How to Reuse Old Paint Chips

Have you recently remodeled? You probably have a pile of paint chips lying around somewhere that you still haven't thrown away. You can use those paint chips to decorate your house.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paint chips
• Construction paper (you choose the size)
• Frame
• Pictures
• Glue
• Scissors or paper trimmer

1. Gather all your paint chips and sort by color. What room did you use each color in? For example, you may have a pile of paint chips in the purple family. Those chips would look best used in the room you decided to paint some shade of purple.

2. Size up your paint chips. How many in each color family do you have? How big are they? Make a trip to the hardware store if you have fewer than five chips in any given color family. You may want to wait to see how big of a frame you want to use before going to get more paint chips.

3. Pick a picture that you want to frame in the room you are concentrating on. How big is the picture? If you have a 4x6 picture, use a 5x8 frame or bigger. The paint chips are going to become your background and you need enough room left to show that off.

4. Cut the piece of construction paper to fit your frame. Also, start cutting off any white trim that may be on your paint chips. Use scissors if you have a steady hand, otherwise use a paper trimmer for straight edges.

5. Now, like a puzzle, start piecing all of the chips together on the construction paper. Don't glue yet! You are just playing with the arrangement to see how you like it the best. If need be, trim down the paint chips further to fit the design you are creating.

6. Once you decide on a design, start gluing the chips down on the construction paper. And finally, glue your picture in the center of the design.

Tips & Warnings

• If you don't have enough paint chips to frame something and are into scrapbooking, save the paint chips for a layout. Paint chips always come on the best quality of paper and will be a great addition to a layout.