My Ink-credible Swatchbook

I know I mention my cardstock swatchbook all the time, to the point where you regular readers are probably thinking to yourself, "Enough about that dang swatchbook!  If you love it so much, why don't you marry it¹?"  It's just that it's so so handy, and has really changed and streamlined my cardmaking.  I can't tell you how much time I wasted, getting up from my desk, browsing through my cardstock filing cabinet for a shade to grab me, taking it back to my table, then comparing colors under the Ott light, only to have to get back up, return it to it's proper file, and start all over again.  Now, I just grab my cardstock swatchbook at my desk, flip through it for a moment, pick the shade under my Ott light I want, then get up and get it.  So much better!

It got me thinking: maybe I should do the same thing for all of my inks?  I don't know about you, but I have an OBSCENE number of inkpads, even though 95% of the time, I just use trusty old Momento Tuxedo Black.  Still, when you want to use a colored ink, you want the right color when you need it, and without having to test a bunch of different shades on scratch paper.  And maybe, if I could easily distinguish which color I needed, I'd be more apt to use those colored inks and feel better about all the money I spent on them and the space they take up in my craft room.

So I got to work, cutting out a whole bunch of 2.75" by 2.75" squares of white, Georgia Pacific cardstock², trimming a couple of corners with a Fiskars Ticket Corner punch³, and punching a hole in the top for a jump ring.  Now, if I need a particular shade of green (St. Patrick's Day is coming up, after all):

Or maybe something from the orange family?

I wanted to use a stamp that provided me with a good amount of area to cover for comparison purposes, so I selected this funky flower from Taylored Expressions' new Posh Posies set.  Here's the cover:

For the cover, I took a scrap of glossy white cardstock and used a brayer to lay down a coat of Celebration Kaleidacolor ink.  I mounted that on black cardstock covered chipboard, then made my title out of die cuts from TE's new Whimsey Alpha dies. 

Be on the lookout for things to get colorful around here! :)

Footnotes:

1.  Maybe I will, once the kids are grown.  Until then, I'm for sure keeping the old man.  Lucky guy, isn't he?

2.  I used the cheap stuff because there were an awful lot of cards to be trimmed down & punched.  How many?  I don't know & lost my place trying to count the other day.  To tell you the truth, I'm a little embarrassed to know.  I mean, why on earth do I have 39 varying shades of red/pink ink?!  (I do know that number, because I counted it just now.)  That's insane.  And yet, I still want to try out those new shades from Hero Arts, and every Distress Ink that Tim Holtz comes up with, etc.  It's sick, I tell you!

3.  For a tiny bit of flair.  A plain rectangle would just seem so sad...

Comments

[Libby]

I've been wanting to do this, it's such a great idea!

[Amy Rohl]

I love it, and I especially love that stamp! Very cool.

[Kim Kesti]

Sounds like you had a lot of FUN doing that -- go ahead and send me yours and you will have a ball making another set. Right?