Color Me Happy

There's this happiness most of us had as kids. The brand new box of crayons. Crisp edges. Sliding the top open. Peeking in at all of the perfectly formed, smooth waxy edges. The moment of decision. Where do you start? Which would be first? Later, the same joy with colored pencils and markers. A blank piece of paper and a whole box of amazingness waiting to happen.

In my grownup crafty world, I love to have choices. I love thread assortments, needle assortments, felt assortments, paint assortments, marker assortments, a full spectrum in my fabric stash. You get the idea. I'm hooked on the idea that an artist needs a full palette at hand. 

But recently I've found something else that makes me happy, and it's less of an investment. Color charts. I have three different kinds to share today.

It started when I wanted a specific color of heat transfer material. I usually buy heat transfer vinyl from Expressions Vinyl, and after I was already a customer we became affiliates. I chose to go there first because they make it easy to put together an assortment of colors to have on hand and not spend a fortune to do it. Some time last year I was on the hunt for a silver color that they didn't have (they do now, though) and I found this piece of lovely. 

 

Inside there are swatches of all of the regular heat transfer colors...

And then colors for specialty applications, like on sport fabrics. Or glitter material.

Shinier than average options. Some with texture.

And metallics and flocked vinyl. I used some of the metallic silver on a shirt for a 40th birthday party. The birthday boy was hard to miss.

The next chart became a necessity as I began to work on Spoonflower projects. So far the only project that's seen the light of internet world is the A to Z I Spy labels, but there are a number more in the works. Having a range of printed color samples available is critical, because the printed colors can be very, very, very different from their on-screen appearance. I had started with the small color guide you see on my magnet board here, but the full yard version is a lot more helpful. And so so so much cooler. So cool that after shuffling it from computer to work space and back 47 times I decided it should just hang above my fireplace. It's form and function. It's also directly behind me when I'm on Skype. A friend asked whether it was tile? Yes, sort of. 

It's easy to get distracted by it when I have coffee in the morning. Or any time I walk past it, really.

Each little square has the 6 hexadecimal characters underneath it that I need to match it in the digital file. Dizzying, yet infinitely helpful.

Last but not least, a Kona Color Chart. I've been coveting them for a long time, and I remember the whole Sunday School "thou shalt not covet" thing quite well. (The solution was to get on the internet and order your own, right? No?) 

It's as delicious as I hoped it would be. Well, not the cover. The cover is super boring.

But the inside is Candyland for crafty adults. I was going to say "for adults". But that has a whole different connotation.

Not even sure what to say about it. I get lost in it.

So far I've resisted the urge to buy one of the mega sets of fabric that has all of these colors in it, 'cause for me that would be crazy-over-the-top, but for selecting solids to match prints you already have, it's fantastic.

I have to hide this from my children.

There are a few things a crafty mom just doesn't have to share.

That was a whole lot of crafty nerdiness. Of these three charts, I can't even pick a favorite! Although I guess you could say that the Spoonflower chart wins just by having become a semi-permanent installation. There's one more chart I'll show you during Skirt Week. I'm saving it. Anything come to mind for you as far as color charts? I really want to hear about it.