It not a widely kept secret that I am a bit of a geek. Even my dear mini-me niece has been know to call me a scrapbooking geek. And in truth, I did have a bit of a breakdown several months ago when the site that collected my blogging stats freaked out, leaving me with no way to "get my nerd on". So this new little lovely has made me a very happy camper.
I like to keep up on scrapbooking news on Scrapbook Update where I came across at great post about Big Huge Labs Palette Generator. It is easy to use and pretty darn cool. Basically, you either upload a picture from your computer, or after granting permission to access your Flicker account. You can also use Photobucket with it, but I don't use Photobucket, so I didn't try that option. It was definitely quicker to get the photo from Flicker, than upload it from my computer. Once you select your photo, click "Create". (This is where the longer wait is involved when using photos from your computer) The page will refresh with your image and a 15 color palette. I tried it with two photos, one of Sea Lions, the other of a couple of picnicking Jedis.

This is the palette BHL Palette Picker produced for my picture of sunbathing sea lions in Newport Bay. I would have never pick some of these more pink and purple colors and I was a bit surprised when they came up.
So I placed each of the palette chips behind my photo and I was really pleased with the effect. I even thinking of slapping a title on this and calling it my first digi-page.

So I tried it with this pic of my boys as we stopped for a picnic on our way to my cousin's wedding a couple of years ago. What rest-stop lunch would be complete without a little light saber fight? Again, it picked some pinks I wouldn't have, but they were really light.
Here's the same treatment with the palette chips. Not quite as stunning as the sea lion pic, but still, I think I could definitely pick some cardstock from the choices.

I love palette tools, and this one is quite fun. My inner geek is doing a happy dance, trust me it's a good think she's confined to my inner! You also might like some of Big Huge Labs other tools, I'm using their Mosaic Maker to make a Christmas Wishlist.

Google Reader comment here, or you can go to my blog and see it's color palette.