Whimsy Stamps ~ Not Just For Cards

Hey friends, I'm popping in today, to share with you a fun swatching adventure I've just had. I hunted through my stamp stash to find a stamp set that would work well for swatching my Distress Ink colours. I've collected quite a few pads now and discovered with my slight disorganisation since we moved house and unpacking things slowly, that I've actually purchased two of the colours twice! Doh, so not cool, stash is SO expensive to get here in New Zealand, I'd have rather got two new colours! So determined not to let this happen again, I've swatched the colours I have and won't double up again!

The stamp set I settled on from my Whimsy Stamps stash has a fantastic series of splats along with some cool designs which can be used as part of distress or mixed media creations. There was a little splat that gave enough coverage to get a good amount of the oxide onto the paper, but was small enough to fit the little frame size. So I was stoked! I think it's kinda fun that it's a splat too, it adds to the inky feel of these swatches. 

The wonderful print out I used to create these swatches was a free download from Jennifer McGuire. So generous of her to offer these resources, it really makes things so quick and easy! You can click through here to find the blog link to the post with the print-outs. I've scrolled down and found the links for the Distress Oxides and because I'm in NZ, have adjusted the size to print an A4 page and it worked perfectly for me. As you can see in the first pic, I've cut the swatches apart, rounded three of the corners and then punched a hole in the fourth corner and threaded them onto a spare key ring loop I had. Works perfectly for what I needed and will be a handy quick reference for colours and to ensure I don't double up buy again! 

Thanks for popping in to visit, I hope you found this 'reigning in the stash' adventure useful today. I don't have a lot of time to sort and catalogue my stash, but this was definitely worth doing and I am so happy to have it to refer to now. I've linked all the elements I've used for this crafty adventure, including all the inks, which to be honest, is more for me than you, hehe, as another double check for me! Wishing you a wonderful weekend, and if you're in England, Happy Queen's Jubilee! Hugs and happy crafting xoxo