Twelve Beautiful and Large selections from Secret Garden in 2016 Calendar Format printed on white lightweight card stock

This is a fantastic calendar for any fan of Johanna Basford’s beautiful artwork. There are twelve designs selected from the original Secret Garden and unlike the portfolio version of the book, the calendar actually does enlarge the images and makes it even easier to color. It will also make for a really nice piece of art that can be framed. It also has some of the Inky Treasure Hunt elements to make for a little more fun while you are coloring. Unlike the book, there is no key to finding the treasures.

Unlike the book, these designs are printed on white rather than cream. The designs are set far enough away from the artwork that the calendar hole can be covered by matting or a frame if you choose to take the calendar apart after you have colored the pictures. The calendar is 12 x 12 inches, so it is considerably larger than the original book at approximately 10 x 10 inches. If my pictures come through as planned, you will see that I have put my most recent copy of the book next to the calendar so you can see the difference in size.

As a calendar, it has the major holidays with emphasis on British ones (which makes sense, of course.) It has a back look at the prior month and a forward look at the next month. The back of the cover page has a small date calendar for 2015, 2016, and 2017 so it is a really useful calendar for my purposes.

The front cover has gold foil elements and can be colored, too. The back can also be colored but it is much smaller to work with those images. There is a title page which can be colored but you will need to be careful with the coloring medium you use as it could leak through and ruin the January image.

The paper used for the calendar is a decent weight card stock. It is bright white. The binding is a traditional two staples at the fold in the middle of the book, so taking this calendar apart later should prove to be a very simple project.

I tested a variety of markers and gel pens as well as pencils. I found that all permanent markers, Sharpies, Copics, etc. bled through immediately and heavily. My water-based markers were mixed with only two proving to have no leakage. Those two were my Staedler triplus fineliners and my Tombow duel brush (both the brush and the marker points.) My Stabilo 88’s bled through with dark and bright colors being most noticeable. Other colors left a shadow on the back of the page. All other water-based markers bled through to varying degrees with all of the variety of colors I used. My gel pens (Fiskars and TekWriter) worked well but needed some extra drying time which is standard for a better grade of paper. I tried my Derwent Studio, Prismacolor Premier, and Prismacolor Verithins coloring pencils and they all worked great and as I would expect given the types of lead that they have. If you are using any other type of coloring medium, I would suggest testing before you use it to see if it leaks through.

I am fine with the bleed-through and will use whatever medium I choose. With the exception of the title page, all of the artwork backs onto the monthly calendar and I don’t mind losing the dates, etc. once I start coloring in the book. Included with the calendar (to keep it safe) is an excellent piece of chipboard that is the perfect size to use as a safety paper when you are coloring. Be sure to save it to use for this purpose as it might be difficult to find a 12 x 12 inch piece of paper or chipboard later.

I am so very happy to get this calendar in fact, I ordered two. I want to use one for the year but I can’t wait the year to color it. It’s fantastic that the pictures are larger as it will make it easier to color. I think it is a great gift to give to any colorist and I will be buying some additional copies to give as holiday gifts this season.