If you've ever walked past the paint sample display at a hardware store and quietly slipped a few cards into your bag — or been gifted a stack by a well-meaning friend who knows your paper obsession — this video is for you. I share 16 specific project ideas using paint chip cards, color swatch cards, paint samples, whatever you want to call them, and everything shown is made from these free, cheerful little rectangles of color.
What we cover
Sixteen ideas in total: mini journals and notepads, layered pockets, embellishments, pattern-making, punched shapes and their negatives, paper buttons, tabs, washi tape swatches, tags, floating pouches, bookmarks, paper quilts, journaling spots, jewelry cards, and a note on getting creative with circle punches. Some ideas get a full demonstration on camera; others are shown as finished examples with a walkthrough of how they were made.
What you'll learn
How to make a quick mini journal or notepad using paint chip cards as covers, including:
- Using a Zutter binder or similar binding tool
- Holding pages together with two eyelets at the spine
- The simplest version: fold in half, line the inside panels with a trimmed swatch, add pages cut to size, and close the whole thing with a piece of elastic knotted into a loop closure with beads
How to layer paint swatches into graduated pocket pages for journals — starting from the shortest piece, drawing a wiggly line on the back, cutting it out, and using each card as a guide for the next so you get a cascading waterfall of color with pockets all the way down
How to use a single paint chip card as a pocket or embellishment — layering on 3D embellishments, stickers, and rhinestone bling, or using a strip of washi tape as a border, so a plain swatch becomes a finished card, a journal embellishment, or a happy mail insert
How to make pattern-cut cards — birthday cakes and Christmas trees are the two examples shown, using the gradient cards (the ones with three color variations) for a three-tone tree and the solid-color cards in sequence for the cake tiers
How to use punch-out shapes from paint chip cards, including:
- Punching hearts and butterflies and mounting them on a graduation of color
- Turning punched butterflies into a simple card or mini companion booklet
- Keeping the negatives (the leftover sheets after punching) and mounting them on a contrasting color as a journaling spot, an acetate-backed see-through pocket, or a pocket booklet cover
How to make paper buttons from paint chip cards — punching two or four holes, adding eyelets for a finished look (or outlining the holes with a Sharpie if you don't have eyelets), going around the edge with a Sharpie for a clean border, and threading through twine or thread to accentuate the button shape. The same technique scales to earrings and hair clips.
How to use paint chip cards as tabs — fold in half, trim off the printed writing, cut a small notch or shape without cutting through the fold, ink the edges, and embellish with a sticker or a small piece of bling. Purely decorative or functional, works in any mini book.
How to make washi tape sample cards — wrapping lengths of washi tape around a paint chip card (backing covered first so the brand printing doesn't show through), so you can take a curated selection of tapes traveling, tuck them into happy mail, or add them as a detail inside a handmade notebook
How to use paint chip cards as tags — covering the back so both sides are usable, pulling gradient cards for the layered color look, and using them as mini canvases inside journal pockets: a quick collage, a gratitude note, a date and a sentence, whatever fits in the time you have
How to make floating pouches and sewn pockets — cutting two swatches into matching shapes using a hand-drawn template (a heart is shown, cut from a cereal box), gluing the shape onto a contrasting backing, and either sewing the edges on a machine or drawing stitching lines with a permanent pen. "Floating" means the pouch can move between journal pages rather than being glued in place.
How to make a paint chip bookmark — joining two shorter cards end to end (then trimming back to the right height), mounting on black cardstock for contrast, adding black and white twine at the top, and embellishing to keep a consistent feel
Paper quilting with paint chip cards — running the cards through an embossing folder before cutting and piecing them, so the quilt squares carry a texture pattern as well as color. This pairs with a full separate video on paper quilting if you want to go further.
How to make journaling spots from paint chip cards — gluing a blank piece of paper or a tea-dyed calendar page to the back of a card so one side is the color and the other is a writing surface, then cutting it out as a moveable insert that can live in a pocket or sit over a busy page
How to make jewelry display cards from paint chip cards — cutting small horizontal slits with scissors so you can thread a necklace or earrings through, turning the card into a tidy display piece for markets or for gifting handmade jewelry
Tips & gotchas
Only take what you'll actually use. Paint sample cards are free from hardware stores, but taking them in bulk without asking is bad form. Most of my stash came from family and friends who kept them aside for me over the years — which is a much better system. A small, curated handful is genuinely enough to get started.
Watch out for the collection phase. There's a real pull toward amassing materials and imagining all the things you'll make — and then not making them. Clutter in your space creates clutter in your mind, and that's the number one creativity killer. The cure is just to start making something, even if it's imperfect.
Use a permanent pen on these cards, not a regular ballpoint or felt tip. The surface is slick and coated, so anything that isn't permanent will smudge. A Sharpie works well and, as a bonus, looks great when you use it to edge the cards or outline button holes.
Embossing paint chip cards is possible but unpredictable. Because the surface is slightly plasticky, you'll often get crackling and chipping as the embossing folder presses into it — little white flecks where the surface has split. I tried spraying with water first and it helped a little but didn't fully prevent it. Whether you love that effect or find it frustrating depends on the project. For paper quilts the texture still reads beautifully; for something more polished, it can be a problem.
Cover the backs. The brand and colour-code printing on the back of most paint chip cards is distracting, and it limits how you can use the card. I cover mine with a contrasting or complementary piece of paper — an old calendar page, a tea-dyed sheet, a piece of plain card stock — before starting almost any project. It immediately doubles the usable surface and gives you a clean writing or collage area on the reverse.
The graduation cards especially, the ones with three tones of the same color, keep turning up in project after project: layered pockets, Christmas tree patterns, tab collections, tags. They do a lot of the design work for you just by existing.
