.  Arrange them together as in the photo along with the leaves.  The assembled arrangement is glued onto a 1 1/2" circle of green felt.  Attach a pin back to the felt circle.  

The card background is cut using a Silhoutte Cameo.  The white card design is backed with small yellow circle to accent the centers of the corner flowers and then finished with a pink card stock cut to fit.  Punch two holes to hold the pin in place on the front of the card.  

Use the pin as an embellishment on a headband, a purse, or scarf for a little something extra!  As the saying goes - "Say it with flowers"!

Arnold Grummer's Papermaking - Remembering Mom

With Mother's Day just a couple weeks away, this special day became the inspiration for my latest project, using handmade paper and some casted elements to create a keepsake for a mother or grandmother or any special lady.

A variety of previously formed sheets of handmade paper were used to construct a mini album.  Three dimensional flowers are die-cut and colored from plain sheets of handmade paper and leaves are caste in a mold used for clay.

The base of the album was die-cut from tan chipboard. NOTE: I used Sizzix Scoreboard XL - Album Photo die, (#657122). The front cover uses a sheet of paper made from a mix of a brown paper lunch bag and white copy paper.  This mixture of paper creates a nice mottled look to the paper.  NOTE: This sheet is also die-cut to match the chipboard cover.  Glue this sheet to the chipboard cover.  Paint the back cover and binding piece with Vintage Photo Distress Paint.  Use Distress Inks to shade the edges of all pieces.  Use a strong double faced tape like "red tape" to put the album together, by attaching the front and back covers to the binding strip.  Create a page anchor by accordion folding a piece of paper 4" tall paper every 1/2".  NOTE: My piece was 4 1/2" wide, this will hold four pages.  Add one inch more for each additional page wanted.  Apply double sided adhesive to both ends of the accordion folded piece.  Adhere the ends flaps of this piece to the front and back covers.

For the insert pages I used other handmade sheets.  The pages are random widths.  I ran these through the Big Shot using the same album die, only trimming away the edge that will be attached to the binding.  The right edge is left with the deckle as formed when making the sheet of paper.  Glue each page onto a binding fold.

Flowers are formed from die-cuts. NOTE: I used Sizzix Bigz - Flowers, 3-D die.  Each flower is lightly inked with Distress Inks.  NOTE: I used Tattered Rose and Festive Berries.  Twist the flowers using tweezers to form and glue with hot glue to hold in place.

Leaves were caste in a Makin's Clay Leaves mold.  Trim away any excess paper and color each leaf with green Distress Inks.  With a small fine brush, paint the stem and veins with a green paint.

Form a bow for the edge binding with ribbon.  Glue the leaves and flowers in place in any pattern on the cover.  Die-cut letters to spell M-O-M and glue onto cover if desired.

Add photos or personal messages onto the pages.

Rebekah Meier Stencils by Crafter's Workshop Blog Hop

What a pleasure to participate in this challenge with a very talented group of designers chosen by Rebekah to showcase her new stencil designs by Crafters Workshop.

The Crafter Workshop Stencils can be purchased from Bluemoon Scrapbooking.  We were sent four  6" x 6" stencils from this new line: Ring Doily Stencil,  Stain Glass Stencil, Byzantine Stencil and Rosetta Stencil.

Once receiving the stencils,  the hard choice was - "what should I do"?

Though all the stencils can be used together, I chose to showcase two stencils individually in two different projects.

Some time ago I was lucky enough to take part in a week-end workshop with Magdalena Muldoon.  I became interested in metal embossing.  During the two day workshop we were shown several ideas in working with metal.  One process was embossing with stencils.  After seeing the designs in Rebekah's stencils I thought it would be fun to work one of the stencils into a metal embossed design.     I chose the Stain Glass Stencil to work with for this project.  The metal piece I created was then used for a cover on a simple album.  The stencil design was traced onto a piece of metal with a metal tracing tool.  The design was refined by using a variety of metal embossing tools.  Once the design was embossed into the metal, I filled in the raised designs on the backside.  This is done with spackling paste or anything that will harden to hold the raised part of the design in place.  Because I had a small area to fill, I used Plaid® Royal Coat Dimensional Magic™.

To give the piece an antique look, the embossed image was cover with Black Soot Distress Paint and then wipe off with a paper towel.  The paint will embed itself into the embossed areas.  If needed, more paint can be added and rewiped.  To add a little accent, some Perfect Pearls was brushed over the image. The use of the stencil did not end with the metal cover.  I took a piece of solid fabric and used the stencil, along with Tim Holtz Distress Stain Bundled Sage.  I simply took the stencil and while holding it in place, I rubbed the Distress Stain over it.  The process was repeated over and over across the piece of fabric by overlaying the stencil and applying the Distress Stain.   The result of this process gave the fabric the look of batik that looked amazing on the fabric.  The fabric was than used to cover corrugated and chip board to create the album.  Add some binder rings to hold the album together and embellish with a variety of ribbons or cords tied to the rings for a finishing touch.

So I just couldn't stop and wanted to play with the stencils and paints.

Finding a canvas bag in my stash of items I thought it would make a great surface to repurpose.  The image on the bag was coated with two coats of white gesso.

For the bag, I used the Byzantine Stencil.  I began in the center of the bag by applying a layer of  US ArtQUest Heavy Artist's Cement.  Spread a layer over the stencil with a palette knife.  It is alright for it to be an uneven layer.  Lift and clean the stencil off with water.   Allow this to dry very well before continuing.  Using two colors and acrylic paints of choice, the stencil was held in place in the four corners and paint is applied over the stencils.  To add a bit more texture, the stencil was partially placed in any open areas and more heavy artist cement is added.  Once this dries, brush or sponge additional paints to add more color.  Black fabric was die-cut using Tim Holtz Wordplay die by Sizzix.  The letters were glued to the bag and the entire stenciled area was coated with a Sealer.  This repurposed canvas bag will now be added to the collection of reusable bags that I use for all my shopping needs.

I thank Rebekah for asking me to be a part of this blog hop and having the chance to work with her stencils.  I also look forward to seeing all the other projects the others will be sharing here.  I'm sure there will be inspiring and creative ideas flowing here.

Follow all the links to all the other blog posts to get inspired.   Answer Rebekah's question by leaving your comment on her post - you may be lucky enough to win her new stencils.


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Arnold Grummer's Papermaking - Creating Shapes with Paper Pulp

Spring finally seems to showing itself here in our area.  Along with signs of the season popping and blossoming here and there, the robin's and other feathered friends are singing and building their nests for more new life.

Many will be celebrating Easter next Sunday.  My little family will be gathering here to celebrate both the holiday and the five Spring birthday's we have within one month.

While working on making seed papers for my last post I also had the idea to make paper pulp and work with casting shapes with other forms that I have within my supplies.  I found an egg shaped mold that was used to make chocolate or sugar shaped eggs.  I had to try to use this mold to form a large egg shape using paper pulp.

I wanted to experiment with the pulp and find a way to make the shape stiffer.  I feel my experiment was succesful.  After making several batches of pulp I strained as much of the water out as possible.I placed the entire  amount into a bowl and added approximately 1/4 cup of Stiffen Stuff by Beacon Adhesive and mixed it into the pulp.  By hand, I began to pat the pulp into the egg mold bringing the pulp up over the top edge slightly and then repeated the process with the other half of the mold.  I used small pieces of sponges to try to remove as much of the moisture from the pulp as possible.  To help the drying process along, I placed the molds into the microwave and set it at short intervals of 40 seconds several times, beginning at 50% power and working to 100% power for 30 seconds.  After this process the shapes were left to dry completely overnight.  Once dry, the shapes were carefully removed from the molds.  To make the shapes stronger, I brushed several light coats of Stiffen Stuff onto the shapes.  NOTE:  I did several coats on the outside of each form, allowing them to completely dry between coats then repeated the same process on the inside.

From one half of the egg shape I created a candy holder.  The outside was painted with white pearl acrylic paint finish and the inside was painted with a yellow glitter paint.  A handle was fashioned from a strip of handmade paper.  NOTE:  To stiffen the handle, Stiffen Stuff was brushed onto the strip following the same process mentioned above.  A length of decorative ribbon was glued to the handle.  Two paper brads are used to attach the handle to the base.  Fill with "grass" and your favorite candy.

The second half was finished to hold a little chick and some paper flowers for a sweet Spring decoration.  This half was painted with white paint and the covered with glue and sprinkled with white glitter to give it the look of sugar coating.   In the bottom of the egg Icut a piece of styrafoam and glued it to the inside.  Folded green rice paper was cut into thing strips to create paper grass.  Paper punched flowers with leaves were created with a piece of wire placed between to flower punch shapes and placed into the foam.

This project will more then likely lead to more experiments with using pulp to form three-dimensional shapes in the future.

Visit the Arnold Grummer website and when placing an order for product use the code MOM20 this month to receive 20% off your order.

Designer Craft Connection - April Showers Bring May Flowers

Spring has "officially" arrived by the calendar, but Mother Nature is being a bit difficult in our area in getting Spring started after a very tough Winter.  Times like this call for one to bring on our own "Spring"!

Last month I missed posting for the DCC blog, though I had a couple of posts up from another blog that I am posting to each month.  It has been fun creating for this months theme.  Once again I went to my favorites!  Out came the Big Shot and those Sizzix dies.  Instead of working with papers I went to my scraps of fabrics and felt and used those to make some "blossoms".

The inspiration for the planter of flowers started with an old wooden cheese box that sits on the mantel and my love of daffodils.  With the changing seasons, this cheese box holds a variety of different things.

Using the largest of Eileen Hull's XL Scoreboard dies, the Box, Square, I made two  boxes, from some chipboard pieces in my stash of stuff, for the base of the planter.  Using a lighter weight chipboard and a Tim Holtz Impression Folder, a wood pattern was created for the outside of the planter.  A variety of Distress Inks and Stains were applied to color the chipboard to look like wood.  The two panels were then adhered to the box base.  Two cubes of foam were cut to place inside each box to hold the finished flowers.  NOTE: Some moss was added to cover the foam.

To make the flowers I first chose a selection of print and solid fabrics that would coordinate.  All the fabrics were fused with an iron-on adhesive.  Each of the fabrics were then die-cut using a variety of Sizzix dies.  Here is a list of the dies that I used for the flowers:  Flower, Petal Power (tulips), Flower Layers #1(blue posies), Flower Layers #4 (white coreopsis), Flowers, 3D (orange roses), Flower Layers #6/ Tattered Florals ( daffodils) and Border & Hydrangeas (violets).  NOTE: Here is were need to look beyond the orginal use of a die. Most can be altered in many ways to create a whole new look.

Beacon Fabri Tac glue was used to form the flowers.  Buttons or beads were used for the centers of the flowers.  The centers all have wire attached to make the stems.  Once all the flowers were made the wire stems were covered with green floral tape.

Leaves were hand-cut and die-cut from six different colors of felt then added to the stems.  I made my own template for the tulip and daffodil leaves and cut them from the felt.  The remaining leaves were die-cut.  Dies used for leaves were: Eileen Hull - Leaves (roses/the smallest leaf), Eileen Hull - Flower, Petal Power (violet/small petal) and  Brenda Pinnick - Flower, Wedding Foliage (coreopsis/ posies).  The leaves were then glued to the stems of the flowers with Fabri Tac glue.

The flowers were then arranged into the planter.  A simple thin skewer became a plant poke. The word "blossoms" is die-cut from colored card stock and placed onto the white pennent, using double-sided Adtech Crafter's Tape.  A bit of fine glitter is added to cover the tape.  The pennent is backed with a dark green card stock and glued onto the skewer.  Add a little raffia bow to finish.

The finished planter has found a spot for Spring on the mantel but it would also make a nice centerpiece on any Spring table by arranging the flowers differently.

A few more blossoms to share with you -

Here is a banner I made a while back once again using  Sizzix dies by Eileen Hull.  The flowers are made with the Flower, Petal Power die and the Bigz Leaves die.  Solid cardstock was die-cut and embossed with large and small dot impression plates.  The petals were shaded with Distress Inks to add some contrast before assembling.  Each center circle spells out "Spring Has Sprung" with alphabet stickers.

If the flowers are not blooming outside, make your own and fill your house!

Now check out all the other ideas this month by continuing through the other blogs - just click the Designer Craft Connection button to the right of this post.

Arnold Grummer's Papermaking - Making Seed Papers

A suggested theme for this month was making seed papers.  Since this is one thing that I had never tried before I decided to give it a whirl!

The results are these seed packets using the seeded sheets of paper.  Along with those I included a paper casting "plant poke" to add in a garden or a flower pot.

I did a bit of research on making seed papers and found a couple different approaches. The process began just as if making any sheet of paper.  Create the pulp and add it into a vat for dipping.  Choose a mold to form your paper.  NOTE: Either use the dip method or the pour method.  Add a template before proceeding if desired for a shape.  Use cookie cutters for creating unique shapes.

The samples of the finished papers show two different methods for adding the seeds.  The sheet on the left had the seeds added as the paper was lifted from the water vat.  Most of the seeds stay on the top of the sheet.  The opposite side is fairly smooth.  The sheet on the right has the seeds added to the mold of pulp before lifting.  They are mostly embedded into the pulp.  I used a mixture of seeds that are meant to attract butterflies and are of various colors.  Larger seeds are more difficult to embed into the papers.

Use the packet from the seeds to create a template to form the "seed paper packets" or draw your own. The sheet on the left was used to make the larger packet.  NOTE: Any seeds that became loose from the sheet were placed inside once the packet was formed.

Inside of Packet

Outside of  Packet

The seeded paper sheet on the right was used to make the smaller version of the seed packet.

To finish off the packages, I used an image from the original seed packet that was scanned and printed from the computer to create bands, plus the band describing the seeds.  A small label was placed on the back with directions.  Just a small ribbon and a punched paper butterfly finishes the look.

Make these as shower favors for a wedding or baby.  Think of using "baby's breath" for a baby shower.  Use them for wedding favors with flower seeds that the bride likes.  Make them for sending to friends and use "forget-me-nots" seeds.

Along with making the papers, I found some molds in my crafting room that are used for other various mediums.  It was time to experiment a little more.  From a mold that was made for making plaster casts, I made the coordinating butterfly shape from paper pulp, to create the plant poke.  A bit of paint and a coating of varnish is all that's needed before placing on a "Sticky Stick" to finish the plant poke.

For my first attempt at making seed paper I was pleased at the results.  This process would be fun to do with kids.  Make several sheets and allow them to cut it in various shapes, by hand or using a simple die-cutting machine.  Then plant some paper that grows!

Earlier this month there was another post on this process.  Refer to this previous post about making wedding favors from seeded papers for another example:
http://arnoldgrummer.blogspot.com/2014/03/recyclable-wedding-favors.html

For savings this month at the Arnold Grummer website here is a link and use the code - EARTH20 for savings.  There you can find a fun kit for kids (or any one wanting to have some fun) on how to make paper that grows.