The Official Outlander Coloring Book by Diana Gabaldon

My husband got me the Official Outlander coloring book for a present and it’s become a staple I take with me when we are camping or on a long trip.  This coloring book tells the highlights of the Outlander story, but not the complete story as it’s not a 1,000 page coloring book!  It has wonderful and detailed pictures of the story and is very relaxing to color.  It will take you some time to color these pictures because of the magnificent detail.

The pictures are by a variety of artists and include locations, herbs, clothing, jewelry as well as scenes, such as the wedding of Jamie and Claire.  The pictures are on very thick paper with a picture on one side and text on the other so you don’t have to worry about bleed through if you use markers.  I personally use color pencils.  There is a glue binding for the book and the pages are not tear out.

Overall, The Official Outlander Coloring book has wondering pictures of the story and is a most have for any Outlander fan.

Are you a fan of adult coloring books?

Christian Coloring Books Galore!

I love the adult coloring book craze and think it is a wonderful way to relax.  My six-year old daughter Penelope also loves to color with me in my adult coloring books, especially on camping trips.  The following are three fabulous Christian coloring books that I took with me to color this summer.

The Parables of Jesus:  Coloring Book Devotional by Laura James and Katara Washington Patton

The Parables of Jesus is large and beautiful adult coloring book.  It contains the parables of Jesus including the actual Gospel reading, a description and discussion of that reading, and some questions to ask yourself about the passage.  Afterwards follows a detailed picture illustrating the parable for the adult to color.  The pictures are on thick white paper that is easy to color.  The binding is glued.  The pictures were of good detail for me to color with my coloring pencils, but not very fine detailed – which I like.  Some coloring books are so finely detailed, I have a hard time coloring them with my coloring pencils.  What I liked best about this book was that it is an excellent way to relax while you are coloring and also spend devotional time reading and thinking about the parables.  The parables are wonderful parts of the Gospel and I like how this book applies them to everyday life.

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

This would make a perfect birthday, Christmas, or Mother’s Day gift for any mother.  Bible verses or inspirational quotes are on one page and then the opposite page is a detailed drawing to color.  You don’t need to worry about bleed through from your coloring page wrecking another coloring page as it’s either blank or has a quote on the other side.  My favorite quote is “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless” by Mother Theresa.  These pictures are also on thick white paper with glue binding.  The pictures are very detailed so it can take quite some time to color if you are looking for fabulously detailed pictures and something to spend a lot of time working on.

Joyful Inspirations Coloring Book with Illustrated Scripture and Quotes to Cheer Your Soul by Robin Mead

Joyful Inspirations has delightful illustrations that include a lot of flowers, outdoor scenes, cities, churches, children, etc. with inspiration quotes from famous folks and Bibles verses.  My favorite quotes was “find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing” by Robert Louis Stevenson.”  I really loved the drawings, they were calming and really were joyful.  The only downfall of this coloring book is that the pages are double sided and medium weight, which can lead to bleed through the page.  Coloring with colored pencils works best for this book.

Book Source:  These three books were given to me by Hachette Books for review.  Thank-you!

A Very Blessed Christmas Coloring Book by Robin Mead

My six-year old daughter was very excited when I got out the Christmas coloring books right after Thanksgiving and she started coloring away in one. She was impressed when I pulled out the new A Very Blessed Christmas coloring book that I had received to review.  I love adult coloring books.  I find them a great way to relax and as I am artistically challenged, drawing free hand is not an option.  An adult coloring book is a great way for me to feel like an artist.

A Very Blessed Christmas coloring book has intricate pictures that will keep an adult busy and relaxed with coloring, preferably next to a fireplace with a mug of hot cocoa.   The pictures are intricate enough to make it an adult coloring book versus a coloring book for a six year old, but not so intricate to turn off a novice like myself.  Pictures range over a wide variety of topics including carolers, snow covered cottages, Christmas trees, the nativity scene, hot cocoa, a church scene, Mary and Baby Jesus, a dove, angels, etc.  Inspirational Bible passages are also located throughout that you can read while coloring.  Some of these passages include:

“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”  Luke 2:14

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” Romans 15:13

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given . . . And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  Isiah 9:6

Also included in the back of the book are great holiday crafts including bookmarks and items that can be made into ornaments, gift tags, or to decorate Christmas cards.  I love crafts and am going to use these with Penelope to make some fun Christmas ornaments and bookmarks this year.

Overall, A Very Blessed Christmas Coloring Book has many intriguing designs to color and I appreciated how it has the religious coloring pages included that are the very meaning of Christmas. The craft pages are the back are a great bonus.

Book Source:  Review copy from Hachette Book Group.  Thank-you!

Inkspirations: Fruit of the Spirit by Lorrie Bennett (TLC Book Tours and GIVEAWAY!)

In today’s stressful world, it’s always nice to find a good way to relax.  I’ve been pleased to see the adult coloring book trend over the past few years.  As a college student, I will admit that I remember coloring in regular coloring books with my roommate during down times.  It was a great way to relieve stress and not think about engineering homework.  I might be the world’s worst artist with an inability to draw a straight line or good circle, so I am happy to be able to contribute a little bit to art by coloring.  

Inspirations:  Fruit of the Spirit is subtitled Coloring Designs to Nourish You with Love, Joy, Faith, Peace and More.  This wonderful coloring book has many of my favorite Bible verses with a great picture paired with it for coloring.  For example, one of my favorite verses is “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this:  Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.  James 1:19.” The pictures are in a variety of levels to color.  Most are quite easy, others are more complex if you would like to delve into more colors and design.  One of my favorite features is also that the book has a note at the beginning from the author on techniques you can use while coloring such as blending colors and using different color palettes.  This is very helpful for artistically challenged people like me.  I also love the direction that “coloring is supposed to be a stress-free, no-worries kind of activity.”  There are also examples of the pictures colored in if you want to follow the examples or you can strike off on your own and color as you would like.  My five year old daughter loves looking at this book with me as well.  She thinks it’s great that I can color my own book while she is coloring.

Overall, Inspirations is a relaxing, comforting book to color with some of your favorite Bible verses to contemplate.  An example page is below - I'm having technical difficulties so please forgive me that I can't figure out how to change the orientation of this page.  You can still see how wonderful the drawing is paired with the verse I quoted above.

Book Source:  Review Copy as part of the TLC Book Tours

 

Giveaway

One lucky winner will receive a copy of  Inspirations:  Fruit of the Spirit by Lorrie Bennett.  If you would like to win Inkspirations:  Fruit of the Spirit, please leave a comment on why it sounds interesting or why you like coloring.

 

As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner. 

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

 I will be using random.org (or a Monte Carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments. 

This contest is only open to addresses in the United States

The deadline for entry is midnight on Friday August 26th!

 

Please make sure to check the week of August 29th to see if you are a winner. I send emails to the winner, but lately I've been put in their "junk mail" folder instead of their inbox.

Good luck!