If this isn’t free/cheap, DIY art & decor, I don’t know what is! Click the photo to find out how to make or buy these things. Thanks to Pinterest and Etsy for the awesome ideas. Here’s Broke & Healthy’s Pinterest board.
Also, if you’re taking several paint chip samples, especially if it’s from a small business, be polite and offer to pay for these samples. If we abuse the system, one day they won’t be free for anyone!
1. Framed art
2. Spiral Notepads
3. Moving Cards
4. Coasters
5. Ceiling Art
6. Placemats
7. Earrings
8. Greeting Cards
9. Gift Cards
10. Party Banner
11. Lamps
12. Mini Gift Bags
13. Rolodex/Recipe Separators
14. Valentine’s Day Cards
15. Bookmarks
16. Mobiles
17. “Wallpaper”
18. Necklaces
19. Business Card Holders
20. Hanging Art (Adult Mobiles?)
21. “Pixel Art”
22. Wallets
23. Greeting Cards
24. Origami
25. Magnets
26. Christmas Ornaments
27. Abstract Art
28. Bike Wheel Decor
29. Colored Calendar
30. Confetti
31. Target Wall Runners
32. Name Placecards
33. Stitched Cards
34. Embellished Shapes
35. Mini Flag Runners
36. Pinwheel Framed Art
37. Gift Boxes
38. Retail-Style Jewelry Cards
39. Wreaths
40. Color Orbs
41. Clocks
42. Garland
43. Pinned Art
44. Mini Notepads
45. Mini Scrap Book Covers
46. Glass Table Top
47. Kid’s Games
48. Geometric Collage
49. Stitched Greeting Card
50. Utensil Holder
I also like to make dry erase calendars with paint chips. find a photo frame (with glass), and arrange the paint chips to form the squares for the days. It is a lot of fun. when you are done, just write and erase on the glass and change out colors whenever you feel like it!
For those of you who don’t like the printed words appearing on the paint chips, they are easily erased with a regular white eraser.
In my experience, most places are happy to give you the chips if you ask for them.
Thanks for the post.
Ande,
Always going to be Debbie-downers about ANYTHING on the Internet. I bet half of these complainers have never even held a paint brush or are crafters of any kind, yet they are worried about having to pay for paint samples. Have these people ever noticed the TON of paint samples at paint stores?? Better to re-purpose them than to see them all thrown in the dump!I LOVE your ideas and have a nice collection of samples myself.
You are awesome!
Auch Situationen aus dem Alltag können mit entsprechendem Spielzeug nachgeahmt werden.
Its just unbelievable how paint chip samples can be useful not in one way or two but 50 uses. I really like the way you can use them to make ceiling art, earrings, lamps and even gift boxes. I really think that its time and money saving and i will definitely try your idea. The most credible primary data thesis writing services are offered to all clients, which also includes capstone, dissertations among other custom papers. Give our custom writing services a thought and rest assured of professional services.
i thought 98% of these ideas were absolutely ridiculous
That is because you are a non-creative, narrow-minded ass.
Agreed.
I bought there old sample books for 10.00 at a paint store, love mine great article and ideas
Excellent article. Thank you. Glad to see someone out there who thinks like me.
(Oh and… Ace Hardware has the paint samples that are peel off stickers).
Thank you for another magnificent article. Where
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I’ve a presentation next week, and I’m at the search for
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I think you are very clever. Really enjoyed looking at these.
Aw, this was an extremely nice post. Taking a few minutes and actual effort to generate a top notch article… but what can I say… I put things off a whole
lot and never seem to get anything done.
Yeah agreed! absolutely right… that was stunning piece of work
All of these are wonderful but has anyone thought about the fact that those paint samples are free but if people keep taking them with out the intent to buy their paint they will soon start to charge people for them!
I asked my local paint store if I could have the paint chip samples when they are done with them and they were more than happy to give them to me. I gave them my phone # and they have called me 2x’s in the last 2 weeks with over 1000 chips:)
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never understand. It seems too complex and extremely broad for me.
I’m looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get the hang of it!
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I am working on a course project to encourage single parents to use samples as crafting material to create Eco-friendly product to sell. I think the ideas you shared here are great.
Sooooooooooo cute
If you have them lying around from selecting the colors in your home, then go to it and repurpose them, but count me in with the folks who see taking these for the sake of mass quantities of free crafting materials is stealing. That’s promotional material that costs the supplier money. Just because 1 store wants to see people’s paint chip projects doesn’t change that. Who made Lowe’s the supreme ruling authority of paint chip ethics?
Hey Gael, thanks for commenting. Just wanted to note that I’ve asked people reading this article to offer to pay for the samples. If we abuse the system then they’ll start charging folks who really need samples for painting real things! I hear ya.
The next time one of you complain about the high price of paint remember these crafts. Paint samples are not produced for free.
Hey Kevin, thanks for commenting! I mentioned at the top of this article that we should definitely offer to pay for samples, otherwise, we’ll abuse the system.
I had no idea about colors combination but after read your blog I cleared everything. You teach me and provide me good list of colors. Thanks
Do you have instructions on some of these? I am interested mainly in the clock. I have lots of paint chips. When I go into Lowe’s, they tell me to help myself to whatever I need. The trick is not to be greedy about it. I make several trips and take a few at a time. Thank you.
I don’t have any instructions, personally. You’ll need to click through to the original websites and see if the original designers posted any directions. Sorry!
I really want to do the paint chips on a desk top, just like the table above. But how would I go about securing the plexiglass to the surface once the paint chips are laid down????
Rachael, my guess is, if you use a glass table-top instead of plexiglass, the weight of the glass would be heavy enough to secure itself. Plexiglass seems a bit too light to me. However, if you DO use plexiglass, maybe screwing it down directly into the 4 corners of the table would hold it down?
Just be careful when screwing plexiglass down. You will need to drill a hole in it first, or it will break.
i used to collect paint chips(wierd obsession i know)and i found them a couple days ago thinking “what in the world am i gonna do with these”but i found this site and now have used nearly all of my cards!(there was about 150 i think…..maybe less idk)i also had the idea of making a treasure hunt with them for my nieces(i hid clue cards made out of the chips everywhere telling a clue to where the next one would be and the final clue said where to find the mega prize)(that was two big eggs)
Omg!!! This is so cool! I have so many paint chips and didn’t know what to do with them and now I do!!! Thank you so much for posting this!!!!! I will definetly use the staple idea!! 🙂 :-). 🙂 :-). 🙂 :-). 🙂 :-). 🙂
Pretty soon paint chips will NOT be free in stores…..for this exact reason. 🙁
Not necessarily- Lowe’s is running a contest on the best ideas using paint chips- the bicycle shown here is on their website.
Well if you call and ask the store for leftover paint chips they have about 1000 leftover paint chips a week. This will help prevent stores from charging for paint chips or making you ask.
These are great! Thanks so much.
I have a bunch of paint chips that I want to make wall paper out of. How do you recommend I keep them on the wall? I can’t paint in my apartment and holes have to be kept at a minimum. I’m afraid tape won’t hold. Any suggestions? Thanks!
just looking througfh these projects but,
i have an idea for : Felicia (July 15, 2012 at 5:18 pm)
glue the paint chips to either poster boards , a roll of paper -either brown packing paper or try to find a roll of plain white art paper… or maybe even contact paper (but it would be more expensive and may even pull paint off walls – so I would test a small spot near floor or in closet first.
then use the ‘command strips’ that stick to the wall and ur hanging and kind of “velcro” together to hold it up… or even poster sticky putty may work. Depending on what you use, i would glue the chips before hanging since it may bleed through thinner papers.
Good luck, sounds like a fun project!
Thank you so much for posting my Paint Sample Wallet and for such inspiring ideas! This is awesome!
This is a great collection of paint chip ideas Ande! I’ve seen some of these ideas on Pinterest too, but there are some lovely fresh ones here that I hadn’t yet discovered. What a great idea for a post – thanks for curating all the great ideas for displaying here. I’m repinning so that I can have reference to it in future 🙂
Awesome ideas! The glass tabletop, pixel art, and placemats are so fun and crafty!
Do you have an idea as to how to secure the glass/plexiglass onto the surface of the table, once the paint chips are laid down?
all these are to hard paint
TY so much…can;t wait to use the scrapbook cover idea for our Kid’s Chorus…we also run a Lobby craft “Hands on” craft time follow up to our singing sessions… these are such fun! Now
we will have some fantastic new ideas because of you! Hugs!
how do you hang r glue all of those to a wall? I would love to do this since i am a renter, but do not want to damage the walls
50 things to do with paint chips is fantastic. Thanks so much for posting it. I’m always amazed by the creativity of people. I can’t wait to share it with my stamping art friends.
cool ideas! tfs
Very pretty and original but while these cards are free to YOU, they’re not FREE to the stores that have to pay for them. So it’s a little like ‘stealing’ isn’t it? Can’t imagine what a store would say if they noticed someone taking a whole pile of those color cards….any comments or experiences? Somehow I doubt they’d say ‘oh sure…help yourself to several hundred…we don’t mind’
As Long as you dont take to many at a time, there fine with it at home depot. Lowes enjoys seeing what you do with them. So yeah.
Great, thanks for sharing this article. Awesome.
Just grabbed a boodle of paint chips today 🙂 Now I have TONS of ideas for what to do with them! THANK YOU!!!
Woohoo, you’re welcome!
aw jess! i miss you. please come visit us soon. you are wemloce here any time day or night!! and our life is far from perfect, but we are very very happy with how things are im very thankful for it and really am just trying to focus on that more and more rather than being distracted by craziness that seems to take over!
Thanks for including a Word for Word Greetings collage as #48.
Visit our etsy shop for paint chip greeting cards, ready to hang wall art, paint chip poem magnets, buttons & more: http://www.etsy.com/shop/WordForWordGreetings
How did you make the ceiling art? I would love to do that!
Love all these creative ideas – looking at paint chips in a new light!
This is awesome! Trina, I love the idea for scrapbooking. Thanks for the eraser advice! 🙂
Good Ideas!….I use paint chips for scrapbooking, they are great for matting photos. Also a little tip….you can use a white eraser, on the writing/numbers that is on the paint chips, takes it right off, without any marks. *:*
A girl after my own heart!!!! You’ve been bookmarked in my system for.ev.er!
I did a pennant project back in July ( link below) and I’ll be doing a similar one this week on my What I Made Wednesday post! Hope you stop by and check it out!
http://feellovdeveryday.blogspot.com/2011/07/red-white-and-blue-paint-chips-pennant.html
Very cool, Lilly!! Thanks for stopping by!
In the first necklace picture, what are those metal circles that go around the hole punch called?
Yikes, I have no idea what the name of those are, Caitlyn… but if you go to just about any beading store, you’ll find everything you need to put this together.
Caitlyn,
Hi, over here at feel LOVD everyday. Just way your comment and I think you are referring to the “jump rings”.
I’ve heard them called ‘eyelets’ in the scrapbook section. They’re cool to use for lots of different things like that.
grommets… they sell them in the scrapbooking section in a bunch of different colors…. 🙂
Caitiyn,
Those little things are called grommets.
Kathy
If you are talking about the one that holds the chip to the chain..it’s an eyelet or grommet, and you can also buy jump rings in the jewellery section of any craft store that sells beads etc.
Hope this helps! Happy crafting!
awesome stuff here! thank you so much for including our paint chip Christmas ornaments. I get discontinued stacks of them from paint companies that would have gone in the trash and love coming up with fun ways to use them
Awesome Ande….Very creative.