Try saying "patriotic paint chip place cards" five times fast. Whew, it might be a mouthful to say, but they're a snap to make. This project started...well, to be honest, just this morning...as I know we're hosting a small informal shindig tomorrow at our house to celebrate the 4th of July. My goal was simple -- add a special festive flair to the occasion in a quick and easy way. Yesterday I got to thinking about what craft project I could pull off quickly, inexpensively, and using supplies I already had on hand or could freely acquire.

I recently had an idea to use paint chips for various patriotic flair. Though I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to use them, when Alex made a trip to our local big box that will not be named (to protect the "innocent") just last night, I sent him with a seemingly simple task, "Bring back red, white, and blue paint chips...and lots of them."

Now let me give you a little insight on Alex's personality. He takes instructions well, but he's extremely literal. He's also very conflict avoidant, and he hates doing things that one may deem "inappropriate." My simple instructions put many of of Alex's personality traits at odds. To Alex, "boosting" copious amounts of paint chips from a hardware store for purposes other than using them to select paint colors for a room is, well, disingenuous. To me, it's a creative use of a freely available supply. So we'll go ahead and agree to disagree on this one.

Alex marched into the big box, picked up the supplies he needed, then walked over to the paint aisle and apparently began taking just about every suitable red, white, and blue paint chip they had to offer. As I said, Alex takes instructions well and literally. When I said "lots of them," the failure to stipulate an upper limit on said paint chip quantities produced some conflict within his brain. "Lots" somehow translated to "ALL" in his mind, and he did not want to disappoint. 

Feeling he was bending the unwritten paint chip etiquette laws of big box land a little too far, Alex opted to use the self checkout so his burden would not be put on display, however, this plan backfired. When he reached the end of the checkout process, he dropped the honking load of paint chip samples into the bag, which was quickly followed by "an unexpected item has been placed in the bagging area" announcement from the feminine robotic voice. 

Oh the horror! The paint chips had weighed too much, Alex had been outed as a thief of free things, and he was being openly chastised by the vindictive machine. Panicking, he removed the bag from the platform and placed it in the cart, but that only prompted the warning that "Items have been unexpectedly removed from the bagging area!" The jig was up! A cashier came over to assist the petty paint chip thief, punching in the employee code to allow him to proceed. As part of the process, the cashier glanced down in the bag, looked at the pilfered patriotic Pantones and pressed, "Lot of paint chips there...doing a lot of painting?"