Followers

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

My Nail Polish Swatch Book

Yeah, sounds weird right? And at first, when I was creating it, I thought to myself, this is either the stupidest or best idea I've ever had. You tell me. LOL!!!

My friends all seem to like it. It was certainly easier that fiddling around with 400 swatch spoons to pick a color. All my polishes are in drawers and I don't like people messing with them (<-contol freak much??).

Anyway, I swatched my whole stash to spoons but I still wasn't satisfied. I felt like people would just pick the first polish they saw and not really put much time into looking through the spoons. I mean, when I started glue-ing down the spoons, I realized I don't notice most of my collection either. The spoons just aren't practical. They're better than nothing, and maybe this isn't perfect either, but this is about ten steps up from rifling through spoons. So I'm happy with it.

It's not quite finished yet. I have all my close to 400 spoons glued in. I would like  add a cute polish picture to the front cover to fill the frame and maybe add some tabs with the brand names.This scrapbook was $3 at the local craft store.



I only filled about 6 pages total, so there's plenty of room to grown and I divided the spoons by brands, leaving room for me to add more spoons at a later point, when I buy more of that particular brand. 

I also considered doing this on a large piece of poster-board, but ultimately just went with a book. 

Here are a couple of pitfalls I overcame while completing this project: 

1. I wrote on the spoons with black marker. So when I went to glue the spoons down onto the black pages, I couldn't even read the words. So I quickly scrapped that idea and used white scrapbook paper between the spoons and the pages. 

2. I started using plain old Elmer's craft glue for gluing down the spoons. I tried it on a page and let it dry over night. Well, when they dried, I picked them up and the spoons just started falling off. So you need something a little stronger. I switched to a glue specially made for gluing rhinestones. It's sold at any craft store. It's good and strong and holds well, even when you shake and bend the pages. 

3. Don't glue the spoons too close together. Otherwise, when you bend the page, there is no "give" and the spoons will push each other off. If you look closely at the photos, you can see that I left a very small gap in between the spoons. This is a necessary step!!! 

So what do you think of my Nail Polish Swatch Book??? Can you see the value in organizing your swatch spoons this way? What method are you currently using? 

16 comments:

  1. Love it! I started swatching my stash on wheels - and sort have never gotten around to actually completing that... :) This is an awesome idea - like a look book! hehe

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love your book, but see the pitfalls LOL
    I also use swatch sticks, but I keep them on thin chains with one or more openings on the chain, depending on the number of sticks.
    This way it's super easy to color organize them AND it's easy to add new stick to the exact right spot.
    You can find it under the DYI tips & tricks folder in my blog (top menu).
    Later today I'm posting swatches of three of your polishes, and tomorrow nail art based on Apple :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I use swatchsticks assembled together per 50 on a large screw. I sorted them by brand and collection. Since I have some brands which change their regular line regularly, as well as putting out limited editions ( Catrice and Essence), I prefer the flexibility of loose spoons. Although I must admit that your book is a lot easier to look at! Oh choices choices...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love your book! It looks gorgeous!!!
    I have been dreaming of this sort of book for a long time now, but I haven't quite find the way I want to make it. I will have to consider your idea now! Thank you!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love this idea! Where do you get your spoons? I haven't been able to find ones I like so I have zero swatch sticks! I would love to make a book like this :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love this idea! If I had time and money I would totally do this!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love this!! What an amazing idea! <3

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is awesome makes me want to make one too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. At the moment I have my polishes swatched on nail wheels done by color. But I absolutely love this! What a great, fun idea! Thanks for sharing with us. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is an awesome idea. I was just going to buy a bunch of spoons or nail wheels. This is a much better idea and I will be doing this instead. Thank you so much for sharing this. ♥

    ReplyDelete
  11. If I have made my own swatchicles by glueing fake nails to Popsicle sticks, would they lay flat enough to do this? I notice with the premise spoons you have that they look pretty flat. I am trying to organize them but I am worried once I glue them into a book they will all be too 3-d for the book to lay flat at all

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would have to see them in person to give you an honest answer. My guess is it's fine. Certainly worth giving it a try. :)

      Delete
    2. this is what they look like
      http://www.emilydenisephotography.com/blog/?p=2259

      Delete