How well do you understand your inks?
As a new designer with Imagine Crafts, I’m being introduced to some ink product lines that I’m not familiar with. I find that the best way to “get to know” my inks is by swatching them both as stamped swatches and watercolored swatches.
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Start with a Standard Process
I think the best way to make sure you consistently swatch out your inks is to have a standard process in place. My process has two steps.
- I swatch inks and watercolors AS. SOON. AS. I. GET. THEM. I mean, before I even put them away with their other cohorts. If I put the ink away, I’ll forget and then I won’t have the swatch when I’m looking for it. I really hate having to stop in the middle of a project because I don’t know what a color looks like or how it behaves.
- My swatch cards are uniform and consistent. I use the Waffle Flower Color Swatches stamp set and Color Swatches for Ink Pads stamp set, to make sure that all of my swatch cards are exactly the same. I also use the same cardstock – Neenah Solar White 80lb for the stamped ones and Strathmore 140lb Cold Press watercolor card for the watercolor ones. They are all the same size – 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″. And, I always ink up the swatch card blanks using Versafine Clair in Nocturne.
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Swatching all the colors
The actual process of swatching is better left to a video! I’ll show you how I stamp the swatch blanks, then, how I go through all of the stamping, watercoloring and testing.
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Let’s get organized!
If you have lots of inks, yes, this might take some time. So, I suggest just taking a few at a time and before you know it you’ll be all caught up with your swatches!
Once you have them, you’ll find that you reach for the swatches before you pull out any inks because it’s easier to match the swatches and just pull out what you need. Instead of grabbing all sorts of stuff and hoping that you have something that will work, you’ll save time deciding and more time actually crafting!
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Great process. I have swatched my inks but not watercolored, I actually have never used them for watercoloring yet, need to give it a try.
Very good video on the process. I like the idea of having the colors available to see and tested out.
I need to buy that stamp set and get my inks and markers swatched. I need to do before festval season starts for us. Thanks for sharing this great organizing technique. Blessings to you and your family.
This could really come in handy! I have quite a mixture of ink types so the swatches would be a great tool.
Thanks for sharing how you do this–very helpful.