To Swatch or Not to Swatch...

...that is the question! I find ink and paint swatches exceedingly helpful when I'm working on creative projects, so I decided to celebrate Ranger's three beautiful new Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink colors (Goldenrod, Periwinkle and English Ivy) by making a little ring-bound book of all my Wendy Vecchi colors.

When making swatches of any line that's likely to add more colors, I highly recommend building in a bit of variety; so you don't have to be too worried about future swatches not looking exactly the same if you can't find the image you used the first time. 

I trimmed offcuts of sturdy watercolor paper into 3" squares, and used several different combos from Wendy's "Thank You" and "Bravo" Stamp, Die and Stencil Sets. I deliberately didn't spend much time lining up the images precisely, because odds are I'll spill, smudge or tear a few of them down the line, and life's too short to have to remake swatches!

I made a 3.25" square cover from squares of black chipboard and decided to create a rainbow with the inks to decorate it.

I applied all the shades to white cardstock in about a 3/8" patch, then trimmed each color down into 1/4" strips. I applied the strips to another piece of cardstock which I had run through my Xyron adhesive machine. When all the colors were lined up, I cut the rainbow panel into four 3" squares, which I affixed to the outside and inside of the front and back covers.

I used a simple ring binding to hold the swatches together so that when I add more colors to my collection, it'll be easy to put them in rainbow order inside the book.

Now that all of my swatches are neatly stacked inside their book, I feel like I need to get a few more Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks!