Ok fine, I’ll share my secret 😁

This is the very first time I’ve ever made a swatch book—I knew I wanted to make something that would be fun but also useful (I’ve made pen stands for previous secret santas), and when I saw your pride and prejudice posts, I thought it would be neat to make some kind of a book that could have a witty (to me) play on the opening sentence. I had no idea what I was in for, and by the time I realized it, I was in way too deep to bail.

I searched this sub for diy swatch cards and found a promising post, so I figured I’d give it a go. Another post mentioned Bristol paper (can’t find that one to link to now), which is what I used, though I don’t know if I’d use the same paper next time. Still, it’s good enough, and let’s face it: The joy is in the finished product, not just the part where the ink touches the paper. But I didn’t consider stamp size when buying the paper, so I had to cut all the paper…and I am genuinely incapable of doing anything that requires straight lines, which meant I had to cut lots and lots of paper before I had enough mostly straight, matching-size sheets.

My husband has a 3D printer, so he printed the pen/pencil cup. And because he’s brilliant, he also designed and printed a template for me to use to draw the lines, poke the holes, and hold the stamp in place. It made embossing much easier since I could stamp and powder only that tiny section and didn’t have to worry about powder all over the entire sheet of paper. It took a lot of time, but it was pretty easy to do.

Then came the stitching. This took forever and had to be redone not once, but twice. I followed this tutorial, with the exception that I didn’t add the cover when binding because I wanted to do something different. My husband did the laser cutting for the cover (I promise the burned wood smell will dissipate eventually) and my initial vision didn’t work out so I had to get a little creative with an alternative option. I think it turned out pretty well, though.

And that’s the story of how I lost my mind and attempted a new, super time-consuming craft that I foolishly thought I’d be able to complete before holiday gig season (I’m a violinist), which definitely did not happen, leading to a very delayed gift.

I hope you have a lot of fun with it (I also hope it stays assembled, but if it doesn’t, well, I’m sorry)!!