30 Beautiful Postcards Images from original Animal Kingdom Coloring Book printed on one side of heavyweight postcard stock

This review is for the 30 design set of glue-bound coloring postcards. I will address the differences between this and the 50 design postcard set towards the end up this review. The silent video with this review will show what is included with this set.

This set of 30 postcards is based on Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom coloring book. This was her first and hugely successful book though at this time she has two others and a fourth one planned for this year. The subject of the postcards are a wide variety of animals from land, sea, and sky. The cards are all from the book and vary from full designs which have been shrunk to fit the new size or which are a subset of the original design (and possibly smaller, too, but not to the same degree as the full designs.) Some of the designs contain many extremely small and intricate details. I was able to use my 0.38 and smaller gel pens and Verithins to easily color in those spots. This may not be a set for anyone with vision or fine motor skills issues.

I will provide detail below of what I found with the physical set of postcards, but here is a quick overview:

30 Animal Kingdom design Postcards
Printed on one side of heavyweight card stock
Excellent print quality
Glue bound but easy to remove pages
Alcohol markers bleed through
Water-based markers, India ink, and gel pens do not bleed through
Coloring pencils work well (especially hard lead)

The cover of the cards is beautiful and is a small version of what was on the coloring book. It has very pretty gold foil touches. Unlike the book, the postcards are definitely printed on only one side. The size is perfect for use as a postcard or to color and frame to make small gifts or a collage of prints on a wall. The back of the design is pre-set for postcard information. The postcards are glue-bound and you pull a card off like you would a note from a notepad.

I test all of my coloring materials with various coloring medium. I will list the medium I used for my tests in the comments section below. Here are the results of my tests:

Alcohol-based markers bleed through. My water-based markers, India ink pens, and gel pens did not bleed through. Gel pens definitely need extra drying time. Coloring pencils work well. I could blend my soft lead pencils but the real issue is a matter of having enough design room to utilize blending. My hard lead pencils worked like a dream and were great for coloring in small areas.

50 versus 30 postcard sets:

There are two sets of postcards based on Animal Kingdom: this one which is a 30 design glue-bound set and a slightly more expensive set of 50 designs which are loose-leaf and come with a nicely decorated heavy-duty cardboard holder. I bought this set to have with me on-the go. I like that it is glue bound rather than loose leaf as it will stay together in my tote.

There are really only two main differences between the two sets: 1) the bigger set has 20 designs which are not included in this set, and 2) the bigger set is also just slightly larger so a tiny bit more of images are printed. They are not printed in a larger size, just less of the design is cropped. The differences in size in each direction is approximately 1/8th of an inch. The real difference is the number of cards and the carrying box.

As to which to buy at the time I am writing this review, the larger set is on sale for less than this one. I found I wanted both and for different reasons. It comes down to which set works best for you and how you wish to use them. I think they are both great provided you have the proper coloring medium to get in those tiny spots.