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Distress Ink Ring Sampler - Why Didn't I Do This Sooner!
I use my Distress Inks constantly, and I have them in a great storage unit, and I have a sample label on the side of each pad, and I thought that was good enough. But then I did this:
I can't believe how much easier it is to put together the colors I'm going to use by flipping through the tags, whether it's for a background treatment or use with stamps. I love this little thing!
Probably lots of you have done this. But if you haven't you should!
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
Last edited by Rachelrose; 01-17-2013 at 04:29 PM..
Rachel, what a great idea! I'm always pulling mine out to look/match colors up too! Did you just punch out a square and ink it up? (real good!) I think that this is something I might do tomorrow! Who knows maybe I will do this with all of my inks!! Could be an all day affair!!
I didn't punch first - I took a sheet of Whisper White and then rubbed each color on in loose squares next to each other, each big enough for me to use my small square nesties on (didn't have a square punch, which would have been easier). If you cut and then color, it would work, but harder to hang on to the little squares.
I bought some tags on Etsy, and the circle things at Office Max. Then I typed up all my color names on return address labels and printed them off. Then I assembled the thing. Once the materials were all in place, it took very little time to do. And as the ring got full of tags, it made me so happy that I enjoyed making it!
Like I said, I can't believe how convenient and useful it is! I am thinking of doing it for my cardstock next! That would be really useful!
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
Last edited by Rachelrose; 01-17-2013 at 04:32 PM..
Thanks for the reply Rachel! I do have a square punch to use but will have to die-cut my tags. I have a label maker that I will use to label each color. Not that pc savvy to use address labels and make them! Would be much quicker I'm sure! Anyways they do look great! Card stock color tags too. One thing at a time for me!!
I am finding more and more that the most critical thing in organizing your supplies is not about storage of supplies. That's important, of course you need to be able to find things, but there is a level of organization beyond that, that has to do with having the knowledge of what you have at your fingertips, so you can make decisions easily. So getting a storage cabinet for my inks was great, but that didn't help me use my inks more fully, more creatively. The same with paper. I have my paper all nicely organized in files, and my scraps as well, but standing at my worktable I don't have a way - other than by memory - to decide what to put together. Not quick way to put one color beside another.
Stamps, well, that's the next thing to tackle. But that's a big one.
Arizona, as far as tags are concerned, I bought mine off Etsy, But you could take cheap index cards and cut them into thirds on your trimmer and then use a hole punch on them. It really doesn't have to be fancy.
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
Great idea! This is the sort of thing that is on my new year to do list. I have the square nesties. Will have to see about what to do for the tag.
@Arizona, another thought that you could do is to use your square as your tag! Cut your square, ink it up & put your label on the other side of it. Take a hole punch in the corner of the square and then put it on the ring!
Just to let you know, when inking up the square, the ink goes somewhat through the card stock! Maybe I inked up to much!! I did use SU whisper white!
Last edited by connie leone; 01-18-2013 at 06:07 PM..
Reason: added more info.
@Arizona, another thought that you could do is to use your square as your tag! Cut your square, ink it up & put your label on the other side of it. Take a hole punch in the corner of the square and then put it on the ring!
Just to let you know, when inking up the square, the ink goes somewhat through the card stock! Maybe I inked up to much!! I did use SU whisper white!
I like the idea of using the whole square as the tag because then you can put the colors right next to/on top of each other without the white space/border of the tag "interfering". Might need to do this...it would be nice to have a swatch of all my inks to hold up next to paper plus, for example, be able to see which red is a "true" red out of the three or four reds that I have. And to take on shopping trips to see if I might need (HA! HA! ROTFL!) to get a color I don't have. I've been sorting and purging paper and wood mount stamps the past two weekends but maybe this weekend I need to switch to putting away my inks since I have some upstairs in Craftyland and some downstairs in the living room where I dump everything when I come home from gatherings. When I make the ink swatches I also will write on the back which ink pads I have refills for.
Love this- I have to do it. I did a similar thing with my embossing folders- embossed pieces of card and hung them all on a ring so I could just flick through. In the end, I found I had too many to keep on a ring, so I bought a couple of A5 ring binders, and putt them all in them. So easy to flick through & remind myself what I have.
Love this- I have to do it. I did a similar thing with my embossing folders- embossed pieces of card and hung them all on a ring so I could just flick through. In the end, I found I had too many to keep on a ring, so I bought a couple of A5 ring binders, and putt them all in them. So easy to flick through & remind myself what I have.
I did this as well, but I'm sure I need to add to it! Don't know why I never thought of doing it with the inks!!!
I thought of inking the whole thing, but I find that it helps me to see the color against white. Easier to see the undertones.
I didn't have any ink going through the paper, but then I didn't try to ink so that the swatch was evenly solid. I wanted some variation in it, because the colors look different as you intensify them.
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
Great idea, I have just started to copy it. I am going for the squares on a tag as well and happen to have a tag punch that co-ordinates well with my square punch in terms of size.
I have put them together with a ball chain for the moment (and for lack of a binding ring).
Still working on this project! I did all of my distress inks, CTMH inks and now working on my SU inks! Taking me a while because I have to die cut the tags and then punch out all of my squares! After I finish my inks I think I'm going to do something similar with my cards stock.
I am definitely doing my CS. I have tags on order. Then I'll punch a square of each and label. I really think it will help me make design decisions more effectively having the sample ring. Or rings. I may break the CS up by color sets or something, I think there might be too many colors for one ring.
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
I am definitely doing my CS. I have tags on order. Then I'll punch a square of each and label. I really think it will help me make design decisions more effectively having the sample ring. Or rings. I may break the CS up by color sets or something, I think there might be too many colors for one ring.
Hi Rachel! I have all my card stock (SU) in royb,etc. order. I think when I do my tags I will do it like that as well. I use to keep all of card stock grouped in the color families, but if I was looking for a color, you could easily have to look at all the color families. With that said, I decided to group them in color orders. I find it much easier that way. Have to work tomorrow, so unfortunately ni play time for me, :(
I did my all inkpads like this a while back, and I'm so glad I did (now I need to get better about keeping it up to date with any new inks I buy... LOL).
When I need to pick an ink to match a shade of CS, patterned paper, etc., I just flip through my ring. It's like fanning out one of those big ruler-shaped paint selectors they have at the paint store.
My next goal is to do my embossing folders the same way, although I'll do those at full folder size rather than small tags. I've even got the paper cut up to do it. Just need an afternoon where I have nothing to do but roll one folder after another through my machine!
Well, I've just done my Distress Inks, and my Adirondacks. I actually noticed with a few Adirondacks, that the colour on the lid was quite deceiving- Mushroom springs to mind, The lid makes it look very grey, but on card its definitely more brown. And Pesto. Theres a hint of green to it, so its a sort of dark Khaki, but I'd put it with browns, rather than greens. That just might be me though,
I found that with Distress Inks as well. For example, Old Paper has a greenish cast, which you wouldn't think looking at the lid. And Chipped Sapphire looks very purple on the lid, when really it's more blue. That's why samples are so critical. You can't go by the lids.
And of course they all look different the more heavily you apply them.
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
Yes, definitely the Chipped Sapphire- forgot that one. And Iced Spruce- greyer than I anticipated, and Evergreen Bough is not as vibrant a green as I'd have thought. And of course, the cardstock will also make a difference, but at least its a better guide to roughly what to expect than the lids, I agree. I'm gradually going to work through the rest of my pads, at least I've got the biggest collections done,
While preparing my tags I noticed that the Distress Ink samples are not a perfect indicator to find the right shade of Distress Stain, especially for colour combos like Walnut Stain/Vintage Photo.
I have therefore put Distress Stain sample squares on the back of the corresponding Distress Ink tags, each time with parts that have one or more coatings. And to complete the back I also added a line of Distress Stickles where available.
That's a much more organized way of doing what I did, TMaja, which was to ink my samples unevenly, so that some parts would be more solid than others. It's very true that the colors can look quite different when applied more or less heavily.
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
Oh, I just realized you were talking about inks vs stains! Duh. I don't have any of the stains (other than Picket Fence), so it never occurred to me that they would be different.
So far I have resisted the stains. I have dropped a bundle on the inks already. Adding in another addiction right now is the last thing I need!
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
I've done this as well (thanks to an earlier suggestion on the board) with my Distress inks, as well as my Adirondack inks and Copic markers. For my inks, I sponged and swiped the colors on, so I would have true example of what they would look like using these techniques. Oh, and then I label the piece of sponge I used and store all of them in a plastic floss box, so I have a sponge dedicated to each color ready to go.
__________________ Marcy Wolf Creek Crafting
I just love the smell of Stazon in the morning!
Last edited by kiddielitter; 01-31-2013 at 01:53 AM..
Reason: adding more info
Love this- I have to do it. I did a similar thing with my embossing folders- embossed pieces of card and hung them all on a ring so I could just flick through. In the end, I found I had too many to keep on a ring, so I bought a couple of A5 ring binders, and putt them all in them. So easy to flick through & remind myself what I have.
That is a brilliant idea! Now I know what my next organizational project will be.
__________________ Marcy Wolf Creek Crafting
I just love the smell of Stazon in the morning!
Update: Just over halfway done with my card stock sampler. Have not even arranged it in any meaningful order but already using it and love the little thing. Again, why didn't I do this sooner? Now I can so easily hold colors up together without rooting through paper files, or trying to keep it all in my head.
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
Update: Just over halfway done with my card stock sampler. Have not even arranged it in any meaningful order but already using it and love the little thing. Again, why didn't I do this sooner? Now I can so easily hold colors up together without rooting through paper files, or trying to keep it all in my head.
SO USEFUL! This is the level of organization that impacts creativity. How can I come up with great color combinations if my card stock is nicely stored away? Even if it's nicely stored and in view, it's just not the same as having the little chips to hold together right in front of my face. The ring sits on my worktable and at any moment I can easily see what colors might be right with something I'm working on.
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
Distress Ink Ring Sampler - Why Didn't I Do This Sooner!
