Paint Color Tags - Let's Get Organized

Got this idea from Diane Duda - an artist I just adore! - to make chips of all my paint colors. Years ago I inherited a bunch of craft paint. Some are so old they have price tags from stores that don't even exist anymore. So I know I won't always have these exact paints, but being able to lay out colors and think about the color scheme before starting a painting is proving VERY useful. And seriously, aren't they so pretty???

These masonite tags* were leftovers from an old project and my husband just cut them down a bit for me. They used to be 3"x3" square. They're now about 1.75" x 3".

This was my color scheme for one of my Glasses Girls. I didn't stick to it exactly, but it was a great jumping off point. (I went back and painted the sides of the tags later--they just looked too sloppy this way. And I wanted to be able to see from the top which color was which).

*A litte bit more about these tags. Years ago I made chalkboard tags from masonite squares my husband had cut for me. I sold them in groups of 3-5. An international company contacted me and wanted an order of 500 tags to tie to a CD they were about to launch. They said if all went well, they'd be ordering 500 more. So my husband decided to cut and drill all 1,000 at one time since the equipment was already set up, etc. Well, the second order ended up not happening. (I hope that doesn't mean the CD launch didn't go well...I don't really know). But I found myself with A LOT of little masonite tags. Throughout the years, I've made a bunch of things with them.

Below are some pics if you're interested. As you can see, I DO NOT let things go to waste and if there's something I can paint on, add paper to, and/or add ribbon to, I'll do it!

 

Bullet Journal Pages 164-165

Clearly I was excited that it was Friday! I'm starting my May Health Tracker on the right page.

Bullet Journal Pages 158-159

End of March and starting my April Health Tracker. Can you believe it's April already??

A Standoff

I've been bugging my husband forever about not putting stuff on top of our garage freezer. It's so tempting to use it as a workspace, but then I have to move all his crap every time I need to get meat out of the freezer. Recently he cut a bunch of name signs for me and has been asking me to move them out of the garage. I forgot. So guess where he put all the signs?

Yep, that's right, on the freezer. Clever. :)

Ribbon Organization

I am finding the greatest ideas on this Crafty Storage blog! Here's my newest organization find. Of course I have my amazing ribbon wall unit (love it!) but I needed something for the bits of ribbon that are too small for a spool. I had them in this fun box just jumbled up before. Which was good, but not a great solution.

So here's what I did. My daughter and I spent a fun afternoon cutting cardboard pieces to fit in the box, wrapping them with craft paper and then we spooled the ribbon around them. (My daughter's favorite job was seperating the ribbon into color piles--the apple did not fall far from the tree!)

Now I can see everything I have all at the same time. And doesn't it look pretty?

A Great New Find

I found this at Robert's when I was in Utah. It's a magnet board with tons of little canisters that stick to it. I added the paper and ribbon to make it cuter. It's the perfect place for pins, eyelets, grommets, etc.

How Cool Is This?

I got the idea for this on this website and my husband made it for me today. It makes me want to go buy more ribbon. You know I LOVE ribbon!

A Few Things About Me

Here's a couple views into my sketchbook. I rarely begin a painting without first sketching it out in this book.

My painting apron is a Christmas cook's apron with little teddy bears on the trim. It's so ugly and it's covered in paint and I love it! :-)

I am very hard on my brushes so I don't buy the higher end ones because I know I'm going to trash them. Right now my favorite brush is one I've had since college and it's hammered, but I love it and will cry if I ever have to retire it.

This is how I lay out my pallet. And after a painting session, it looks like one big colorful mess.

I love my Prismas!! I like to see all my color options at once so I put them in this box and separated them by color.

I am obsessed with Sharpies. If I don't have at least 5 good tipped black ones in my studio, I start to go a little nutty!