A New 2021 Coloring Book Challenge

February 17, 2021 by Leave a Comment

10 books to color in 2021

You all know how much I enjoy my coloring books. However, new releases continue to saturate the market and I am always willing to add a new book to my collection. The problem is that I have quite a pile of untouched books.

Online, in the adult coloring community, I find that I am not alone and some people have set a goal to color in at least 10 of their untouched books. I decided that I wanted to join in on this challenge in hopes that I can make some progress in my coloring book collection.

Above are 8 of the books I need to color in before years end. I have started coloring in the Exhale book last weekend. So I am on my way.

I believe I bought the book above 2 years ago directly from the artist. The images are so beautiful and I think that self-talk has kept me from coloring in the book for fear of “ruining” such a beautiful book. But this year, I am going to make it happen.

I just purchased this one recently and I can’t wait to dive in and color the images. It’s so wonderful to have a coloring book with black women in it and having plants in it is a bonus.

So my goal is by the end of this year I will have completed a page or two in each book. I will be sure to update you on my progress.

Happy crafting!

Filed Under: Belinda's Crafts Tagged With: ,

Coloring is Good for You

January 19, 2021 by Leave a Comment

Just do it!

I often hear people question the reasons that I color in coloring books. I think that often times, we tend to assign age groups to activities. It is common to hear people say that coloring books are for kids. But now we know better. The fact that we distinguish between coloring and adult coloring. Why don’t we just use the one word to anyone engaging in the activity of coloring. It turns out that many of the activities we assign to children are ones that have significant health benefits for adults. So before you snub the activity read on.

I will link a few articles here that talk more in-depth about the health benefits of coloring. But I think it’s so important that we all take time to relax and let down our guard and participate in something tactile, like coloring. It has proven to be a great stress reliever and helps improve focus and helps promote sleep. I don’t know about you, but as I have aged, I am more stressed, struggle with focus, and getting a full night’s sleep.

It is such a simple act of using a colored pencil to add color to a page. I really enjoy taking a picture before I begin and then after to see how the image ‘comes to life’. Don’t get caught up in doing it right. There are no rules. Just dedicate a little time each day or several days a week to healing your mind. So I challenge you to put yourself first, go find a coloring book online, order it, and just play.

Here are a few links to back me up:

Health Benefits of Coloring for Adults

7 Benefits of Coloring for Adults and Why You Should Join the Adult Coloring Craze

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Christmas goodies…

January 15, 2021 by Leave a Comment

new coloring books

Hello! It’s Friday and I am so happy today because it’s a weekend that we observe Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday so that means a long weekend. But the second reason is that I get to spend all of Saturday on Zoom crafting and catching up with my girlfriends. Since the start of lockdown last year, my friend, Ashley began hosting Saturday craft sessions on Zoom so we wouldn’t lose touch and to preserve our sanity. Because we all know, “Crafters gotta craft” and they also need to be with each other.

Over the past three weeks, I spent the holidays with my family so I missed our Saturday sessions. So I am getting really excited to hang out and craft tomorrow.

One of my gifts for Christmas were some new coloring books. One can never have enough of them. So I thought I would share a peek inside of each so you can share in the excitement.

Animal Odyssey

I placed this book on my wishlist a while back and one of the reasons is because sometimes, I don’t feel like fussing with tiny spaces. The images are rather larger and gorgeous which will lead to stress-free coloring. Below is a picture from inside.

I saw this next book while social distance shopping with my friend Joan at Michael’s in December. So I added it to my Amazon list right away.

I think I can really practice different color combinations and mediums for sunsets in this book.

There are very few coloring books that feature african american people in them so when I saw this one online, I knew it had to be added to my collection.

I love plants and gardening and how cool is it that these beautiful black woman are surrrounded by plants. I look forward to practicing skin tones with pencils. I have a good amount of confidence with my Copics but I don’t have a lot of practice with color pencils so I think it will be great to learn some good color combinations.

This next book just makes me feel cozy. Like watching the TV show Chronicle on weeknights, I enjoy small town main streets. So I can’t wait to combine my copics and colored pencils in this book. Creative Haven is a great book to use with Copics.

This page makes me think of when we are on vacation and visit the little shops. If you have a budget, Creative Haven sells all of their books at an affordable price.

Tomorrow, I will get to play around with these new books and catch up with my friends. Just what my creative soul needs!

Happy crafting!

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What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday #593

October 14, 2020 by 11 Comments

on my desk…

Hello, my crafty friends! It’s Wednesday and you know what time it is. Time to snoop. For those of you that aren’t familiar with WOYWW (What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday), head on over to Julia’s Stamping Ground and you will find desks from all around the world where we get to snoop on other crafter’s desks.

After heavy rain all of yesterday and late into the night, the clouds have lifted and the sun is shining bright making me very happy.

On my desk you can see my laptop, some new goodies that arrived for playtime, my coloring book, planner, and other odds and ends.

Thea my desk plant was getting lonely when I am away from my desk so I bought Drew the Dracaena to keep her company. He may require more light so I will see if he can thrive on my desk or else he will be moved closer to the window. Thea is a bit of a diva but I think she will warm up to Drew.

Above is my latest bargain. I was in Michael’s last week and decided to go into the clearance section. I am so glad I did. I found the stunning paper pack for $1.77!! I couldn’t believe it. I wish they had two because I would have bought more.

I used some of my new dies to make cardfronts at Saturday’s Zoom Craft session. I cut up the paper from that paper pack and love how it looks behind the silhouette deer and trees. I had intended on making some distress backgrounds but this was even easier without the mess. I also tested out some single deer dies. I just love animals in silhouette.

On Sunday, we made the trek to Ikea to go buy a new desk for my youngest son. This was a picture of the line. It’s long but it constantly moved so I didn’t mind much. They only allow a limited amount in the store so they set this up outside. Like Disney World, without the fun rides at the end. But I have to say once we got inside it was really nice. It felt like we had the store to ourselves. Definitely worth the wait. We found a great desk and a few other items.

I will leave you with the start of a new coloring page. I have been missing my coloring books so I made a point to take one out and listened to an audiobook while I colored. I found this great color pallette on Youtube so I have limited colors to choose from but it’s making for a fun time.

I hope you all well. I will visit desks over the next few days like I usually do.

Happy crafting!

Belinda

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