How to make easy paint chip wall art

If your apartment needs some decorating, you can't draw, and you're broke, consider chopping up paint chips. These are Glidden swatches from Home Depot made into a simple triangle pattern. I put it inside a mat and frame I already had, and it looks fairly respectable. Put anything inside a mat and frame and it will look respectable. Heck, you could frame a crumpled-up Kleenex and somebody will assume it's a very special piece of modern art.

To make this fancy paint chip art, cut swatches into triangles. I found it easiest to trim the swatches into strips first, then cut the angled sides using one triangle as a template.

I laid the shapes out in an arrangement I liked, then transferred them one by one to a sheet of paper cut to the size I needed. I ran the paper through my Xyron machine first to make it sticky, but you could also coat your paper with spray adhesive or attach your pieces with rubber cement or other adhesive.

Trim off any overhanging triangles, put it under glass, and you're done.

DIY Pantone chip magnets

I try to keep loose Pantone chips in an envelope for future projects, but these nice colors escaped and attached themselves to my file cabinet.

If you happen to own a Pantone chip book or can beg a few chips from someone you know, here's how to whip up some little candy-like magnets.

Cut small pieces of bookboard or other thick cardboard with an X-acto knife. (Bookboard is likely available at your local art store or PaperSource.) Make the pieces exactly the size of the Pantone chips. Then paint the edges white; I used acrylic paint for this.

Attach the chip to the cardboard. I tried using wet glue, but it made the chip curl. So instead I covered the back of each chip with double-stick tape which worked great.

Then cover the face of the chip with paper glaze. It dries with a clear, raised glass-like surface. There are a few products on the market; I used Aleene's Paper Glaze. Let it dry overnight.

Finally, attach a magnet to the back. I used a roll of self-adhesive magnet material, but you could use something stronger, or cut up those promotional magnets you get sometimes from companies.

Paint chip projects by Matthew Sporzynski

A new issue of GD USA magazine, a free publication for the graphic design community, arrived the other day. On the cover was a paint chip ice cream cone by Matthew Sporzynski of Real Simple magazine fame. (See his paper sculptures for Real Simple right here.) These amazing paint chip creations are part of a Sherwin Williams ad campaign; view all the print ads here. I wonder if these are too awesome—Sherwin Williams might end up with a massive paint chip shortage as everybody rushes out and attempts their own creations. And by "everybody," I mean, um, me.

Paint chip bookmarks

Looks like I'm on a bookmark kick. We had extra paint swatches lying around because, lo and behold, we painted our guest room orange over the Christmas break. (I'll show you after we get some stuff on the walls.) These paint chips were begging to be spared from the trash. Trim them to a size you like, paste two colors back-to-back with some rubber cement, attach a string or ribbon, and you're golden. They're especially sturdy because the paper stock they're printed on is very tough. Now I have no excuse for using a Kleenex or an extra book as a bookmark.

Gifts to make for guys

An anonymous reader recently wrote: "My husband wants to do make-or-bake Christmas and I don't really do manly crafts—do you have any ideas for what I could make for a guy?" Uh, that's a tough one. Here's the best I could come up with:

Print-and-assemble modern calendars (I think I want to make that faux bois model shown above for myself!)
A T-shirt made using one of these screen-printing short cuts: this way or this way
The ever-popular paint chip business card holder
A boot rack
A lamp using manly fabrics: this or this, perhaps? "Manly" is so subjective.
A duct tape wallet
Suede iPod sleeve
Box made from playing cards
A pinhole camera, for the guy who needs a whole new hobby (see impressive gallery)
Clock made from a book cover (We found one made out of a Jimi Hendrix record album once that Alex was drooling over. This has great potential for coolness.) You can get clock movements at Michaels or other craft places.

(Image above from Canon)