Waffle Flower swatching tools

[paddlegal]

Today while I was driving from one grocery store to another (3) because no one single store ever has everything I want, I used the driving time to consider our above discussion. I initially thought that I could certainly design a collection of squares and divided rectangles on my KNK to recreate, print and cut what Waffle Flower is showing. But then I realized that I will want to use different kinds of card stock depending on inks and technique swatches I want to record and investigate. My printer will not handle water color paper nor my favorite Catherine Pooler smooth card stock I like for blending so that kind of put the end to that idea to a degree.

So then I got excited as to how I would categorize, file and store these swatches I “may” end up making. I have the hole punch that creates pages for disk binding. This way I can remove and insert pages however I need to.

Loving this discussion.

[Debbie J]

You know you want to!

[Monica]

You know you want to!

Enabler!

[Monica]

Oooohhhh... good thoughts, Farley! I don't have the disc binding punch, but I do have the TH punch sized for his little books and a couple empty ones that I could potentially use. Thanks for the idea!!

[mpizzazz]

Today while I was driving from one grocery store to another (3) because no one single store ever has everything I want, I used the driving time to consider our above discussion. I initially thought that I could certainly design a collection of squares and divided rectangles on my KNK to recreate, print and cut what Waffle Flower is showing. But then I realized that I will want to use different kinds of card stock depending on inks and technique swatches I want to record and investigate. My printer will not handle water color paper nor my favorite Catherine Pooler smooth card stock I like for blending so that kind of put the end to that idea to a degree.

So then I got excited as to how I would categorize, file and store these swatches I “may” end up making. I have the hole punch that creates pages for disk binding. This way I can remove and insert pages however I need to.

Loving this discussion.

That is a really good point to use the card stock that you normally use for various techniques. It makes a huge difference!

[paddlegal]

Today while I was driving from one grocery store to another (3) because no one single store ever has everything I want, I used the driving time to consider our above discussion. I initially thought that I could certainly design a collection of squares and divided rectangles on my KNK to recreate, print and cut what Waffle Flower is showing. But then I realized that I will want to use different kinds of card stock depending on inks and technique swatches I want to record and investigate. My printer will not handle water color paper nor my favorite Catherine Pooler smooth card stock I like for blending so that kind of put the end to that idea to a degree.

So then I got excited as to how I would categorize, file and store these swatches I “may” end up making. I have the hole punch that creates pages for disk binding. This way I can remove and insert pages however I need to.

Loving this discussion.

That is a really good point to use the card stock that you normally use for various techniques. It makes a huge difference!

Marianne, it really does make a difference. I looked at my swatch tags I made when I first started collecting CP Inks. I used Bristol card stock which is great stuff but not for blending or watercoloring if you're using a lot of water. The colors stamp differently on different papers and I don’t particularly like how those colors turned out. I have plenty of the appropriate card stock to use for this so it’s just a matter of figuring out what Swatch Stamps would work best. I really don’t need a pile of them. Just one or two sets to play with and catalog my colors and techniques.

See...rationalizing.

[Keitha]

I love my swatch book, created a couple years ago. I made my book using the disc system so the pages are easy to add/pull out/move around. Have to credit Diana Trout with the idea which I first saw on her YouTube channel in June of 2016. She also said for the best/most accurate results to use the type of paper you'll typically use the media on. As my initial plan was to swatch my watercolour paints that made perfect sense to me. Since then I have swatched a number of my TH Distress products: inks, oxide inks, stains, markers, Stickles; Dylusions sprays, other ink pads, pencil crayons, pigment powders (Brushos and Color Burst), alcohol inks and Vintaj patinas - I laminated the sheets for those as you typically use them on non-porous surfaces. The book is also a great place to keep Daniel Smith dot cards if you have those. My plan is to eventually swatch all my colour media.

Monica, I hope you'll forgive me for chuckling over your stamp dedicated to swatching. When I'm swatching inks I look for something in my collection that's a fairly solid image and fits in the box on the page - and depending on how many different colours of a product I have, the boxes are different sizes. It amuses me when I flip through my swatch book to see the different stamps: a pinecone here, a feather there, vintage record player somewhere else. I feel particularly accomplished if it's a stamp I haven't used for anything else.

Ironically, I haven't yet swatched my watercolours. I watched several videos by various people who had all done something a bit different, and I couldn't decide exactly how I wanted to do mine: by brand or colour, what info to include (pigment numbers, lightfastness rating, etc) all on one page or on separate swatch cards. Then about a year ago I happened upon an earlier release of Waffle Flower swatch stamps and dies and deciding I'd do them on separate baseball-sized cards which could go in pocket pages in my swatch book, bought the appropriate stamp and die. That way I can pull all my greens, for example, if I want a side-by-side comparison, or pull various cards and line them up together to decide on colour combinations. Plus, I can move the cards around if I add additional paints, and still keep the colour families together. I also bought the Waffle Flower colour wheel stamp and die, which I think will prove useful for various palettes.

I started to watch the video Monica posted, but right away knew that newest WF system didn't fit my 'kiss' method (keep it simple, silly) so didn't watch all of it. I'm not OCD enough to spend the time creating all those combination cards nor do I think I'd use them after - although they're sure pretty to look at in her video.

[Monica]

I'm in envy over your swatch book just reading that, Keitha! And I totally agree about using the same papers you'd craft with to get an accurate swatch. The combination cards are similar (although a lot more tidy) to something I used to do ages ago when playing with things. If I found a combo I liked I'd swatch it and note what I had used. And that's really what I intend to take from that part of the video.

I've got half a dozen empty TH books, the two ring binder ones like he uses to store tags, that I'm going to dedicate to this project. I've already got the tags that fit and I have the hole punch to add them in. And it'll be a really easy way to update and not worry about shuffling things around much.

We'll see how I actually do once I get started with it, but I'm really looking forward to getting things swatched now that I've purged and eliminated some stuff.

[paddlegal]

Keitha I am so impressed at all you’ve swatched to date and your plans for more. After my recent purge which included inks, I feel like I have a reasonable amount to work with and swatch. Right now I am only interested in swatching my Oxides and CP inks plus a few oddball ones including my blacks.

I too plan to use my disc binding system to record my inks using appropriate papers. My biggest stumbling block is choosing how I sample them. Waffle Flower’s stamps or something else. But I do like the divided stamps allowing some blending or color combos.

[Monica]

Got my order today! And it makes my little OCD swatching self giddy. I'm not using any of it until I finish the trip I've been scrapping though, because I've been making great progress on it and I'm over halfway finished!