I’ve started to swatch all the papers in my stash — yep, ALL of them!!
I recently picked up the Tonic Studios Legacy Keeper Wallet Die set. It’s an older die set, so I don’t know where you can purchase it nowadays. I bought mine on Amazon.com not too long ago, but it looks like it’s unavailable now. If you manage to find it, keep in mind that it does require a large platform die cutting machine if you actually want to create the wallet. However, of the 32 dies in the set, only 1 of them requires the large platform. In fact, most of the other dies can probably fit through a Sidekick or Prizm die cutting machine.
This video is a walkthrough of the DCWV Rose Quartz swatch book I created. I hope you find it as cute and useful as I do. I also have tutorial videos on how to create one of this little books yourself!
I try to look at die sets for uses beyond what they’re designed for. And in this case, the first thing that came to mind was mini swatch books! I am swatching my designer papers as well as all my solid cardstock. I found myself feeling very precious about my designer paper and wanting to save a page from each design instead of using it all up. (I know how silly that sounds, but I can’t help falling in love with these papers.) Now that I’ve swatched them though, I have a fun little keepsake from the paper pad and I can now use up all the paper and not create a storage nightmare. 🙂
Probably the best part of having these swatch books is they are a handy tool to keep on my craft table. They are small and handy and when I sit down to start a project, I can flip through my swatch book and find the papers I’d like to use and easily find coordinating cardstock to match! I just have to hold up the small 2″ x 4″ swatch card to the pattern paper, ephemera, etc. and can easily identify the best combination without having to dig through my paper collection. Yay!