Ink Swatches

Hi everyone,

I've had a list of my paints, stains and inks in my phone for years now, but generally I know what I have when it comes to adding to my collection.  And like most crafters I also have swatch books. These are soooooo  handy for deciding exactly what colour to use without having to trial the colour first or relying on the label which invariably isn't a true colour match.  

Whilst I have swatch books for my paints and stains, making one for my inks has been on my to-do list for as long as I can remember..... well, that was until I came across a nifty little clear photopolymer stamp made by Inkylicious.  It's called  an Ink Pad ID Reference Stamp and it's made specifically for the purpose. 

As you can see it has four sections: fine text at the top, a block colour design in the second, fine design in the third and finally block or solid colour in the last.  Enough detail to give the my inks a good work out, but I can see it coming in useful for my embossing powders and perhaps my stains and paints too, when my existing swatch books get worn out. 

I know some crafters like to carry around their swatch books and this stamp is small enough so that a swatch book made with it can be easily popped into a pocket or bag.  The stamped image size is approx. 9cm. H x 4.5cm. W

Here's my ink swatch book..... 

LOOOOVE all those gorgeous colours....inspiration enough to play!

My tag size is 5.5cm. W x 11.5cm. H. Obviously you can have any size you choose but I wanted my swatch book to be as small and compact as I could get it. ... Hmm that didn't quite happen!

Because my handwriting isn't the neatest I printed the colour names of my ink pads into a template which I created on my laptop. (Font: Merry Cables. Font size: 11pt).

Next I printed the template onto  300gsm white card and then cut each tag to size along the grid lines using a Friskars guillotine.

Out came every ink pad from my cupboard and using the Ikylicious ID reference stamp and my Misti, I systematically stamped the image onto the corresponding tag for that coloured ink pad.

300gsm card doesn't really need reinforcing but I created reinforcement rings to go on both sides at the top of each tag. I had intended to add a book ring to bunch all the tags together but found I didn't have a big enough one in my stash, so for now I used some rounded ribbon cord to keep them all together.  The final touch was a couple of sheets of acetate cut to size to form the back and front covers of my swatch book to help keep it clean.

This really was a good exercise to do (apart from appeasing my OCD bent) because it actually made me realise just how many ink pads I have and surprisingly, what my favourite colour is.  I only had to look at the number of green swatches I made to realise! Apart from that, it gave me the opportunity to give my pads a little TLC and re-ink them along the way (I always buy a re-ink in the same colour when I buy a new ink pad). 

Another tick for my to do list.  Now on to the next on the list,  sorting out my paper stash... This crafting is never ending lol.

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting.

Carol, xx