Daily Archives: March 4, 2016

Harrowing story of a child missing for years

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Iiiireader

She’s Not There

By: Joy Fielding

Rating: 5 of 5

“She’s Not There” tells the story of Caroline Shipley. She is the mother of two who is convinced (by her husband) to leaver her two young daughters alone in their hotel room in order to celebrate their anniversary dinner with family in friends. The worst happens and their youngest daughter goes missing.

Fifteen years later, Caroline is still heart-broken and the “anniversary” of the kidnapping is coming up. She gets a call from a young woman who announces that she believes she is Caroline’s missing daughter.

(more…)

Posted in Mystery/Suspense/Thriller | Leave a comment

30 Flower Designs and Frame – Rotate your Projects and Enjoy! – printed on one side of the page

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Iiiireader

The Magic of Flowers: Color, Frame & Display (Color Magic to Frame & Display)

By: ArsEdition

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a new and really interesting concept. In this coloring package, you get 30 loose leaf flower designs. Some of the designs are white lines on black background but the majority of the designs are simply black lines on white backgrounds. You color your sheet and then put it back in the freestanding frame. You must keep all of the pictures together with the viewable one in the front to give a good framed look to the design.

I will go into more details about the designs etc. below, but here is what I found in a brief overview:

30 loose leaf flower designs printed on one side of medium weight paper
One freestanding cardboard frame
alcohol-based markers bleed through page
water-based marker and Pitt India Ink pens do not bleed through
gel pens do not bleed through
coloring pencils work great with this paper

This is an innovative idea. The frame is a smidge bigger than 6 x 6 x .5 inches. It is in a light green metallic with etched flowers in a silver foil. The back of the frame is slightly accordion in style and folds open to a freestanding position. That portion of the frame is a darker green and is not metallic.

The 30 loose leaf flower designs are printed on one side of medium weight paper and the back of the page is blank. Some of the designs have intricate and somewhat small elements to color.

What I noticed is that the designs mostly go edge to edge for the full six inches but the opening in the frame is much smaller. If you use the green frame, not all of your colored image with show. You can see the difference in my photos (once they post.)

I test all of my coloring books for use with a variety of coloring mediums. I will list those mediums at the end of this review. Here is what my tests show:

All alcohol-based markers (various tips and brands) bleed through the paper. None of my water-based markers or Pitt India ink pens bleed through. Nor did they leave any shadows on the back of the page. My gel pens worked well but all but Uni-ball Signo pens needed a little extra drying time. Coloring pencils worked really well with the soft lead going on thick and creamy and blending easily. The hard lead pencils did not dent the back of the page.

For my first full project, I used alcohol-based markers. I put the design on my clipboard to hold it steady and it worked really well. That is how I will do the remainder of the projects.

These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. If there is something else you feel I should be testing, please let me know and I will see if I can add it to my growing pile:

Markers: 1) alcohol-based Copic Sketch, Prismacolor double ended markers (brush and fine point), Sharpies (fine and ultra-fine) Bic Mark-its (fine and ultra-fine) and 2) water-based Tombows dual end markers (brush and fine point), Stabilo 88, and Staedler triplus fineliners

India Ink: Faber-Castell PITT artist pens (brush tip)

Gel Pens: Sakura, Fiskars, Uni-ball Signo in the following sizes – 0.28/0.38/0.5/1.0 and Tekwriter

Coloring Pencils: Prismacolor Premier Soft Core, Derwent Colorsoft, Prismacolor Verithins, Caran D’Ache Pablo Colored Pencils and Faber-Castell Polychromos

Posted in Adult Color Books | Leave a comment

Beautiful Coloring Book with Hand-Drawn Designs printed both sides of page

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Iiiireader

Images of Grace: An Inspirational Coloring Book

By: Jacqui Grace

Rating: 5 of 5

Images of Grace is a beautifully illustrated coloring book by artist, Jacqui Grace. Ms. Grace has created lovely Christian greeting cards along with this publisher for close to ten years. In this book, she has created some wonderful coloring opportunities which speak to the spirit as well as to the imagination. I didn’t realize until after receiving the book that the title is a bit of a play on the artist’s name. I think it has a dual meaning and is speaking about God’s Grace as well.

I will provide details below, but as an overview this is what I have found in this coloring book:

designs are printed on both sides of heavyweight paper
some designs spread across two pages
pages are not perforated
glue binding
images merge into the binding
alcohol based markers bleed through page
water based markers and Pitt India ink pens leave shadows
some gel pens take longer to dry
coloring pencils work great with this paper

I am always happy to find beautifully made Christian coloring books. In this book, there are verses (from the New King James Version of the Bible) generally on the left hand page while the illustration is on on the right hand page.

The verses have light illustrations or may have a type of complete this activity to them. In addition to these style designs, there are 29 full page designs and 12 designs that spread across two pages but a number of these are repetitive type designs that I am less likely to color immediately and would be willing to forgo depending on what is one the back of the page and which coloring medium I will use.

The artist has some excellent suggestions for using the coloring book for part of your worship time: Think about the words in the designs and mull over whether God is speaking to you through them. Memorize some of the verses and/or look them up in other translation. Pray as your color. Add your own quotes, thoughts, etc on pages where there is blank space. (My suggestion offer prayers in these spots maybe pouring out what is troubling you that day.) Share your creations.

The designs in the book are printed on both sides of heavyweight, non-perforated white paper. On the two pages spreads, my book is aligned perfectly. Many of the designs have light illustrations or verses on the back side.

The binding is glued rather than sewn so you will have to cut out pages if you want to remove them. Many designs merge into the binding and you will lose portions if you cut them out. I was able to get the book to lay flat by pressing on the inside of the binding. This breaks the spine (i.e. creases it.)

I test all of my coloring books with the various coloring mediums I work with. I will provide the list I used for this book in the comments section below, you are interested. My tests showed these results:

All alcohol-based markers bleed through the paper quite easily. All water-based markers and Pitt India Ink pens leave some shadows on the back of the page. Gel pens did not bleed through or show shadows but all brands I tested, except Uni-ball Signo pens, required extra drying time. Coloring pencils worked fantastic. The soft lead pencils went on thick with little effort and blended beautifully. My hard lead pencils went on darker than usual and I was able to blend those as well. The hard lead pencils did not leave a dent on the back of the page. If you choose to use markers, there is a good chance you will mar the back of the page you are working on and ruin that designs. Be sure to use a blotter page below your work so the ink seeping through is limited only to the back of that page.

I am really looking forward to spending a lot of time with this coloring book. Most Christian coloring books are not quite as well made as this one, so it will be a pleasure to color in. I’m yet sure if I will remove pages or not. I will certainly be using my coloring pencils in the book and will decide about other mediums depending on what is on the back of the page I want to color.

Posted in Adult Color Books | Leave a comment

23 Cute and Whimsical Enchanted Garden Designs printed on one side of page

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Iiiireader

The Magical Garden Coloring Book

By: Ashley Lucas

Rating: 5 of 5

The Magical Garden has 23 adorable designs of animals, flowers, and other plants in a sweet garden setting. There are bunnies, bees, fairies, flowers, owls, birds, and much more in the coloring book. The designs are open and fun to color. Though there are a few spots of smaller elements, it is a fairly easy book to color and one you won’t need special pens, etc. to reach into tiny spots

I will go into more detail below, but here is an overview of the book:

23 magical garden designs printed on one side of the page
pages are non-perforated
design print is clear with no smudging
glue bound
designs stop well before the binding
all markers bleed through paper
gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows on back of page
coloring pencils work well

The designs in the book are printed on one side only of thin, white, non-perforated paper. The designs all stop before the binding though some leave elements unfinished.

The binding is glued rather than sewn, so you will have to cut pages out to remove them from the book. In a few cases, you will loss parts of the design if you remove the page. I was able to easily get the book to lay flat by pressing down once I opened it.

I test all of my coloring books with a wide variety of coloring mediums. You can find the full list I used to test this book in the comments section below. Here are the results of my tests:

All markers, whether water or alcohol-based, bled through the paper. All of my gel pens and my Pitt India Ink pens left distinct shadows of color on the backside of the page. My coloring pencils worked well and true to type and brand. I was able to easily blend my soft lead pencils. My hard lead worked well but left indents that showed on the backside of the page.

I will be using a variety of medium in coloring in this book. Because of that, I will place a blotter sheet below the page I am working on. That will keep the page below ink and dent free. I used Tombow water-based brush end markers on my first project to give it a water-color type effect.

Posted in Adult Color Books | Leave a comment