A Few of My Favorite Things...#3 Easy RGB

This is probably one of the coolest things that I have found so pay attention everyone! When I started recoloring digital paper, I found it so frustrating to find just the right color. The color that you see on the computer monitor often prints out looking different and then it doesn't look good with the other elements that you have put together. The patterned paper typically is the "binder" of a project. It is the thing that ties everything together. So because I was frustrated at losing so much paper and printer ink, I set out to find a way to match colors better. That is when I discovered easyRGB.com. What this site does is take commercial tints and gives you the RGB number and that funky 6 digit color number. First off what are commercial tints...well to be honest I don't really know, but I did recognize the names Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams as of course paint manufacturers.

So, I headed off to the paint store with a few samples of cardstock to match, and ended up finding quite a few matches. Some are exact matches and some are very close. I grabbed these paint samples and came back home and started putting in the RGB or 6 digit funky number in PSE8 and found that even if the match is close but not perfect it was good enough to me. The next time I was at Ace Hardware with my DH, I bought a Benjamin Moore fandeck. It cost $19.99, and now I have all the colors so I don't have to run to the store everytime I need to look up some color numbers.

Here is what the fandeck looks like... if you don't see it in the store ask someone, because most likely they have these somewhere!

Now for a sample of how to go about doing this. Grab a piece of paper that you want to match up and fan out your fandeck until you find a close color match. Please note that alot of times the colors you see in the fandeck may not look like a match because of the finish on them, so you really need to focus on the color itself and minimize the sheen that the paint chip shows you. That sheen I believe is the same reason why paint on the wall never looks the same as the paint chip. Here I have found a color match...

Now go to EasyRGB.com. On the home screen you are going to select "From Commercial Tints to RGB".

Next you are going to enter the Color Name or Color Number and then select from the drop down list the name of the collection you are looking at. For my example here I have entered Color Number 2074-20 and the Benjamin Moore Color Preview Collection.

Hit the Start Key and you get this screen. It lists my numbers as R- 122.66 G-62.04 B-98.86 and color code #7B3E63. Write these numbers down! If you watched my video tutorial from yesterday on how to recolor your digital paper you noticed that when you needed to select your new color it came up with a box with a slider bar that scrolled up and down all the colors of the rainbow. Next to that slider bar is a place to enter in your RGB numbers and your color code. Most photo editing software progams do not accept the deimal points so you would need to round up or down as necessary. If possible enter in that 6 digit color code instead.

Here are the results using that color example. I used a digital stamp (I believe it was from Digital2forTuesday, not sure if you recognize it as from somewhere else please let me know) and I recolored the stamp to that color. The stamp was printed on cream paper, here it is laying on top of the original cardstock.

I then took a digital paper (Lettering Delights - Chocolate collection) and recolored it to the same color so here are all three papers in one shot for you.

And here is it all put together, I inked the edges of the digital paper roughly to add a little contract using PTI Vintage Cream ink. The stamp image edges are inked with Tea Dye Distress Ink. The sentiment, the rustic twine, and the rustic wood button are all from Papertrey Ink.

On a different note, next Friday I will be attending the CHA Consumer Show and I plan on doing some videotaping while I am there. I am going to try to get into the Cricut booth and hopefully get a look at the new Imagine machine. If there is something that you would like to know about the Imagine machine or something else at CHA that you are interested in, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail and I will try to accomodate everyone.

The giveaway is still open, so check out this POST to enter to win!

Have a nice day everyone!