Friday 3 March 2017

New toys, part 2

I wrote last Friday about the new Zig Clear Colour Brush Markers I got recently - here's some tips about them.

Before I began, I looked at the whole raft of 48 Markers sitting in their box and wondered how to identify the colours. They're stored with the brush and almost clear cap upwards and the plastic colour 'guide' is on the other end. Useful and quite an accurate colour match, but I didn't want to have to tip all the pens out in search of particular colours.

This is my solution, quite similar to how I also marked my Pro Markers, except that I could use little round ready made sticky dots with the alcohol inks, the Zigs were too wet and meant that the 'sticky' was lost.

First of all I wanted a colour swatch - I split mine up onto two 4.25" x 5.5" pieces of TH Distress Watercolour cardstock so they'll slot into the Zig box:
Here they are, side by side. 'Scuse dreadful writing, I had a plastered up finger at the time. Hint, I was wise enough to write in pencil, and did have to rub out a couple of mistakes along the way. I kept the markers in the same 'running order as they're stored in the box' BTW. One other tip I'd offer is to leave a few spare slots as I have - for example, Loll says that the red marker blends out to a pinkish colour, so I'll likely be looking for the dark red marker at some point.

One thing you will surely spot is the load of browns and greys in the set - too many I suspect. But, it seems to often be the way that sets of markers are sort of 'padded out' and the 48 marker set did work out at great value against buying the markers separately!

At the same time as I was colouring the swatch, I also did this:
Scribbled little squares of colour, which you can see on the right. Then, using a normal office filing single hole punch I punched each colour out and popped the coloured dot on top of each pen using glue (I used Collall All Purpose glue and it worked fine, my other option would have been Glossy Accents or similar - no doubt you have your own favourites).

And this was the result - half way through, and I just plodded on and did one row at a time:
I'm sure others will already have thought of this solution but thought it worth sharing anyhow :)

So far, so great with the markers! And I now wonder what took me so long to get them of course.





27 comments:

  1. Great ideas, I've resisted these so far but I'm waivering lol. The card with the holes could be used for colour matching to paper as you can see the paper through it and check it matches. Hugs, Amanda x

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  2. Very clever idea. I don't have that many, but the colors on the ends will still be helpful. Now to get myself to take time & do it--haha!

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  3. Top tips! Thanks sharing xxx

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  4. Oh, you are really a clever girl!! Love the idea of the punched circles on the markers, I have to do this for my alcohol markers, because their cicles on the top don't show the exact colour! Thanks for sharing your tricks!

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  5. Great idea Di, especially the colour dot on the top of the pen, ingenious! xx

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  6. What a great idea, especially the dot on the pen top. Must have taken you ages.

    Sue xx

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  7. Clever idea with the spots. Fortunately my Le Plume II's come wih a coloured top which does match the colour inside. As with my meeces feet Collall sticks the stand back on my cake plate too. (Ask me how I know!!).
    Hugs Me.

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    1. Is someone trying to wreck your place? ;)

      Hugs

      Di xx

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  8. Lucky you having all those lovely pens and so beautifully organised too

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  9. Great job, Di! I just repackaged and labeled all of my dies, and they fit into a small basket on my desk so I can thumb through and pick what I want. These projects make our lives so much easier!

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  10. Well they look fabulous and a great job with the charts and tops for the brushes, may have been a bit of a pain but will certainly make life easier in the future.

    Kath x

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  11. Great idea Di. I've just got mine from Amazon - half the price they were at the Make It Show! But haven't really had time to play with them☹️

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    1. Deffo. Amazon was the best deal I found!

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  12. Hi Di. Lucky you with new toys to play with. 🎉 I love my Zigs. I started to do the dot labelling like you, but it took too long, so I just flipped my markers and store them "upside down" with the coloured plastic bottom end facing up. It's not as accurate as your chart, but I was too lazy. 😂

    Trina xo

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    1. Oopsie Trina, I read that they should be stored with the brush upwards. x

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  13. Fabulous tips! I will look back at them if I am ever lucky enough to get some Zigs! One day for sure! Hugs. xxx

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  14. What a great idea Di and will make selecting the relevant colours so much easier. x

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  15. Aaaah you are so super organised and a clever idea too.

    Thanks for your kind words hun, i just need to be away from Blogland at the moment, as i've been very hurt, i'm on facebook Samantha Alpine, i will post my cards there or my e-mail address is samalpine@yahoo.co.uk, Luv Sam x

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  16. Hi Di, lucky you having all those lovely new pens to play with. So many lovely colours to play with! I do think they're going to be popular. How organised you are. Wishing you lots of fun with them. Thanks for your visit. I'm playing catch up again as I was out yesterday and again today! Barbxx

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  17. Great job with organizing the colors Di! I only got the 36 box of them, I am totally in love with them. I turned mine markers over so that the colored end faced up in the box so I could find the color I wanted. I need to do a chart like you did and the same marker water colored a bit! Great ideas! Have fun with your new goodies my friend!!! Hugs, Brenda

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  18. Very clever ideas, I'll make something similar with my Marker pens too :)


    Love and hugs
    Maarit

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  19. I have same marking system with my markers. They are on a shelf (boyish colors on one side and girlish on one) and topped on one another. Having marks on the caps helps choosing the colors I want to use. I also have a printed color palette of all colors I own.

    Hugs,
    Eemeli

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  20. Great tips Di, I'd love to get my paws on a set of those markers, they look fab!
    PS your writing with a plastered finger is still better than mine ;)

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  21. Brilliant organizing. You always have such great ideas. Thank you for sharing with us.

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