JB2607: Whimsical Winter Wonderland

"Whimsical" describes something, "Playfully quaint, fanciful, imaginative and slightly odd; often suggesting a lighthearted, unpredictable or charmingly unusual quality not based on strict logic." This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're asking you to use that definition and make a Whimsical holiday card… it might be mice decorating the holiday tree, a space-age midcentury modern wreath, some fun little holiday gnomes, or whatever says whimsical to you. Here's my card:

My friend Gina wrapped my holiday gifts in suuuuper-cute Hello Kitty holiday giftwrap; which of course I saved carefully and backed with cardstock. Then I cut out alllllll of those presents, trees and Kitties. (Yes, I am indeed nuts; thank you for asking.) I wanted my whole background to be that pale green snowflake paper, but alas there wasn't enough. As it turns out, I think that was a good thing, because it completely changed how I used the tiny cut out houses and trees ...for the better! The pine tree background is ancient Pebbles; the scrap of plaid is, I believe, Echo Park; and also quite elderly.

JB2607: Walking in a Whimsical Wonderland will run until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 8th. Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's amazing card and link up your own.

More Tiny Tales

I mentioned the other day that my friend, Carol Porter, aka @naysworld8 has designed a wonderful digital/printable papercrafting kit called Tiny Tales Collection: Rainy Night; it's going to be a multi-part adventure, with new sets to come; but Chapter One is called The Walk Home and it is now available in her NaysWorld Etsy Shop. Whether you're a digital, physical or hybrid papercrafter, I think you're going to love this kit as much as I do... which is A LOT!

The kit has a dozen gorgeous .png elements which means they have completely translucent backgrounds for effortless digital layering; plus they resize beautifully and look great whether you use them in big or small digital art. But... it's not JUST a digital kit... you can print and cut these images out to use in layouts, journals or cards. BTW, no matter what size I printed them, they looked absolutely perfect on both plain cardstock and glossy photo paper. Case in point:

I made two physical versions of this Let it Rain design: an A2 card and a larger art journal page.

I layered some of the elements digitally before printing; and added others that I printed and fussycut. For the latter, I chose to leave a very skinny white border to get maximum definition. Lotuses are one of my favorite flowers, so I printed and cut LOTS of them. I only used a few in this design, but trust me, you'll see them again!

No matter what size I used or what paper I printed on, the images were flawless, scaling perfectly and printing beautifully. I also made a pretty large all-digital collage... just because I could, lol:

I added a digital background paper that wasn't in the kit; and I also very slightly widened the city street image to fit better in the square format. As you can see, there was NO distortion or loss of clarity. 

More projects to come. In the meantime, you'll definitely want to check out Carol's work (and her sweet granddaughter's who is already quite a formidable designer!!!) via Instagram @naysworld8 as well as her Nay's World Website and NaysWorld Etsy Shop!

Best Reading Quote Ever?

Building a card around Eyelet Outlet Brads and a favorite quote is a great way to make fresh, personal cards for friends and family. Stamps and journal cards abound; or format your fave in a text document, print it out and add it to your card. This card has a base of Book Washi matted with Wood Tape; and helping set the scene for a cozy day of reading, this sweet bear is surrounded by Book Brads; a cute potted Cactus; the tissues from our TP and Tissue Set; a Heart Brad; the Sun and Cloud Set; even a Mini Ladybug has joined the fun.

Cozy Reading Shopping List:

Book Brads

Cactu Brads

Toilet Paper and Tissues Set

Heart Brads

Sun and Cloud Set

Mini Ladybug Brads

Eyelet Outlet has all the embellishments to make your next card even more delightful!

SOS570: White OUT

It's time for a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash and this fortnight we'd like to see cards/ projects which contain NO white. 

I recently realized that it's been quite some time since I made a card with one of my favorite die sets: Hero Arts' Frame Cuts Tulips. If this set had coordinating stamps, not only do I not own them, I've never seen them. And while they look perfectly nice just cut from cardstock or patterned paper and pieced; it's actually not terribly difficult to add a sort of ruffley edge just below the top of each flower to make them look a bit dimensional. You can use inks, paints or watercolors, but this time I went with my trusty Tombows in three very nicely blendy shades of pink and two of green. When I had the colors to my liking I took very sharp Prismacolor Pencils in a coordinating shades of dark pink and medium green to emphasize the layers and add a bit more shading. I used gel prints for my label shape and card background; the one looks like it actually has a bit of white on it but NO, I assure you, it's very pale pink. I used a rich rusty orange-ish red for my mat and for the A6 cardbase. I even changed the top thread on my sewing machine from white to light pink before adding some machine stitching as a finishing touch.

SOS570: White OUT runs until the evening of Monday, April 6th. Visit Shopping Our Stash to see our Crew's inspiring takes on this challenge and start planning what you'll link up with us this time.

Tiny Tales Collection: Rainy Night

I'm so proud to announce that my friend, Carol Porter, aka @naysworld8 has designed this ah-mayyyyy-zing digital collection, which is now available in her NaysWorld Etsy Shop. Whether you're a digital, physical or hybrid papercrafter, I think you're going to love this kit and find lots of ways to use Tiny Tales Collections Presents - Rainy Night: Chapter 1 — The Walk Home (Notice it says, "Chapter 1... because it's a growing series… more stories are on the way!)

The kit features 12 gorgeous .png elements which resize beautifully and look great whether you use them in big or small digital art; AND no matter what size I printed them, they looked absolutely perfect on both plain cardstock and glossy photo paper. Case in point:

I made two physical versions of this City Walk layout design; one as an A2 card and one as a larger art journal page, about 6 x 9" including the gel print background.

I layered some of the elements before printing and added others that I printed and fussycut. For the latter, I chose to leave a very skinny white border to get maximum definition.

No matter what size I chose or what paper I used, the images were flawless, scaling perfectly and printing beautifully. I also made a pretty large all-digital collage... just because I could, lol:

As you can see, I added a background paper that wasn't in the kit and I widened the city street image just a tad to accommodate the square format, with no distortion or loss of clarity. I put a bit of a drop shadow on the lady and on the sentiment strips, but otherwise the images are exactly as they came in the kit.

I'll have more projects later this week, so stay tuned. In the meantime, make sure to check out Carol's work via Instagram @naysworld8 as well as her Nay's World Website and find the first Tiny Tales Collection in her NaysWorld Etsy Shop!

Don't Be Koi

Feeling a bit fishy this Mandala Monday, thanks to this fun vintage (octagonal!) needlework pattern I've used as a centerpiece. The petals are made from beautifully patina-ed vintage Chinese dictionary pages (thank you Liz!) and Big Dollar Trading stamps (thank you Stephanie!) while the circles are graph paper and parts of a crochet-stitch illustration. I feel like this needs one... more... thing... BUT I've been considering and trying out "one more things" for several days with no outcome. So it's possible you'll see this one again at a later date, if I ever figure out what to add, lol.

Hope your first week of Spring is off to a good(ish?) start! 

Even MORE Roses!

Spring is officially here but it'll be a little while yet until we see daffodils in our gardens, much less roses; so here are some that I painted using three of my favorite new Archival Ink shades from Ranger: Sweet Treat, Avocado Toast and Sand Castle.

I used a waterbrush full of Isopropyl Alcohol to pick up Sweet Treat ink I had smooshed onto my craft sheet, swirled it around into loose, semi-circular shapes, let it dry and then "found" the layers and petals of the roses and used Wendy Vecchi's brilliant Wonky Double Outline Trick with a Black Letter It Fineliner. For leaves, a vaguely triangular shape with the hypotenuse tucked under the flower works pretty well and a little bit of tannish Sand Castle ink mixed with the Avocado Toast adds interest and the illusion of texture. 

As with most of my watercolors (whether done with water-based or alcohol-based media) I like to use up any extra pigment by splashing it as speckles randomly on top of my design. So I did.

We Three... Ugly Sweaters (x2)

We're still celebrating THREE's at Jingle Belles; so this fortnight you can basically choose any color palette, any layout, any theme and any products; but... we want to see a strong group of THREE...something. 

I have about half a sheet left of PhotoPlay's (appropriately named) Ugly Sweater Party patterned paper, and I must confess that although I've had several of these sheets, I've never used it as a background or in any other way than as I've used it here. I really only want to cut out the cute little sweaters and put them on cards. So much so, that I had cut out four or five sweaters to make my THREE-centric card before remembering I either had to put some aside or make two cards with three sweaters. Obviously, I chose the latter course. I used my Elizabethcraft Planner Filmstrip die to hold the sweater trios and I had planned to stamp, "Don we now our ugly sweaters" as the sentiment. Because I could have sworn I had a stamp that said that. As it turns out, either I was mistaken, OR it's been hidden away by the gremlins who also steal single socks and tupperware lids. So after a bit of searching and quite a lot of grumbling, I just formatted the text on my computer and printed it out. Which doesn't mean I won't, for the next few weeks, spend a few random minutes here and there still vaguely looking for that stamp... Obviously... 

JB2606: We THREE Kings runs until next Wednesday evening, March 18th. Head over to Jingle Belles to see the Readers' Gallery and link your own tremendous trio(s)!

Chicks and Eggs and Flowers

Spring officially begins this weekend, and Easter is just around the corner; what better time for a bold and colorful card featuring Eyelet Outlet Chick Brads, Sun and Cloud Brads, Bright Fresh Flowers and Colored Daisy Brads?

The bold background is Simon Hurley's Egg Hunt Background Stamp which I embossed with Ranger White Embossing Powder, to act as a resist for a rainbow-inspired blend of Simon Hurley Stellar Inks that match the brads reallllllly well!

Egg-cellent Easter EO Shopping List:

Chick Brads

Sun and Cloud Brads

Bright Fresh Flower Brads

Colored Daisy Brads

Eyelet Outlet makes Easter cards (and all other cards, too, actually!) easy and fun!

Chic Birthday Card Set

The exclusive new line of Make-It Clear Stamps and Stencils can ONLY be found in the Ranger Store. Today's post features a set of four minicards made with the Chic Birthday Stamp Set, Sprinkle Hearts Stencil and four of the brand new Archival Ink colors. If you'd like to see the full step-by-step photo tutorial, head on over to the Ranger Project Tutorials Page!

Bokeh Batik

One of my favorite things about working with Ranger Archival Inks is that you can do a lot of the fun little tricks I love about watercolor, but instead of working with water, you use 91% Isopropyl Alcohol. BUT... for sciencey reasons I don't entirely understand, the fact that you're using alcohol instead of water means you can be working on fairly thin paper or cardstock and it won't warp or rip or pill or otherwise hurt your substrate.

In this case, I used an ink blending tool to add all of my Archival colors, letting them overlap a bit to create new shades in between; then I flicked on LOTS of droplets of clear alcohol, over and over, blotting them each time to pick up a little color. Until I finally had this very cool effect that almost looks textured. And, as you can see, my page is not lumpy. bumpy, ripped or wrinkly. Some of the color DOES seep through to the back of the page, however, something you might like to keep in mind if you try this fun "trick".

BTW, all of the above is just one tiny little portion of information I've learned from the very awesome Wendy Vecchi, and if you aren't watching her Tip Tuesday videos on Instagram or Facebook, you are realllllly missing out!

Another Button Collage

It turns out that hand-sewing buttons onto vintage paper collages is somewhat addictive. But luckily I have A LOT more buttons (...and a lot more vintage paper for that matter...) so I can't really see a downside.

I hope your weekend is off to a good start and that before it's over, you'll find a little time to indulge in whatever crafty activity you feel compulsively drawn to right now! ♥

We Three... Kittens?!

Ok, technically, the new Jingle Belles prompt is called, "We Three Kings" and we're asking you to create a card with THREE of one element: three circles... three reindeer... three packages under the Christmas Tree... you get the picture, right? But in my case, it was three kittens, as you can see:

In addition to three adorable vintage felines, my card has a few more threes: three torn patterned paper pieces and three pieces of doily. I kept trying to add "one more thing" but nothing really seemed right, so I attached the sentiment, did a bit of machine stitching and called it good.

JB2606: We Three Kings runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, March 25th. Hop over to Jingle Belles to link your card(s)!

Bunny Hugs

Eyelet Outlet Rabbit Brads, Colored Eggs and Mini Butterflies turn sweet stamps into an adorable Easter card that's sure to make some-BUNNY's day when it arrives in their mailbox!

The stamps in question are from Simon Hurley's Easter Bunnies set and have been painted with Sand Castle and Sweet Treat Archival Inks from Ranger.

Eyelet Outlet has all the embellishments you need for all the holidays you celebrate; and the EO Blog has all the inspiration you need to use them beautifully!

SOS569: I'm COUNTING on You

If you've guessed from the title that this fortnight's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is to make a card with at least one numeral on it, HOORAY, you're right! Here's my card:

Lots of seriously elderly stash usage here: my numerals are from this ancient set of Making Memories Alphabet Rub-ons; I've applied them to my well-hoarded Hambly Screenprints transparency card base, so that they peep out as mirror images from the under the corners of my funky collage. There are also numerals on the tickets, and some in the various text papers as well. That beautiful orchid sticker is from DK's Botanists' Sicker Anthology, a book that Stephanie gave me a couple of years ago and despite LOTS of use it still has hundreds of gorgeous stickers in it! Not to brag, but I really love how this came out AND it's a reminder of the fact that challenges often spur me on to make something I would not have thought of, otherwise.

SOS569: I'm COUNTING on You runs until the evening of Monday, March 23rd. Head over to Shopping Our Stash to read the details and check out the inspiring cards our Crew has made. Then root around for one or two neglected craft items and join the fun!

Too Much?

I'm putting the "psycho" into "psychedelic" this Mandala Monday. I started out with a fab mix of Archival Ink colors and Simon Hurley's awesome two-part Sunrays Layering Stencils. I probably should've stopped at ONE mandala ring and made the petals more consistent though; the combination of sunrays and offset circles is a bit dizzying, lol. Ah well.

Is this my favorite mandala? No. Did I "waste" my paper, ink and time? Also no! I tried something new, I enjoyed working on it, I learned a few things to do... and a few things not to do next time. All of which adds up to a successful art session, if not necessarily a beautiful finished piece. And I'm absolutely fine with that. Hope your week is off to a good start!

Collage + Buttons

I had a craving to make a collage with a cascade of buttons... so I made one. Yes, I placed each button individually, used a paper-piercer to poke the holes, and sewed them on... one by one... with embroidery floss. Which seems tedious, but was actually quite relaxing. (But yes, I'm kinda weird, so maybe it would be tedious for anyone else, lol.) I hope that today you'll find time to make or do something YOU have been craving!

Unrelated PS: This morning a friend sent me an article from @billy_penn revealing there will be NO Zitner's Butter Krak Eggs this Easter. A sad blow to all chocolate- and coconut-loving folks born and raised in the Philadelphia area. I'm gonna need a little time to walk this off...

Deck the Halls with... More Music!

We're still celebrating Christmas Music at Jingle Belles; so we're asking you to create a card (or tag, or gift card holder, or whatever else you'll be needing for the holidays) that incorporates music, musical instruments, or even the title of a favorite Christmas Carol.

Here's my card:

I used a vertical strip of real (torn) sheet music; some horizontal music-printed washi tape; and a tiny journal card with "Deck the Halls" on it, so I think I've covered all the bases. The background paper is from 49 & Market; the ancient slide mount frame is of unknown origin; and the foliage diecuts were leftover from another project... the dies were Tim Holtz for Sizzix Christmas Greenery. I cannot tell a lie: I love how this tuned out!

JB2605: Fa-La-La-La-La runs until 6pm (Eastern) on the evening of Wednesday, March 11th. Hop over to Jingle Belles to see the fun little prize one random cardmaker will score... just for linking up with us this fortnight! ♥

Sweet Easter Chicks

Easter is just a month away, but luckily Eyelet Outlet has all the brads you need for fast, easy, mailable Easter Cards. This one features our adorable Chick Brads, Colored Eggs, Heart Brads and Flower Washi.

EGG-cellent Easter Shopping List:

Chick Brads

Colored Egg Brads

Heart Brads

Flower Washi Tape

The Eyelet Outlet Online Store has embellishments for Easter, Spring, Birthdays and every other card-making occasion you celebrate! 

Cardinal Song Holiday Jumpstart

Holiday Jumpstart: Cardinal Song is Paper Anthology's newest holiday card kit, which features the eponymous cardinal perched on a chunky layered sentiment, surrounded by holiday foliage.

Paper Anthology’s Holiday Jumpstart Card Kit is our pre-packaged kit that includes everything you need (except adhesive) to complete FIVE copies of this new original holiday card design. This edition is called “Cardinal Song” because of the sheet music embossing and the handsome layered diecut bird.

We all love the IDEA of making holiday cards throughout the year, instead being overloaded in November and December; but sometimes it’s hard to be inspired during the “off-season”. That issue is solved by this pre-packaged kit, which features everything you need (except adhesive) to complete five copies of this original design. Also included are complete written instructions (not pictured, but included!) and a nice big photo for reference.

This kit contains all of the bits and pieces you see here. Just add adhesive and optional inking, put all the parts together and VOILA... you've got a JUMPSTART on holiday cards!

Visit the Paper Anthology Design Etsy Shop to purchase Cardinal Song or any other Holiday Jumpstart Kit!

The Blues Are Still Blue

It's a bold, blue (and green!) Mandala Monday featuring precisely half of the newest Archival Ink release from Ranger; to wit: Best Dressed, Big Plans and Avocado Toast. In my Dina Wakley Watercolor Journal, with some Make-It Sprinkle Hearts Stenciling on top. Letter It Fineliner and Posca Pen details. 

Journal Shark!?

Of all the random Saturday collages I've ever posted, this miiiiight be the random-iest! Whale shark, speckled orchid, and handcut, outlined and shadowed waves in my Dina Wakley Ledger Journal from Ranger. 

If, like me, you're old enough to remember the original cast of SNL, this may remind you of the classic "Land Shark" sketch and if you'd like to re-watch that delightful bit of fishy tomfoolery, I assure you it's worth clicking this link to YouTube!

I hope you''ll find time this weekend to make something silly and fun... just for yourself! ♥♥♥

JB2605: Fa-La-La-La-La

This fortnight we're celebrating one of our very favorite holiday aspects at Jingle Belles: Christmas Music! We're asking you to create a card (or gift card holder, or whatever else you'll be needing for the holidays) that incorporates music, musical instruments, or even the title of a favorite Christmas Carol.

Here's my card:

I used Ranger's White Embossing Powder with Simon Hurley's create. Sheet Music Background Stamp on white cardstock, then added a nice dark coat of Best Dressed Archival Ink on top; plus a little flick of Dina Wakley White Gloss Spray. The sweet chickadee image is an older Masterpieces Made Simple card from Penny Black, which I trimmed down just a tiny bit, and adorned with Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads. I matted both panels on gold cardstock, added a square of older Ciao Bella paper, a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Sentiment and a wrap of crinkly seambinding to complete this dramatic 5.5" square card.

JB2605: Fa-La-La-La-La runs until the evening of Wednesday, March 11th. Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and the fun little prize one random cardmaker will score, just for linking up their music-centric card(s) with us this time.

Bold Bright Birthday

Birthday cards are a staple of most crafters' card stashes, it sometimes seems impossible to have too many of those! Luckily, Eyelet Outlet has LOTS of fabulous birthday-related brads; nine of which adorn this oversized sentiment, diecut from Blue Sprinkle Washi Tape. Brads include: Party Hat, Candle, the Unicorn from our Unicorn and Rainbow Set, Cupcake Swirl, Gift Brads, Star Brads and a Heart. 

Bold Birthday Shopping List:

Party Hat Brads

Candle Brads

Unicorn and Rainbow Brads

Cupcake Swirl Brads

Gift Brads

Star Brads

Heart Brads

Blue Sprinkle Washi Tape

Zig Zag Washi Tape

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Online Store to see all of the wonderful brads and embellishments for your next card or project.

SOS568: Golden Years

Time for a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash and this fortnight we're going for the GOLD; by which we mean we'd like to see cards and projects which prominently feature that gorgeous metallic shade. Here's my card:

I used Ranger Princess Gold Embossing Powder with (parts of) three different Simon Hurley create. stamps (Typewriter, Leaf Prints and Rose Borders) on a square of a collage-style paper from Prima's Pretty Pale Collection of several years ago. To add to the distressed/ vintage collage vibe, after I applied the embossing powder to each section, I took a small paintbrush and randomly flicked some of it off before using the Heat Tool. I put a bit of Dark Roast Archival around all the edges of the 5" square panel, matted it on glossy gold cardstock and then added Memory Box's Maribelle Butterfly (cut from the same gold cardstock) and machine stitching around the edges.

SOS568: Golden Years runs until the evening of Monday, March 9th. Hop over to SOS to see the rest of the Crew's Golden goodies, then start thinking about what you'll link up with us this fortnight.

Forever and Always Card

What's better than using Ranger's awesome new line of Make-It Stamps and Stencils on your cards and projects? Combining them with six brand new Archival Ink colors and eight gorgeous new shimmery shades of Liquid Pearls. There's a step-by-step tutorial for this card on the Ranger Project Page, I'd love for you to hop over and check it out!

Archival Ink Mandala Monday

It's a bold and vibrant Mandala Monday, on which I have used all of the new Ranger Archival Inks with abandon. I took a Mini Ink Blending Tool and six Domed Foams to apply concentric circles of ink from the bottom right (Best Dressed) to the top left corner (Sweet Treat) of my A6 cardstock; with Avocado Toast, Sandcastle, Sweet Treat, Dark Roast and Big Plans in between. Then I placed the Make-It Sprinkle Hearts Stencil on top and spritzed it with Isopropyl Alcohol to lift off a bit of the ink.

After the panel was dry, I added the petals with a white Posca Pen; then I outlined and added more details with  Letter It Fineliner. At the very end, I gave the tiny dots a bit of extra texture with some Kiwi Liquid Pearls and finally I matted the whole thing on a panel of Avocado Toast.

Use ALL the Colors

This *might* be the most colorful art journal page I've ever made... and thus it's currently my favorite! I used ALL of the new Ranger Archivals and all of the new Liquid Pearls; some of the Make-It Stamps and Stencils, plus lots of lovely Dina Wakley MEdia Collage Sparks.

There are eight brand new varieties of shimmery Liquid Pearls (Firecracker, Sweet Potato, Rubber Duck, Kiwi, Emerald, Blue Velvet, Royalty and Truffle) and the reason they've been applied quite randomly on a double page in my Dina Wakley Watercolor Journal, is that I'd been using them on other projects, and this is what I did with the extra Liquid Pearls I dispensed. I often use up extra paint, ink, paste or watercolor on a journal page rather than throw them out. Sometimes they add up to an interesting background... as I felt they did here; sometimes they just make mud and later I cover them up.

As for the six new shades of Archival Ink (Avocado Toast, Sweet Treat, Big Plans, Dark Roast, Best Dressed and Sandcastle); some was applied randomly when I cleaned off my Pegboard and Sprinkle Hearts Stencils; some got there quite deliberately when I stamped the numerals from the Make-It Chic Birthday Stamp Set and the big stars from the Charmed Set, to which I added some White Gesso. I also used an ink blending tool to splash a little extra color over any areas that were blank, so the entire page would be covered. 

At the very end, I felt like there needed to be some larger elements across the center of the spread, so I raided my collection of Dina's Collage Sparks and cut out lots of circles and hearts that had similar colors. PS: If you're thinking that I *should* have taken a photo before I embarked on the intentional portion of the pages, I agree!!! But alas, I forgot. Next time!

RED-dy or Not

It's time for week two of the Rudolph the RED Nosed Reindeer prompt at Jingle Belles; for which, as you may recall, the brief is to make a card that's predominantly RED!

I am fairly proud of how many scraps of RED patterned paper I combined to make this card (for the record, it's nine); and also the fact that I unearthed and used not one, not two, not three... but FOUR ancient border punches to do so!

There are also eight (RED!) stickers; three (RED!) Eyelet Outlet brads and two (RED!) circle diecuts involved. I sewed around the perimeter to keep the edges on all those borders from curling up and called it a day.

JB2604: Rudolph the RED Nosed Reindeer runs until the evening of Wednesday, February 25th. Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and link up one (or more!) of your own.

Swatching and Storing: New Archival Inks and Liquid Pearls

Yesterday I showed off the colorful new release from Ranger: six new shades of Archival Ink and eight brand new varieties of shimmery Liquid Pearls! The new Archivals are:  Avocado Toast, Sweet Treat, Big Plans, Dark Roast, Best Dressed and Sandcastle.

One of the best things I've ever made just for myself is my Ranger Archival Swatch Book. Not only does it satisfy that craving to USE brand new inks as soon as they arrive; it's also a very practical resource that I constantly refer to when picking and/or matching colors. The pages are 3" squares of sturdy watercolor paper and I stamp or stencil* each shade, then do some funky outlining and write the color name. I made simple chipboard covers and held the whole thing together with a single book ring, making it easy to add, subtract or re-arrange shades as needed. 

With regard to storage: I keep my Liquid Pearls in a Ranger Alcohol Ink Storage Tin** (technically, now in TWO tins because my collection has expanded!) in more or less rainbow order. Until now I haven't officially made a swatch book (because the bottles are clear) but when I start a project using kraft or black cardstock, I usually take time to try out the various shades and see which ones I like best on a colored substrate, so at some point I might make a more permanent record. 

The new LP shades are: Firecracker, Sweet Potato, Rubber Duck, Kiwi, Emerald, Blue Velvet, Royalty and Truffle. Hop over to the Ranger Store to get your own gorgeous new rainbow of shades and check out the classics as well! ♥

**********

*When making swatch books, I highly recommend using a variety of different stamps and stencils; being uncritical if you don't get a perfect impression; and labeling them in your own handwriting. The simpler and more whimsical your design, the better the chances that you'll keep it as a long-term resource and update it as necessary. Plus, you'll never feel the need to re-do the entire thing because you no longer have the stamp you used when you started out!

**Storage PS: I also use the AI Tins for my Stickles and Reinkers... they all come in exactly the same sized bottles!