Me and my pups hope you had a great Christmas, and got everything you wanted! — I certainly bought a few things for myself before Christmas… but I swear I waited until December 25th to unwrap. 😉
One of those things was the FULL 96-color dual brush pen set from Tombow — they’re awesome!
I also gave myself the handy desk stand that holds all my new pens.
But once I unpacked all the pens, I soon wondered how was I going to organize all the colors, to know where each pen went?
- Should I just add them randomly and hope for the best?
- Should keep them in some sort of pattern?
- If I keep them in certain places… how will I know where to put them back?
- How will I know exactly what color I’m choosing?
- Will I mix up the colors?
- How can I keep them as organized as possible? 🤔
I knew Tombow’s website already had a cool color wheel, so I could find the color names & corresponding pen numbers.
But I decided to take that wheel and make a printable grid Color Guide in the same order for all 96 colors.
You can download if for free below.
Now my grid matches up exactly to the desk case so you can see immediately which colors go where in the stand. Each pen has its own spot, so I know where to look when I need a certain color quickly.
I left the whole grid blank and added both the pen number and name in each square. I also added different color stickers to each corner of the desk stand AND the print-out to make sure the orientation matched up.
…then I started adding each colored pen, one by one, into their own little homes. 😇
I then grabbed each pen and “color-tested” the squares with their corresponding color.
Then, I added each to their spot in the desk stand until they were all put up!
Now not only did I have spots for each pen, I could easily see what the color looks like on the grid-sheet. YAY! 😆
I recorded a video (of course) to show the full process from start to finish. Once they’re all in their spots you shouldn’t have to do it again, and you’ll have a handy little reference guide to show you where to find certain colors!
Extra Tips
- I HIGHLY suggest super-gluing the desk stand together so it doesn’t fall apart when transporting. After getting the pens and putting them all in their spots, I added them to the carrying case and traveled to Atlanta. When I got there, the side bars in the case had almost all fallen out, and the pens were all shifted out of their spots! It was HARD to get it all back in place, and when I got back home, I immediately glued the desk stand together so that wouldn’t happen again!
- When adding the pens to their correct spots, “color-test” them by coloring the corresponding box. That way, you’ll know exactly what the pen looks like on paper when you’re wanting to select your colors. The pen caps don’t always look exactly like the colors do on paper. The color wheel from Tombow’s website helps with this too!
- If you don’t have the FULL set of 96 colors yet, but still want to organize your pens, you can buy the desk stand separately on Amazon or Tombow and add what colors you DO have. That way, you get an idea of which colors you have and don’t have and they still have their own space.
Don’t Forget Your Copy – Updated!
Tombow recently added 12 new colors (for a total of 108) to their brush pen collection, so I created an updated Color Guide you can also use.
If you want a copy of either Color Guide, you can download the free printable grids below.
Just be sure to tag me if you print and use this to help organize your pens ~ I’m @lifebywhitney everywhere!
If you’re wanting to print a smaller version for your A5 size journal – print your version at 60% (like what I did in the video).
👇 Let me know how YOU organize your pens in the comment section below! 👇
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Thank you so much for this!
Thank you so much for this grid. I don’t have all the colours yet but I am about to get the stand and this is awesome.
So many colours! 😍 And grid will be helpful to record collection. 😊
This helps me so much! Thank you!💓💓
Thai helps me so much! Thank you!💓💓
This is a life saver!! Thank you so much for sharing.
Brilliant!!!! Especially since it would be something I would do! 🙂