How many colors do YOU 'need'?

[Looser]

As a bunch of really creative & crafty folk, we deal with color on a regular basis.

We load our stamps with inks/paints & go even farther when we add BGs to the mix!

So here's the 'lead-off' question for this chat...

Regardless of the stamping surface, what colors are 'required' in your stash for loading (not coloring-in) an image?

For me? My 'load' colors are black, blue & green.

Looking forward to you posts!

[howdyheidi]

I need a rainbow of colors plus brown and black and grey.

Most used are black, brown, blue and green, grey, pink/red. 

I like having several blues and several greens. 

[lovepug2]

I MUST HAVE THEM ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just kidding. Sort of  .

I use lots of blues, greens, pinks and surprisingly purple. Those are the colors I replenish the most.
Next up would be orange. Coincidently, those are some of my favorite colors to wear as well.

I'm always on the quest for a rich true blue color and a bold but not bright pink ink.

You didn't ask this but are there any colors you tend to avoid?
I don't work a ton with yellows. And I find red kind of hard to work with unless it's for Christmas cards.   

[djc]

Black, Brown (Sepia), Green

I also like Adirondack Denim Blue for stamping something I don't plan to color.
And then there's the absolutely essential non-color:  VersaMark.

Daria

[howdyheidi]

Yes, least used is yellow and orange and I think that has to do with them not having a lot of contrast to the usually white/off white paper. 

[Looser]

Given the posts so far, it looks like this is a good chat topic. Thanx for all the great/fun feedback.

I left 'brown' out of my loading 'needs'. Silly me! Please add it to my list.

OK! Now that this chat is on its way... Do your 'need'-for-loading stamp colors change depending on anything?

For 'extra credit'  Do you ever load a stamp with more than one ink/paint/etc.? Outline/detail? Solid?

Gonna ask that posters don't 'jump the gun' & post about their 'image coloring' choices. OK?

[yellowcherrios]

For stamping an image, I mainly use black...and ...black.... wow!  I really need to experiment with stamping images in a different color other than black!!     I always thought I'd use brown to stamp images, but I haven't done that too often.

Now I am really curious if I really do stamp black always...I'm going to go back over my projects to see! 

Oh and I do know I use Versamark a lot...I forget about using pigment inks for embossing images and always go to Versamark.

Forgot about the other questions...  lol....

I'm thinking right now I always use black despite the image---that doesn't seem to change the color choice...

as far as loading more than one ink on a stamp---  I do sometimes color one part of the image with one stamp color and the other side of the stamp with another color.  But as far as loading colors OVER each other on the stamp, I don't b/c it might contaminate my pad  and I always figured that the LAST color added to the stamp would be the ONLY color to stamp, thus kinda "deleting" the first color you put on the stamp---or vice versa, the FIRST color you inked on would be the one you'd see and not the last one....if all that made sense....   

[howdyheidi]

Versamark is an excellent point.

Two colors?  Look no further than Stampwilly's Oldies challenge for Rock n Roll.  I have done that a lot! 

More detailed than Rock n Roll I would use markers so that might not count here if we are talking about ink pads.

I am more likely to use colors (as in color wheel colors) when I use a chunky stamp. Much less likely with a detailed line image.  However, doing blue, like Daria suggested, or sepia for some of the detailed line images makes it interesting enough that you don't color it in then.  KWIM?

[Craft Nerd]

My needs for ink color depends on the type of stamp.  For detail stamps/ images I plan to color, my needs are black and brown/sepia. I don't tend to stamp something I plan to color in anything other than black or brown.

For solid stamps or something I don't plan to color, I probably think I need more colors than I actually do.    But my usual go tos depend on the season.  Spring I'm more likely to need blues, greens and purples and on occasion pink.  In the fall I need orange.  And at Christmas it tends to be greens, reds and blues. 

And of course, I could not do without my Versamark and a good white ink pad comes in handy now and then. 

[And as a random aside, am I the only amused by the fact that the first "correct" spelling that spell check offers for Versamark is Bismark?]

[Looser]

Lots of fun input! Yeah, markers certainly qualify, as do paints (all sorts).  LOL on the black, Melissa. I load mostly with black. Brown is my runner-up followed by blue. Once in a huge while I'll load with red, green, etc. And I should note that most of the stamps I'm using are 'detail' ones rather than 'solids'.

With the solids, I more apt to load with other colors--unless I'm going for a silhouette look.

OK. Now for the meat & taters question... When coloring in a stamped images, how many colors do you NEED? 

Like most of us, I 'need' every color, but I find that I don't need all the colors to be inks-only. That said, I certainly have a good range of different colored inks--especially Distress & StazOn ones. Plus several just dye inks--most of which I've had for years. Markers are another way for me to get the most diversity for my $ And (like crayons), I can use them to 'make' colors. By layering & blending, I can start with one color & make a deeper version by swiping it with another marker or crayon. Crayons work really well with this. And by layering white on a base color, I can lighten as well as darken.

Once in awhile, I use (liquid) paint to color in a stamped image. 

[howdyheidi]

For coloring, I happen to have a pretty complete set of water based markers at this time.

However, I typically color flowers, so I really need a variety of greens and then some colors that flowers are. 

While on this subject, I have noticed that when all these companies are coming out with their own lines of ink, they don't always have the color wheel, but often have a variety of greens, browns and neutrals and then colors that seem to work for the type of stamps (flowers, cute little animals, etc.)

As for the Distress inks, I do not feel I need even close to all of them because they blend so nicely together to mix new colors. 

[lovepug2]

I think I might be a coloring addict . I have a good selection of markers, colored pencils, watercolor markers and crayons. And I would love to add some more to my arsenal but I'm trying to be good and refrain .
I like and feel like I "need" to have a good selection of colors to use.

And as far as inks go, I like having at least 2 different shades of each color for stamping.

Hmm, lots of challenge ideas could come off of this thread

[yellowcherrios]

I ~like~ having lots of color options (and media) to choose from when I color images---but what do I NEED...hmm.....I'd say probably a blue, green, and brown....those are what I buy if I am trying out a product b/c I know I'll use those 3 for sure even if I don't like the product.

But I do have to say that when I first started coloring images, I bought some stamping markers that were a basic rainbow set---red, orange, yellow, etc..... and I thought Id use them to color in stamps and to color ON stamps.  Well I didn't really used them much.  THEN I bought a set of Mementos markers, which I was hesitant to buy b/c they were all different shades of green, but I used that set all the time! So I bought another set or two of Mementos markers.  That's when I noticed, that for me, having shades of certain colors really helps me use those color in stamping and coloring images.  I still need blues (and I still an thinking of getting Mementos blue marker set) and greens.....

Daneil, I need to get myself more comfortable with stamping with other colors other than black, b/c I have ram across a beautiful navy blue once (cannot remember what brand, but I think it was a dye ink) and I really think navy would be nice to stamp images in.  Yes, I too am seeing challenges form before my eyes.   

[CarefreeSadie]

I'm kind of late to this discussion but I will answer the original question anyway.  For stamping I seem to use black, brown, or grey.  If I am coloring in the image those are the three colors I use.  But to add the sentiment I use whatever color ink that matches something in the background or the colored image I am using.  Sometimes I use the same medium for the sentiment as what I used to color in the image.  I consider the black, brown, and grey to be neutrals which will be easy to color next to, around, or over. 

So those who use blue or green or some other color to stamp an image do you color that image using those shades that match what you stamped the outline with?

[howdyheidi]

http://www.duhnproductions.com/Pics/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pid=1012#top_display_media

In my lily of the valley card, it made sense to try stamping in green and coloring in with a different green.  I have stamped this in black plenty of times, but green really works!

That is just one example.