A Giving Heart: A Coloring Book Celebrating Motherhood by Stephanie Corfee, 2017

Click to view
on Goodreads 

A beautiful artist-drawn coloring book with Scripture created to encourage, inspire, and delight Christian mothers.
This beautifully rendered adult coloring book will offer Christian moms a perfect way to enjoy moments of peaceful creativity as they color 46 gorgeously intricate pictures and meditate upon God's word. Filled with lovely botanical scenes, charming designs, and intricate patterns, the images and words of this book will remind mothers of their special place in the hearts of their loved ones and the wonderful purpose God created in them.

(96 pages)

Honestly, I think I–like everyone else–am finally falling out of love with the adult coloring book fad.

Before and after

Actually, if we're being completely honest here, I don't think I ever really was in love with adult coloring books. I just decided I should be because everyone else was, and I amassed a lot of pretty coloring books with the mindset of "I'm sure I'll get around to coloring these eventually." Which is ridiculous, because I have a permanent injury in my dominant wrist that makes repetitive writing/coloring literally painful for me.

I suppose that explains why I took so long to review A Giving Heart: I had to convince myself to color a page of it. And don't get me wrong, the designs are very pretty; there are lots of flowers and vases and women with pretty hair that exude an aura of peace whenever I look at them. But I just don't have the stamina (or the patience) to sit and color every single little design in a complex picture. I just don't. I think, if I'm going to keep coloring, I need to go back to kid coloring books because that's basically where my attention span is at right now.

You can see a little bit of
bleed-through

But I'm sorry, let me get into reviewing the coloring book for those of you who are actually interested in it. I do like a lot of the pictures (though quite a few of them–especially the quotes–are "churchy" enough that they wouldn't really do for a non-Christian audience), and the complexity is really not as bad as it's been in some of the other coloring books I've seen. My biggest issue with the book itself is probably its paper quality: I color with thin markers, and the back side of the pages I've colored are dark with the colors I used and have actually bled through in the spots where my markers rested. The paper has also gotten a little warped from the coloring, almost as though it's slightly water-stained. I really don't know why the publisher didn't invest in some thicker, pricier paper to ensure the book could actually be used for its intended purpose.

But then, you could always scan the pictures and color them on a fresh sheet of paper. This would keep the book pristine for multiple uses, too. If I were more serious about coloring, that's probably what I would do.

But I'm not, so I suppose I'll end this review now since I'm already out of stuff to say about the book. I hope my thoughts have been at least a little bit helpful. If you do decide to buy and color the book, be sure to show us pictures of the pages you complete!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Heroines of the New Testament Coloring Book by Betsy Karounos, 2016

Click to view
on Goodreads 

Now coloring enthusiasts will enjoy an uplifting way to unplug, de-stress, and engage their creative passions with Betsy Karounos' coloring book featuring wonderful women from the New Testament. Based on their biblical stories, each unique section features symbolic, intricately-detailed pictures to color and reflect upon. Scenes depicting the miraculous journeys of Mary, the Samaritan woman at the well, Mary Magdalene, and many other women whose lives were transformed when they encountered Jesus, will inspire all. These artistic illustrations for grown-ups and talented teens enable hours of peaceful contemplation and coloring enjoyment with narrative scenes, geometric patterns, portraits, botanical designs, artist tips, and more!

(80 pages)

I'll be the first one to admit that I'm not the most artistic person on the planet. That hasn't stopped me, though, from jumping into the adult coloring book trend along with everyone else. Every so often the coloring bug strikes and I wind up coloring a few pictures in one of the many coloring books I've gotten over the past few years. So many of them are very complicated and ornate, though, and take forever.

I'm happy to say that there's a really great mix of pictures in this coloring book. My favorites are the simple ones, like the one below, which are pretty and elegant and don't take me forever to do. I don't have a lot of coloring stamina, sad to say.

There are also more medium-level pictures, like this next one. I especially enjoyed coloring it beause I had fun doing different shades for her hair:

Then there are more complicated ones, with room for experimenting with lots of different colors. I don't really like these, because I struggle to make a picture look good if I'm using more than about four colors on a page, but for those of you who want more of a challenge you might like something like this:

The main downside to this coloring book, though, is definitely paper quality. Heroines' paper isn't really the right quality for coloring: it feels like regular white paper, a bit thicker than most novel pages but still rather flimsy. I used markers for the first picture I tried, but quit when they started bleeding through:

The backside of the right-hand page of the
"Elizabeth" spread (note the red bleeding through
in the corners and the water-stain wrinkles)

I've used those markers to color in the past in several coloring books and never had a problem with them, but here they not only bled through but they actually made the page so wet that it got that crinkled water-stain look. Not so great. It works perfectly with colored pencils, though, so if that's your primary coloring utensil then the paper quality should be fine for you.

Anyway, despite the flimsier paper, I do really like the pictures in this coloring book. I'm keeping ahold of it for the next time the coloring bug gets ahold of me!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this coloring book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A Colouring Book of Hours: Castle by Marcia Overstrand and Angie Sage, 2015

Click to view
on Goodreads 

Come and explore Marcia's Castle in this beautifully produced colouring book from Septimus Press.
Hardback bound, no bigger than an iPad, and with a velvety matt surface, you can take A Colouring Book of Hours: Castle with you wherever you go. It will become your own private world that you dip into and develop for an afternoon, or whenever you want a few moments' peace.
In a series of exquisitely drawn vistas and vignettes, the book takes you through a day in the Castle, from first light and the dawn chorus, to a refreshing sleep in the second-best bed.

I'd heard so much about the adult coloring book craze (and my sister has, like, three of them) that I decided I just had to try one out for myself. When I saw that the author of Septimus Heap, one of my all-time favorite authors, was starting a publishing company and releasig a Septimus Heap coloring book she'd illustrated herself, I knew that I just had to have it. I sent a pleading email to the publisher, got a very nice email back from Angie Sage herself (I squealed so loudly when it showed up in my inbox!), and - about week later - got a beautiful international package sent all the way from England to my doorstep. When I pulled out the signed Fyre bookplate and saw that the book was autographed, I just about fainted. Angie Sage is amazing.

But what about the coloring book itself? Well, let me tell you, I totally get this whole coloring book craze now. It's just so relaxing! The pictures in the coloring book are really cool - though so detailed it's a little hard to color them in when you only have like five colors, I will admit - and once you finish one it's really breathtaking to sit back and take the full effect in. In the picture on the right you can see my finished version of "The Dawn Singers." The curtains are my favorite, because the pattern is just so cute! I can't really show you in the photo, but when I tilt the book different ways the light hitting it makes the entire picture shimmer. I'm not sure how that happens, but it's really pretty.

To be perfectly honest, most of these pictures are a little too complex for me. I haven't developed an eye for putting together a picture, so I just color specific portions of the picture and then back up, look at it, and pick another portion to color, so sometimes it kind of clashes a little bit. Flipping through the book I'm pretty daunted by how complicated some of the pictures are - and, to be honest, slightly put off by one or two of them because they shatter the image I had in my head about how certain parts of the Castle look. Coming from the girl who spent literally five years pronouncing Marcia "Marsha," though, that probably doesn't carry much weight.

For you coloring aficionados, I'm not really sure what information is useful in deciding what coloring books to get. Besides the pictures, you're also focused on paper quality, right? Well, the quality of this paper is really good. It's nice and thick, so none of my markers bleed. There's a page in the back specifically meant for testing your pens, too, so you can double-check before actually beginning to use a utensil in the book. The spine lays really flat, too, so you can just set the book down open to the right page and it won't flop closed. I remember in my far-off little-kid coloring book days that books not laying flat was a major annoyance.

I haven't really been able color anything for a few months, because I had wrist surgery on my dominant hand, but now I'm actually supposed to be building up my writing stamina I'm looking forward to jumping back into coloring. I was stopped in the middle of my second full picture (you can see my progress in the photo on the left), so I'm going to finish it and move on to some of the others. My goal is to get through all of the pictures, preferably in time for the next book in the "Colouring Book of Hours" series.

If you're as big a fan of the Septimus Heap universe as I am, you'll probably also be interested to learn more about Septimus Press. Here's the link to their website, where you can check it out for yourself. The only book they've published so far is this Castle coloring book, but they have more of these coloring books coming down the pipeline as well as some Septimus Heap novellas (squeal!) and some other non-Septimus Heap-related projects. They also have a YouTube channel here, which has videos of someone (I think Angie Sage?) coloring in different pictures with various coloring utensils - colored pencils, watercolors, markers, etc. It's really impressive and pretty intimidating to watch her just sit down and casually draw these beautiful pictures, so I haven't watched all of them, but if you want a better idea of what the coloring book is like you can check the videos out and decide for yourself whether it's what you want. Let me know if you do decide to get it, and definitely send me photos of the pictures you color!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.