My husband and I chose our wedding colors the same way we chose the paint for our apartment: by comparing stashes of paint chips we grabbed from the hardware store. When it was done we had tons of paint chips in the house, and I loved every color on the slips of paper. Paint chips helped me choose the palette I used for my wedding decorations… but what if paint chips WERE the palette?
The gradation of hues is awfully romantic-looking, and stores let you have them for free. Here are a few ridiculously easy projects using (or at least inspired by) paint chips!
Place settings
You can cut slits in a long, slim paint chip, write your guests' names on them and use them as a dual place card/napkin ring.
Or try folding along the white lines and taping the ends together to form a pentagon-shaped sleeve for candy favors. [Editor's note: if you write the guests name on these candy sleeves they could ALSO double as place settings.]
Decor
You can continue the gradient hue motif by grabbing some pages in the same color family from the scrapbooking section of the craft store, cutting and fringing strips, and gluing them to string for a new twist on the bunting trend. These also remind me just a bit of papel picado.
Invitations
Try adding some 1″ thick strips of gradient fringe to a 4X6 blank card to use as save-the-dates, invitations or thank you cards.
Floral aternatives
Take the next step and use paint chips as floral alternatives!
- First, cut fringe horizontally across most of the width of a long paint chip (there are multi-blade fringe-cutting scissors you can buy if you want to cut down on time and ensure you have uniform cuts).
- Glue floral wire on one end.
- Beginning there, roll up the paint chip fringe from one end to the other, with the white back facing out.
- Secure the end with a bead of glue or piece of tape, and tug on the ends to draw the fringe petals down and outward.
A word of caution: hardware stores may give paint chips away for free, but don't just decimate the supply and peace out. Show your appreciation for the free materials by patronizing the business… maybe you need firewood, lightbulbs, or soil? Golden rule, guys.
those flowers are awesome! Also great, the last bit of advice! Keep the karma clean, folks! But hellz yeah to cool crafts made with free stuff!
Ha, we chose our colors the same way! I heart paint chips, thanks for the ideas!
So many good ideas! Where was this post a year ago? It would have been easier than my organza flowers…
I’m totally making the flowers in red and green for our Christmas table!
AWESOME
We went to the hardware to get power tools for gifts and I used the opportunity to snag a stack of paint chips for my decorations. I felt bad taking a big stack so I told the lady at the paint counter my plans and now SHE wants to make them too! I gave her the web site so she’s going to check out this post!!! 🙂
Thanks for spreading the word, Jess!
ooooh yes i am also a paint swatch stealer/hoarder =) great ideas!
Aw, man! Just recycled all of ours. They were all such pretty colors too! Oh well – something to remember next time we get a million of them before painting a bedroom or something. 🙂
Very cool ideas…I once decorated our apartment wall with paint chips and it reminds me of those days! Also like the reminder to appreciate your freebies by patronizing the store or asking permission.