Daily Archives: March 12, 2016

I love to find great Christian inspired coloring books. Colorful Blessings by Valerie Sjodin is one that I found by accident while searching for another coloring book. I am so glad I found it. It is well made with 47 hand-drawn beautiful and spirit filled designs.

It is a real pleasure just to leaf through the coloring book. While I was coloring in it, I found myself pondering the words I was reading and what they meant to me at this point in my life. I find that I can use a Christian coloring book as part of my daily devotional time I let the scripture on the page I am coloring become my study guide. Some of the pages include areas for journaling your thoughts, etc.

Each design features a Bible verse (along with the cite so you can look up if you wish to put it in context.) There are also a few quotes from unknown authors. The translations used in the book are: The Holy Bible, New International Version NIV, The Message, the New American Standard Bible, the Good News Translation in Today’s English Version, the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, the New Revised Standard Version Bible, and The Passion Translation.

The designs incorporate the words in a variety of fashions in some you can color some or all of the quote while in most, the words are a twirling elements within the designs.

For my first project, I chose a design that speaks to me as a Christian and as a gardener. I used a wide variety of coloring mediums, include: alcohol-based markers (Sharpies, Bic Mark-its, and Copics), Prismacolor Premier pencils, and for fun, Sakura Gelly roll gel pens (white for the falling snow and silver glitter for the snowflakes.) I loved the way I could incorporate so many mediums and still have a cohesive finished project.

I will provide detail on what I found in the book below, but as a quick overview, this is what I discovered:

47 Christian Designs with Scripture
Designs printed on one side of white perforated paper
Glue binding
Designs stop well before the perforations
Easy to lay in flat open position
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page
Water-based markers and India ink pen leave slight color shadow on back of page
Gel pens do not bleed through but leave an indistinct shadow on back of the page
Coloring pencils work very well with this paper

The designs are printed on one side of medium weight, white perforated paper. The designs stop well before the perforations, so if you remove a page from the book, you will not lose any part of the design. The binding is glued rather than sewn. You can get the book to lay in a flat open position by breaking the spine by creasing it hard.

I test all of my coloring books with a variety of coloring medium (which I will list at the end of this review.) This is what my tests showed:

Alcohol-based markers of all types and tips bleed through immediately. Water-based markers and India ink pens leave a color shadow on the back of the page. Gel pens also leave a shadow but you cannot distinguish the color of the ink through the page. Coloring pencils worked very well with this paper. My soft lead pencils went on with deep color and blended well. My hard lead pencils were also on the darker side but did leave the slightest of indents on the back of the page.

Because of the bleed through and dent issues, I will be sure to always use a blotter page under the page I am working on. I recommend heavyweight paper or card stock or simply removing the page from the book before you color. Either way, you will be protecting the rest of the book from damage due to leaking ink or dents marring the page below.

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