CRAFTING TIP OF THE WEEK (#24) THE 3 R's

This week's tip mixes a little bit of a lot of good things like recycling, repurposing & reusing.

A while ago I had been on a hunt to find paint colors for our new home. I went to Lowes & Home Depot and scoured their paint section. I ended up with many paint swatches. It was in that instant that I knew that those paint swatch booklets, squares & rectangles were going to serve me well in many more ways than their manufacturer could imagine.
And so with many of them in hand I headed home for what was sure to be an interesting day of crafting & let's not forget the real reason I grabbed those to begin with...the picking of paint color.
I realized that those very swatches were useful in helping me with color selections for layouts, card making & crafting projects. Some swatches had multiple colors arranged to give you grading variations of colors within the same family so you could use monochromatic schemes (and apply them to your projects). The booklets which showed different rooms with both the main wall colors & complimentary colors were reflecting what several color combinations together would look like. Yet again, another great assist when chosing color for your projects. You could really visualize color concepts and how they complimented or played off one another.
Then I looked at the single color swatches & instantly saw that they could be used on their own or in a conglomeration of ways. I could do a paper quilting effect, I could use punches with them, I could embellish them & incorporate them in to my projects as well. You could use them as matting for your photos & cards, you could make little gift tags with them, you could make mini cards to attach to your gift bags and so much more. The possibilities remain endless.
So next time you walk into your local home improvement store head over to the paint section & grab yourself some paint chip samples.
They are printed on a nice grade cardstock and come in different shapes & sizes. They even have those Mickey Mouse shaped ones...who couldn't use those for their Disney themed pages? Whether you have been to Disney or have seen a Disney movie...most of us have a Disney memory that we can incorporate into our craft project or gift to someone who has. You can make number and alphabet flashcards with them for your toddler incorporating the learning of colors as well and even bind them together with a binding ring behind Mickey's ear.
Go ahead give it a shot.
This week's tip was brought to you by ...all the paint chip samples of any local paint store.
What ya waiting for?
Go get you some!

Happy Crafting ...