This is a guest post by rockstarkate.

In this tutorial rockstarkate combines the use of COLOURlovers Palette Tools (COPASO, PHOTOCOPA, COLOR PICKER) and Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator to create multiwidth Palettes blends. It is also possible to do this with other graphic apps such as Gimp, Painter & Corel.

Using Photoshop

Short Version

1.) find the two palettes you want to use and arrange them in photoshop with one on the top and one on the bottom. put them both on the same layer with space in between.
2.) make a selection for the first blend. There are several ways you could do this. I use the Magic Wand tool on the two rectangles of color then the Polygonal Lasso tool to add the connection.
3.) select one color as your foreground color and the other as your background color.
4.) make a new layer and fill the selection with a gradient of your two colors.
5.) repeat, placing each blend on its own layer.
6.) I can't seem to make a perfect selection and there is space inbetween each blend. I select each layer and nudge it to the left until the space is gone.
7.) Voila! That was easy, wasn't it?

Long Version

1.) find the two palettes you want to use and arrange them in photoshop with one on the top and one on the bottom. put them both on the same layer with space in between.

2.) make a selection for the first blend. There are several ways you could do this. I use the Magic Wand tool on the two rectangles of color then the Polygonal Lasso tool to add the connection.

With three groups dedicated to the topic, Food has been wetting the color lover's palette [sic], well, probably ever since we first got hungry. And with that time of year (the holidays) upon us; the one when everyone claims to be going back on "the diet" right after the next meal, we thought it would be a good idea to check out some palettes from the COLOURlovers groups Yummy Colours, foodiediles and Eat It Up.

Eat It Up

To all the food that didn't get eaten the first time around: colors, palettes and patterns inspired by leftovers.

Palettes

Spice inspired palettes and patterns from the COLOURlovers' Group Spices.

Colors & Palettes about Cinnamon, Pepper, Soy Sauce, Wasabi, Curry, Tamarind, Juniper, Anise, Lavender, Laurel, Nutmeg, Mint, Vanilla, ... here we go!

Palettes

Palettes from the COLOURlovers' group Keywords.

Palettes Created by Keyword Searches

"Many people here make palettes by doing a word search. It's kind of fun because once you find the colours you have to find a way to put them together."

The colours are called: Work, working for a cheque, too much work, im working now, and day at work

Wanna make one? Go to the Colors tab, choose Search, type in the keyword of your choice, and make your masterpiece. :)

Already made one? Post it here, add it to our palettes!

We're all about finding ways to share the love... and we're excited to be working with our friends at Inkd to do exactly that. We've partnered with them to design some stationery kits inspired by some of the beautiful palettes from our community... And if you love a design but want to use your own palette, all the designs are fully customizable!

Each Kit includes a business card, letterhead and envelope in fully editable office stationary templates (both standard US and European sizes) in Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Word (for PC or MAC) and Apple iWork Pages file-types.

Wee! Inkd is extending a special discount for the launch of these new kits. Use the discount code "LOVERS25" for 25% off ANY Inkd product.

COLOURlovers Stationery Kits

We’re proud to have partnered with the amazing color community resource COLOURlovers to create the inaugural set of Stationery Kits just for Inkd!

This collection has been specifically designed to work easily with any of the over 1 million color palettes showcased on COLOURlovers. Colors in these designs can be quickly swapped to fit any industry look and feel.

View All 30 COLOURlovers Stationery Kits

Palettes from the COLOURlovers' group started by the beloved faded jeans: 2+2=5 Colour Palette Game.

Original format: Pick two of your favorite colors, any two that you've created and send them to a fellow CL'r. In return, they will do the same and send you two personal faves from their own collection of colors. Then each of you should create a palette of the four colors with the fifth color in the palette being your own personal choice.

NOTE: It's important that you send ONLY the 6 digit hex code for the color so that the actual colors aren't seen ahead of time, possibly influencing the choices made by the other person.

Second format: You choose two colours that are from THEIR collection of colours (colours created by them) and they choose two colours from your colour archives. Send each other the hex codes and proceed as above. Whatever format you choose, it's always easy, fun and sometimes a real challenge!

Oh and thanks to all of you that are having fun playing my game and sharing the love!

Thanks to Julee for the suggestion.

Today, in an effort to spread awareness and a better understanding of COLOURlovers, including practical ways to apply the tools and community knowledge on the site, we're highlighting the COLOURlovers group t3achers and the Forum Topic: Using COLOURLovers in the Classroom, where one member of this group, speakin_colors, shared her blog post (reposted below) with some ways she engages her students using COLOURlovers. Her ideas are shared by some like Klip who said, "I use COLOURlovers in my teaching all the time - mostly to get my (university aged new media design) students sensitised to colour combinations. Seeing how seriously many of the users of this forum take colours and colour combinations is usually a surprise to my students, and helps them to get used to the idea of spending time just playing with colour." While others suggested that it could be used for more technical training, that COLOURlovers  "could be useful for introducing them (to) RGB/HSV color schemes."

How to Use Colors & Palettes from COLOURlovers

Using Patterns in the Classroom

Students can be given patterns to colour. By teaching students the meaning of colours and how to use colour not at random but creatively, patterns can acquire powerful meaningful connotations.

Wow! What an honor.  It's so amazing how many of you have taken the time to share your color ideas & inspiration with us.  COLOURlovers continues to make me very proud to be part of such a great community.  Our 1,000,000th palette is a great milestone and we're excited and inspired to continue sharing the color love with you all.  You're all so awesome.

Some Color Palette Milestones...

#1	#1 (Community Palette)
#100	#10,000
#100,000	#1,000,000
#999,999	#1,000,001

But our 1,000,000 wouldn't have been possible without our 999,999th... and every palette that has been lovingly shared on this site.  Thank you all so much.

All 1,000,000 Color Palettes...

(Each pixel is a color strip in a palette) Click to see larger version.

Some Interesting Color Coincidences

One of my favorite things to watch is the interesting coincidences that pop up when you have people from all over the world naming colors and putting them in palettes.  Some fun stuff in there... go have a look and laugh.

What Do We Do With So Many Palettes?

Ok, so that's a lot of color... We're working hard on the code for Version 4 of COLOURlovers that will make it easier to find the color inspiration you're looking for, to share your color ideas with others and to make even more palettes.

Make Something Awesomely Colorful!

We have an API... Who knows what awesome stuff you might build with access to 1 million palettes.  Some things that have already been built:

Codename Cuttlefish by serostar

DekafLovers by VisualRinse

Pulse by Michael Mahemoff

Desktop Color Finder by Levi McCallum

Circle Growth 1 from Alex Stanciu on Vimeo

Your Palettes... Your Stories: Share Why You Create

In the comments below, share a bit of your story with us.  I'd love to hear your answers to these questions. (They might help us explain to new lovers just why this place is so great.)
Why do you create palettes?

What do you like about it?

If you use palettes from COLOURlovers, what for?

What makes COLOURlovers such a great creative community?

Thank you all so much.  I'm looking forward to the next million, 10 million... and every other colorful milestone we'll reach together.

+Darius (COLOURlover)

"For Anyone who loves to indulge in the rich variety of everything chocolate !!"

Palettes from the COLOURlovers' group CHOCOLATElovers.