Daily Archives: February 3, 2017

A Whimsy Girls Christmas Coloring Book: Festive Girls, Fairies, & More

By: Hannah Lynn

Rating: 5 of 5

I have a number of Hannah Lynn’s coloring books and was really happy to find that she had recently released a Christmas inspired set of designs. She has put her cute girls in a variety of settings with everything from a Nativity to Rudolph to Santa and even a Sugar Plum fairy included.

I really appreciate that Ms. Lynn included many traditional Christmas elements in her designs in this book. A number of the Christmas coloring books I’ve purchased recently were lacking in this regard. Ms. Lynn’s book is a wonderful representation of both traditional and fantasy Christmas designs.
The girls are set in full background designs which makes the project even more fun to color. The designs are detailed but not what I consider intricate with too small elements to color with standard coloring medium.
This is what I discovered while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
30 designs (2 copies of each) of Hannah Lynn’s big eye girls in Christmas settings
Printed one side of the page
Paper is typical inexpensive quality used by CreateSpace: white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated.
The designs do not extend into the binding area. There is a double framing line at the outer edges. There is plenty of room to cut out pages if you choose to do so.
Glue Binding
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page quickly.
Water-based markers bleed through in spots.
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows on back of the page. India ink can bleed through if you apply heavily or multiple coats.
Coloring Pencils work well with this paper. I found that I could layers the same color for deeper pigment or multiple colors and I could blend easily using a blending stick. I tested both oil and wax based pencils. I also found that hard lead pencils leave dents through the paper.
I like to use a blotter when working in the book. I use a page of card stock or several sheets of heavyweight paper under my working page. It keeps seeping ink and marring dents from ruining the pages below.

Interior Designs: An Adult Coloring Book with Beautifully Decorated Houses, Inspirational Room Designs, and Relaxing Modern Architecture

By: Jade Summer

Rating: 5 of 5

The designs in this book are of interior designs of rooms. They are not a montage of design elements but instead show you the full look of the room. While they are interior designs, they are more than that. The designs are inside settings that appear to be a lived in and functional room within a house. I have other interior design books which focus on the elements of design. This book shows the function of the room. The designs show a good range of traditional, contemporary and modern rooms. The rooms are from all areas of the house: living rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, kitchens and many other specialized areas (playroom, study, etc.)

The designs are very detailed and some contained intricate and small areas to color. I suggest using color medium with a very small point for these elements. I don’t think that crayons can be sharpened to as fine a point as needed. I like ultra-fine points.
While you can have access to .PDFs when you purchase this book, my review is based on the book as it is received from Amazon. That way you will know what the pages look like and how they accept color. I like that the publisher provides the digital version as well so you can choose the paper you wish to use and/or to color the pictures as many times as you choose.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium:
25 Designs x 2 each (total of 50 pages) based on full room interior designs
Paper is typical of CreateSpace: white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated. The back of the page is printed black.
The designs do not merge into the binding. There is a heavy framing line at the outer edges of the design to give the project a more finished look, especially for framing. There is a slight shadowing effect to the framing line which gives the image an almost 3D effect.
Glue Binding (there is room to cut the pages out if you choose to do so.)
Though you cannot see the bleed-through easily due to the back of the page being printed in black, I recommend the use of a blotter page when working in this book. I use a page of card stock or several sheets of heavyweight paper under my working page. It keeps seeping ink and marring dents from ruining the pages below.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page quickly.
Water-based markers bleed through in spots.
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows on back of the page. India ink can bleed through if you apply heavily or multiple coats.
Coloring Pencils work well with this paper. I found that I could layers the same color for deeper pigment or multiple colors and I could blend easily using a blending stick. I tested both oil and wax based pencils. I also found that hard lead pencils leave dents through the paper.