Ink Catalog: Create Your Own Fabulous Crafting Resource

• Image
• Video

Author: Corrine Mihlek-Brzys

I’ll come right out and admit it, I’m a color addict. I love color and am obsessed with all facets of it—intensity, tone, shade and especially the interplay between colors. As a stamper who is happily color-addicted, I am forever buying inks, drawn in by the endless amount of choices. I’ve found a system that allows me to not only restore order to my inks (and stop re-buying shades I already have), but also assists me in finding the right shades of color at a glance, and I’m more than happy to share it; it’s an ink catalog.

What is that woman talking about, you ask?

An ink catalog is simply a visual display of ink colors one owns, placed in an easy-to-manage-and-use format. And it’s a snap to make!

Let’s go through the steps to creating your own:

1. Purchase your “housing.” the structure that will hold your ink information. I bought a small, 3-ring binder. I liked this option best because I can use white cardstock for the pages, giving me a true representation of ink color with the paper I usually use for projects. The binder option also lets me manage my pages easily and you can add more if needed.
2. Create your pages. Create labels to name the color of each page or section.
3. Fill in your pages. Select a color family and gather the appropriate inks. Using a small, solid image, ink and stamp each color onto the page. I inked once and stamped twice, recording what each color’s 1st and 2nd generation shade is.
   
   
4. Keep records. After you stamp a color, jot down some basic information to help you find it later. Next to each ink color, I wrote the manufacturer’s name, added a simple “code” that tells me the manufacturer and the type of ink it is. For example, “CB-C” tells me that it’s ColorBox chalk ink, and “AP-D” means it’s Ancient Page dye. Because I store my inks by color, I can easily find any pad with this information (if I want “Sienna” from Ancient Page, I go to my stack of brown ink, look at the Ancient Page section, and easily find that shade). Make up a code that is simple for you to recall and use according to your storage system.
5. Add pages for “special cases.” If you have multi-colored pads or other specialty inks that don’t fit neatly into a color family, create another section or pages and repeat the above process.
   

Creating your ink catalog is easy and fun. You’ll likely discover inks you’ve forgotten you had! It’s a great way to get and stay organized, too. When heading out to the craft store, you can pop your catalog into your bag and have your entire inventory on-hand. Keep it handy for internet shopping, too. And let’s not forget the terrific resource your catalog is when you’re crafting. Having the ability to see on paper what each shade truly stamps is an invaluable resource you’ll come to treasure.