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Thursday, July 18, 2013

DIY watercolor palette

I am thrilled to share a guest post from watercolorist Gina Lee Kim. Gina attended my You, Me & the Sea Retreat back in April and she is such a delightful person and talented artist! I was so inspired by her DIY watercolor palette that she brought to class, that I asked her to share her process with my readers! Enjoy!

My DIY Travel PalettePeople ask me all the time where I purchased my tiny watercolor palette. I made it myself! Here I am, mid-flight, painting color swatches into my journal. I was on my way to an Alisa Burke retreat!

My DIY Travel Palette
As you can see, I own a lot of watercolor palettes!! Can't take them all; bigger ones must stay home.


My DIY Travel PaletteThere are many watercolor travel palettes on the market today. These two are from Winsor & Newton.



My DIY Travel Palette
Many travelers use an empty Altoid tin as a clever, compact watercolor palette. I wanted to go even lighter and was happy to find a thin plastic storage case already in my stash (bought years ago at a scrapbook craft store in England).


My DIY Travel Palette
Danielsmith.com sells empty full-pan and half-pans that can be filled with tube watercolors. I was careful to squeeze out the pigments I wanted and let everything air-dry overnight on a flat surface.

My DIY Travel Palette
Tip: anchor all your pans with a touch of rubber cement to prevent them from falling out.

My DIY Travel Palette
I made a tiny color swatch on watercolor paper, cut it to size, and then laminated it.


My DIY Travel Palette
Don't forget to make a tiny pull-tab with transparent tape.

  1. My DIY Travel Palette

    My DIY Travel Palette
    Laminating my mini color swatch functions as a perfect divider or barrier between the watercolors and travel rag (I use a simple dish towel).


    My DIY Travel Palette
     I decided to take out one of the slots to hold a tiny sea sponge.

    My DIY Travel Palette

    My DIY Travel Palette

    My DIY Travel Palette
    At the airport with my trusty tools, waiting for my flight home. :)



    Gina Lee Kim is a watercolorist that fell in love with mixed-media. She is an art journaler, pen hoarder, paper addict, a registered nurse, and a new mom. Gina's artwork was recently published in Cloth Paper Scissors PAGES magazine (Summer 2013, Vol. 3 issue).
    You can view Gina's work at: ginaleekim@blogspot.com

30 comments:

  1. I love this post and I loved the pictures that Gina shared after the retreat. I think there is a mistake with her blog address.

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  2. I thank you for the info nice and very useful

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  3. Anonymous3:06 AM

    Great idea! I often struggle with the watercolour palletes which you can buy as the selections of colours in them aren't always the ones I use most, so this is a great idea for putting together a custom one :)

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  4. Great post! love this idea and so useful!

    Barnicles xx

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  5. This is a wonderful idea for having a custom set of your most used colors. I love that it is so tiny for travel.

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  6. Love this! Thanks for sharing this with us!

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  7. This is a wonderful idea! Thanks for sharing!

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  8. Love this idea!!! Thank you for sharing.

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  9. I LOVE this idea!!! It's great to be able to choose your own color palette from your stash! Thanks for sharing!

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  10. so ingenuous! Thanks for sharing!

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  11. Love this. A great way to have exactly the paint colors you use the most often and so nice to make a small travel size.

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  12. Oh my god this is SO COOL!
    I love it!!!

    I have to make one of these for my sister!

    Thank you for Sharing it :)

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  13. Well, who knew? Super cool.

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  14. This was a great post. Such a good idea! Thank you both!

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  15. I have been thinking of making something like this in an altoid tin, but I love yours much better. Thanks for sharing this.

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  16. Thank you for sharing this:)!What an absolutely awesome idea:)!!!

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  17. Wow. This was such a beautiful post.
    Thank you Alisa and Gina Lee Kim.

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  18. Love this post and you 2 lovely wellsprings of creativity!!

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  19. Such a great mini palette! And thank you so much for sharing the resources. I'm always taking an entire tote of waaay too many supplies and use a fraction, so this will really help me downscale when traveling:0

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  20. amazing. thank you for sharing!

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  21. Thank you both for sharing this great idea! I love it . . .

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  22. I really love this - in particular the swatch that doubles as a barrier. Thank you soi much for sharing both of you :)

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  23. That was a blog post to adore! Thank you! :-)

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  24. Love this post! Would Gina mind posting the watercolors she put in her palette?

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  25. This is a fabulous idea....thank you for sharing.

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  26. Loved this post so much I had to make myself a watercolor journal (http://craftsparklepop.blogspot.com/2013/08/handmade-watercolor-journal.html). I haven't gotten to the travel palate yet! I love your posts and now follow Gina as well. Thanks for sharing your awesomeness!
    Ashlee

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  27. Love this idea. But I'm wondering does the paint get harden? I don't mind that. Like I said I'm wondering, that all.

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  28. I love your home made travel watercolor pallet. You truly inspire

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  29. I love this post and I loved the pictures, thanks for showing

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