DIY - Swatches

This past weekend I taught a couple of classes at the Caz Dezign Scrapbook Retreat. You can see the class samples here. My creations on the day will be posted in a soon to follow blog.
Rather than have a class where the participants had to follow what I showed them exactly to the letter, so we all ended up with the same end product, I gave everyone options throughout the class such as colour combination of inks they wanted to use, selection of beads for their stick pin, colour of flowers to use etc. 
I provided the products, special tools and inks for the ladies to use but the risk of this was that they would not be familiar with what each colour of ink and mist would look like actually on the paper just from looking at the respective ink pad or mist bottle. I decided to create some swatches for the colours so everyone could pick their respective colours based on what they would actually look like, rather than me trying to explain what the end result might look like. 
I trolled the internet, as you do, for some ideas and found a couple of really great ideas on different swatches but the one that I really liked was created by "Madgrans Moments" as it showed three distinct looks for Distress Inks.
For each colour of Distress Ink pad I cut three 2" x 2" cardstock squares. I then inked them as follows:

• Ink direct to cardstock
• Ink swirled on with foam ink applicator
• Ink swirled on with foam ink applicator then spritzed with water and dried, finished with a stamped image in the same colour

Why these three - because the looks are so different using exactly the same ink pad.

Once all the squares were dried I then attached them onto a backing rectangle of cardstock and adhered the name of the ink which I had printed using my label maker. To finish I punched a hole in one corner and then threaded them onto a binder ring. 

Once I'd completed the swatch I then created once for my Glimmer Mists, glazes and special paints. These swatches were smaller as I didn't need the three different versions of the same colour. When they were all dried, I threaded these all onto a separate binder ring.

I love both of these colour swatches and think they will be useful for more than just in classes. I can now take my swatches with me when I go shopping and not buy colours I already have, whereas it would be totally impractical to take all my ink pads or mist bottles with me. My swatches will also make it easier when deciding what colours to combine for tags or layouts. 

 Be sure to check back on my next blog post as it is post number 250!!! I will be giving away some blog candy to a lucky blog reader so it will definitely be worth the visit!!