Daily Archives: September 6, 2017

Creative Haven An Old-Fashioned Christmas Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Ted Menten

Rating: 5 of 5

Christmas coloring books are something that I am always looking for. I like to find ones that have a different look and An Old-Fashioned Christmas is one that I really enjoy. I like the vintage and nostalgic look to the designs with many of them having a Victorian age vibe to them. The designs in the book are detailed but without type of intricate or hard to color areas. There is plenty of room in most of the elements to add blending and special embellishment touches.

For my first project, I chose to do a design based on the Twelve Months of Christmas. It reminded me of a sampler I had cross stitched years ago. I’ll post a photo of my first project as well as samples from the book.

The designs range from Victorian characters to Santa to bells and poinsettias and much more. There are ornaments, wreathes, angels and even a partridge in a pear tree. I think it is a great all-around Christmas coloring book for anyone who enjoys an old-fashioned look and feel.

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

31 Old-fashioned Christmas inspired designs with lots of variety in subject matter

Designs are printed one side of the page

Paper is typical for Creative Haven: white, medium weight, slightly smooth and has perforated pages.

Glue Binding with perforations so you can remove them one at a time.

The designs stop well before the perforations

Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper

Water-based markers bleed through with colorful spots on the back of the page

Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page. India ink pens can bleed through when I use more than one layer of color.

Coloring pencils work well with this paper. I was able to use both wax and oil based pencils equally well. I was able to get good color and to get deeper pigment by layering the same color. I found that I could layer multiple colors and blend easily using a blending stick. Hard lead pencils leave dents on the back of the page.

I usually use a blotter page under my working page to keep ink from seeping through but you can also remove pages from the book to color. I like card stock for my blotter page but a couple of sheets of heavyweight paper works as well.

Carousel: a Coloring Jones coloring book for adults: featuring the horses, menagerie animals and design motifs of classic American merry-go-rounds (Coloring Jones coloring books)

By: David Palmer

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a lovely little carousel inspired coloring book. While most of the line art designs in the book are of carousel animals, some are highlights of other parts of a carousel. I grew up near the Santa Monica Pier and was delighted to find that it was featured in this book.

The designs are open and fairly easy to color with lots of room for blending. An unusual feature of the coloring book is that there is a blotter page behind each design page. I’ve found that while it is enough to stop most water-based markers from leaking through (two pages), it is not enough to stop alcohol-based markers. I suggest using extra pages or a heavy duty page such as card stock behind your working page. The extra page is still very nice to use for testing color schemes, etc.
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
20 carousel inspired designs in a smaller format book (8.5 x 8 inches)
Printed one side of the page
Paper is typical of CreateSpace: white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated.
Designs do not merge into the binding and there is plenty of room to cut out pages if you choose to do so. A cutting line is provided as a guide
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.