Being somewhat confined at home these past few weeks due to Carter's recuperation, I've had time to do a smidgen of online shopping.

Er, um... yeah. So, anyway, a week or so ago, I bought several new (to me) colors of cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and replenished some I was getting low on. For several days, the new packages of pretty paper sat on the floor of my craft room, waiting for me to create file folders so I could put them in their place in my cardstock filing cabinet. I'm not organized about too much in my life, but those things I am organized about? I'm fairly anal retentive.
Cardstock is one of those things for which I actually am organized. I have a tall, four-drawer filing cabinet that I keep my cardstock in. Each color has its own hanging file folder, and within each folder, I keep a page protector to hold scraps of that particular color.
My card making process usually begins with stamp selection, then patterned paper selection, and then I head for the cardstock cabinet to pick papers I think will coordinate. The problem is, my cardstock cabinet is in a dark corner of my craft room. (Is there EVER enough light for us papercrafters? I think not.) Typically, I'll look at the patterned paper I've selected and think, "I bet MFT Banana Split is the right yellow for this, and SU! Regal Rose would coordinate..." or whatever. Then I go to the cabinet, grab the scraps plus one full piece of the cardstock. I look at everything under my Ott lights to make sure they match as closely in reality as I envisioned in my head. If so, we're off - if not, it's back to the file cabinet with me saying to myself "I need a darker yellow with a little green in it..." or what have you. In other words, it's a lot of up and down and relying on my memory.
For some reason, as I was getting ready to file my new purchases in the cabinet, I thought, "There has to be a better way..."
And that sent me down the rabbit hole for a couple of days. Fortunately, though, I've returned with something I think is going to be incredibly handy...

I created a swatchbook of all of my cardstock! Now, if I'm debating in my head, "Should I use New Leaf, Wild Wasabi, or Gumdrop Green?" I'll just grab my handy-dandy swatchbook (located conveniently on my desktop) to make my decision...

Putting this sucker together was no small accomplishment. I cut out 2 1/8" x 3 1/2" pieces of each color of cardstock (191 colors, in all), then rounded a couple of corners for flair, and adhered identification labels made from trimmed down mailing labels; font = Walkway Bold. Most of my 8.5" x 11" colored cardstock is from Stampin' Up!, Papertrey, or My Favorite Things; I also have many colors of 12" x 12" cardstock from Close To My Heart that I keep in a rolling file unit. The CTMH cardstock often gets forgotten about unless I can't find anything else that will do. It's a shame, because CTMH cardstock is white core, and thus great for vintage-y stuff when you want to distress, plus there are some really bright, beautiful hues.
I put the swatches in ROY G. BIV order with subcategories for pinks and aquas, and with browns and neutrals in the back. Then, I made a cute little 'cover' decorated with circles punched from scraps. I hole-punched all the swatches with my Crop-a-Dile then put them on a large jump ring, with lots of room for growth.
I really think my new little friend will help save me time, put together new color combos, and utilize heretofore forgotten colors. Plus, I just like to look at it...


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