Daily Archives: August 8, 2016

Spiritual Refreshment for Women: Everyday Blessings Coloring Book (Color Yourself Inspired)

By: Compiled by Barbour Staff

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a coloring book of 46 different designs by a team of designers (Traci Bixby, Elisa Paganelli, Carol Robinson, Emma Segal, and Nicky Storr) which focuses on Biblical blessings. The translation used for this coloring book is the New Life Version. This puts the quotes into everyday, modern language. The basis of the book is definitely Christian and I appreciate it for that reason as well as the fun and easy to color designs. The book is printed 8 x 10 inches with perforated pages so it should be easy to remove pages for framing should you wish to do so.

The designs are very pretty but for me, the pages with quotes and sayings are what are most important. The book is divided pretty much into thirds with 16 designs with inspirational sayings, 15 designs with Biblical quotes, and 15 stand-alone designs. With the sayings and Bible quotes, the words are very much front and center. They are the focus of the design and the other elements are there to support them.

The designs have a nice level of detail without being intricate. Except for some of the fonts on words, I didn’t need special nibs or pencils to color the design. I will probably leave the tiny spots on the words white rather than try to color them with a tiny nib gel pen or an extra sharp pencil such as Verithins.

For my first projects, I used alcohol-based markers and I plan to also use colored pencils with this book as well. I found that the designs an hour or more to finish but mostly because I was stopping and contemplating the words as I was coloring.

This is what I found as I colored in this book and testing the paper with my various coloring medium. In the comments section below, I will include a list of the coloring medium I use for testing and which I generally use for my coloring projects.

46 Various Designs with a fairly even mix of Sayings, Bible Quotes, and Designs without words

Printed on one side of the page

Paper is medium weight, white, slightly smooth and perforated.

Glue Binding

A few designs cross over the perforations but nothing essential to the design will be lost if you remove a page from the book.

Alcohol-based markers bleed through rapidly on this paper

Water-based markers and India ink pens bleed through in tiny spots with the exception of brush end Tombows which did not bleed through at all.

Gel pens left colorful shadows on the back of the page.

Colored pencils work very well with this paper. I tested both oil and wax-based pencils and had good results with both. I was able to layer the same color to a deep pigment, layer multiple colors, and blend easily using a pencil style blending stick.

I used a blotter page below my working page to keep ink from seeping into the the page(s). I use card stock for this purpose. You can also remove pages from the book before coloring to keep the rest of the book in good shape.

Hello Angel Owls Wild & Whimsical Coloring Collection (Hello Angel Coloring Collection)

By: Angelea Van Dam

Rating: 4 of 5

This is a coloring book of imaginative and intricate owl designs which incorporate doodle style elements which I purchased at a local bookstore. I own a number of books by Angelea Van Dam and each of them contains the same information at the front of the book about the artist and some of her coloring hints. Additionally, there some beautiful colored sample pages (a few of which I will include in the photos) and the back of each design page has a quote, journal lines and a cute design which previously was in black and white but in newer books are now in color.

Something else that is new about the most recent books by this publisher (Design Originals), including this one, is that some of the design pages have medium rather than full page designs. In this book, it is ten different designs. The bottom of each of these pages has a thumbnail of the colored sample, a colorful sample of some of the colors used in it and some hints on coloring. That portion of the page is perforated so you can remove it if you wish to do so.

I’m torn about this new format. I really like the information included but I miss having the designs in full page format. As these are the same designs we get to see in full page colored samples, I wish that they had reduced the size of the colored sample page and put that information on that page. That way I get the information but still retain the full size designs for coloring. While the smaller size is still good, in some cases, the elements have become a little small and a little more difficult to color.

This is especially true with this designer as even her full page designs are very detailed and intricate. By reducing the size of the design, it made a challenging project into a difficult one. Because of this, I think it would be a difficult book for someone with visual or fine motor issues.

This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing my various coloring medium on the paper. In the comments section below, I will list the various coloring medium I use for testing as well as for most of my coloring projects.

32 Owl Designs in doodle format with 22 large designs and 10 medium ones

10 Medium Designs include colored thumbnails and coloring advice on the page (info can be removed at provided perforations)

Printed on one side of the page.

Paper is medium weight, slightly rough, white and is perforated for easy removal. The paper is noted as archival-grade and acid free for 200 years.

Designs stop well before the perforations

Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page

Gel pens and India ink pens can spot through to the back of the page with heavy application

Colored pencils work well with the paper. Both oil and wax based pencils provide good color, layer, and blend well. Hard lead pencils can dent through the page.

As I use markers and pencils, I use a blotter page to keep seeping ink and dents from marring the pages below. I recommend this in general or that you remove pages before coloring. I use card stock or several sheets of paper as my blotter page.

By: Compiled by Barbour Staff

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a coloring book of 46 different Scripture designs by a team of designers (Elisa Paganelli, Carol Robinson and Nicky Storr) which focuses on Biblical blessings. The translation used for this coloring book is the King James Version of the Holy Bible and includes quotes from both Old and New Testament. The Scriptures focus on the promises of God.

Each of the pages has the Scripture and cite emphasized with the design surrounding it. The book is printed 8 x 10 inches with perforated pages so it should be easy to remove pages for framing should you wish to do so.

With a number of challenges in my life recently, both physical and emotional, and I have found myself turning to my Christian-based coloring books for both the words I need to read and think about as well as a way to let my brain step away from the issues that confront me. This is a great book for that purpose and each and every design has a word of truth to speak that is intended to build up a Christian’s place of faith.

While most of the designs are fairly easy to color, some of the fonts used for the words include some fairly tiny spots. I will end up leaving most of those white rather than to try to fill them in with tiny nib pens.

This is what I found as I colored in this book and testing the paper with my various coloring medium. In the comments section below, I will include a list of the coloring medium I use for testing and which I generally use for my coloring projects.

46 Scripture based designs with pretty coloring elements

Printed on one side of the page

Paper is medium weight, white, slightly smooth and perforated.

Glue Binding

A few designs cross over the perforations but nothing essential to the design will be lost if you remove a page from the book.

Alcohol-based markers bleed through on this paper

Water-based markers and India ink pens bleed through in spots with the exception of brush end Tombows which did not bleed through at all.

Gel pens left shadows of color on the back of the page.

Colored pencils work very well with this paper. I tested both oil and wax-based pencils and had good results with both. I was able to layer the same color to a deep pigment, layer multiple colors, and blend easily using a pencil style blending stick.

I used a blotter page below my working page to keep ink from seeping into the the page(s). I use card stock or several sheets of heavy weight paper for this purpose. You can also remove pages from the book before coloring to keep the rest of the book in good shape.