32 Pretty and Detailed Floral Designs by great new Artist printed on one side of the page

“Big Beautiful Blossoms” is a coloring book of 32 full page designs. The subject is flowers and that is what the book abounds with. Most of the designs are strictly flowers; however, there a couple of mandalas, designs with sayings incorporated, and finally, a head view of a woman with a large floral bouquet for her hair. I really appreciate the hand-drawn designs in the book. While they don’t have the perfect look of a computer generated design, they are more true to what I would expect in my garden. That is, a large variety of flowers that each have their own unique look and quality.

I will go into detail below about what I discovered in this coloring book, but here is a quick overview:

32 Floral Inspired Designs
Designs printed on one side of medium weight white perforated paper
Back of page has inspirational quote and lines for journaling
Binding is glued
Designs stop well before the perforations
Alcohol and water-based markers, India ink pens, and gel pens all bleed through this paper
Coloring pencils work well with this paper

The designs in this book are by artist Angelea Van Dam, She is located in New Zealand. I mention that because I read somewhere that she is a kiwi artist. I had no idea what that meant but apparently it means New Zealand (I kept looking for designs that incorporated kiwis!) Her books (I have three now) all have the great helpful hints at the beginning of the book. I was impressed by the information that she provides and will certainly start experimenting with her suggestions. I really like Design Originals coloring books and I am glad to see her join their great line-up of artists.

The book is printed on one side of medium weight white perforated paper. The paper used is the standard variety from Design Originals. As usual with their publications, there are inspirational quotes from a variety of sources on the back of each page along with lines on which you can journal or note the types of coloring medium you used and what date you finished the design. It was very easy to get the book to lay flat for ease of coloring.

The designs have all finished elements or have a framing line around the outer edges. I really appreciate this added touch and try to mention it when I see it. I think it makes the finished project look that much better when this is done and I always try to point this feature out when I see it.

I test my coloring books with various coloring medium and will list those in the comments section below. Here is what I found with my tests.

Alcohol-based markers, water-based markers, India ink pens, and gel pens all bleed through this paper to some degree. Coloring pencils work well with the color going on thick. Blending soft lead pencils was easy and the hard lead pencils left dents at the back of the page.

I recommend what I do, which is to use a blotter page under the page I am working on. That will keep the rest of the book safe from ink seeping through. If you prefer, you can remove the page from the book before coloring.