DIY: Paint Chip Art Journal

I started a series on Art Journaling awhile ago. Then we moved into a new apartment and I kind of let that fade away without getting to some of the finer points. Consider this my attempt at trying to rectify that somewhat. Here you will see how you can turn a stack of just about anything (in this case, sample paint chips) into a bright shiny new art journal.

To make this style of journal you will need:

A stack of old paint chips, or any kind of old paper/cardstock (playing cards would work very well)
a hole punch
binder rings

That's it! Start by deciding where you want your holes punched, and use one card to make a template. You can use this for punching all of your holes in your cards in the same place, simply line up your template on top of your unpunched cards (I only do a few at a time) and punch your holes in the same spot as the original. Then, secure your book together with the binder rings. The thing I love about this style of journal is you can start small with smaller rings, and then if you decide to add more pages later, just graduate to a larger sized ring and add more pages as needed. It also makes it easy to remove a page without tearing anything out. Binder rings...another office supply I like way too much. :)

One great thing about paint chips, is if you are having some trouble thinking of something to draw/write/etc. in your journal, each color has some fancy name that you can use as a jumping off point. Maybe you will draw a tropical lagoon on the card aptly labeled "tropical lagoon", maybe you will decide to make a collage of items in a certain colorway on another page to match (or contrast!). Also, while you can find paint chips in many sizes, most are very manageable as far as fitting a finished book into your pocket or bag to carry around with you everywhere you go. :)


I save everything, so I had a large number of paint chips on hand. If you don't but would like to make this project, ask at a local hardware supply store if you can take some paint chip samples without buying paint. Other options you could use are: playing cards, the fronts of old greeting cards/thank you notes, scrap cardstock pieces from old projects, cut up cereal boxes, etc.

Paint Chip Gift Tags

I'm always looking for clever crafts, that can be done easily and inexpensively. These paint chip gift tags fit the bill perfectly. So many companies are making bigger paint chips now that you can use them for quite a bit without people even realizing it is a paint chip sample! The best part: the cost! I happened to have a bunch of paint chips laying around from several painting projects, but if you don't just go to a local hardware or paint supply store and select the colors you wish to use, they are free* (I recommend asking if you may take some if you do not plan on buying any paint). If you fall in love with a color, there are often small sample size paints you can buy for a larger project as well (I recently found a recipe online to mix your own chalkboard paint-- once I finish my project I'll be sharing that with you as well!).

So, back to the gift tags. I used various colors of paint chips, got a fancy hole punch, some white ribbon, and a regular hole punch and what you see here is the result. Just punch out your fancy shape, in my case a leafless tree, from your top paint chip, and overlay it onto a contrasting color chip. Then using a regular hole punch, punch a hole through both paint chips, insert your ribbon and you have a cute little gift tag. These also double as great bookmarks, and you can make them as large as your paint sample chips allow. It is your choice if you want to make them recognizable as paint chips, or do as I have here and just let it look like fancy colored paper (I love paint chips because they are very close in quality to Color Aid, a super expensive item you might be familiar with if you ever took a color theory class in art school--and I have, ouch!).

Another great thing about this project, is that there is little to no waste. I am saving all of my little punch out trees as confetti. These would be adorable at an Autumnal Equinox party later in the year! These hole punches come in a huge variety of shapes, also, so you could easily find one to fit your occasion and I have seen them on sale at almost any time of year at various paper and craft stores around town, as well as online.

More fun crafts are on the way, so check back again soon!