Friday, October 9, 2015

Tools: Ink Color Charts

Have you ever noticed that the colors on lids of ink, caps of pens, and skins of colored pencils rarely match the color as it appears on paper?

Sure you have.

That's why we stampers need color charts. If you're really obsessive about organizing color swatches, check out Jennifer McGuire's ink swatch book. It's lovely and easy to update, and for someone like Jennifer, who's a professional stamper, I imagine keeping her swatch book current is critical.

If you're like me, however, and only play a stamper on the internet, you might be only mildly obsessive about organizing ink swatches in a useful way. My method might work for you. It's not as easy to update as Jennifer's, but it works pretty well and uses standard stuff you already have lying around: card stock, ring clips, and a standard hole punch.









A few things to note...

1. If I have the reinker for a color, I underline the color name.
2. These are organized as they are stored in my drawers...by color and ink type.
3. Colors are so pretty and make us happy!!!! Thank you, God, for color.
4. I have a LOT of dye inks and fast-drying pigment/chalk inks, but even so, there are gaps in some of the color collections. When oh when will someone come out with good Christmas green and darker oranges in fast-drying pigment ink formulas, or a pink dye ink that's neither too light nor too dark?

Recommendations?

The swatch collection also includes other inks on separate pages (Kaleidacolor, Brilliance, SU, etc.) as well as colored pencils, Copic/Sharpie/Bic markers, and watercolor pencils, but the charts pictured above were freshly re-stamped yesterday and today. I'd gotten rid of quite a few inks (mostly into the trash as the pads dried out and I chose not to replace them), so the old chart looked a mess.

My color-swatch booklet gets used every single time I sit down to craft. Every single time! So it's truly a useful tool in my stamping supply.

Feel free to share about your swatch method in the comments!


8 comments:

  1. Such a lovely collection of inks, Susan, and lovely well organised colour charts. Now I know what I'll be doing tomorrow, my inks will fill a paper.

    Love and hugs
    Maarit

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  2. I caved and made a Jennifer McGuire color swatch book. It is quite convenient.

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  3. Looks great, I like the way you did this without having to go out and buy special supplies other than the rings. Just wondered why you dont keep all colours together so you know what you have in particular colours all together. Is it because one type will not work well with the other or just cause you dont like to combine them? Just out of interest mind, not cause I'm nosey.

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  4. My color swatch system is pretty similar, but I use a smaller image and stamp it twice, the second time without reinking. It's surprising how often that lighter second impression matches the color that I want.

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  5. I was lucky with a pink ... When Hero Arts first came out with Passion Flower, it was supposed to be a lavender purple, but there was a batch that was pink. It's great as it's paler than Bubblegum.

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  6. I really need to do this for all my markers and ink pads. I have made one for my Inktense water color pencils..........they go brighter when activated with water.

    How long did it take you to get these all made???

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  7. I have done something similar for my copics (since i only have SU! ink pads), but have coloured in an outline circle stamp, written the number on and punched them out, then used re-positionable tape on the back, so i can re-organise them if i get a colour in between 2 i have already. Works well for me. Cheers, Juliet.

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  8. could you pop over and organise me please - I did start this with tags but havent updated for years ! oops - I also did it with the distress range but have now mislaid the sheets -lol - think this could be a job for January once all else for Christmas is sorted !
    debbie (scotland)

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!