Review - Simple 1-2-3 Color & Frame Coloring Book - 3 in 1 - Animals, Seasons & Inspiration

I found this beauty at T.J. Maxx for a great deal since it's three books in one. It contains Color and Frame books Animals, Seasons and Inspiration. Seasons is my favorite, since it contains weather and different times of year that isn't as common in adult coloring book as animals and flower patterns are!

The paper is not thick, but it's not thin or typical printer paper quality. With Stabilo 88 point .4mm pens I had some bleed through. The pages are one-sided and are perforated for easy tear out. You can add sheets of paper in between the pages to prevent any bleeds or just tear out your drawing before you start. Colored pencils are recommended for this book over markers.

This book is spiral bound so the illustrations are flat and easy to color.

There is a "color palette inspiration" page on the opposite side of the cover page when you open the book. I like to image my own color palette so I didn't find this helpful. I think it's just something colorful to fill up in the inside of the cover. It does preview 4 pages that are available in the book for coloring.

This book offers a mix of semi-intricate designs with simple designs to color. There is a variety of images. I don't like that some pages are primarily black with only a few white parts to color. There are many pages with repeating or tiled designs. I find those boring. There is a page full of just zebra print. I don't like coloring pages like that.

     

While there are quite a few disappointing pages, there are some pages that I adore and can't wait to color. I like that Seasons offers back to school, winter, Christmas, Halloween, etc. pages. A few previews of my favorites are below.

 

 

  

For the price, this book was a good deal for a newbie colorist at $7.99 on discount. You can practice new techniques and find out what you enjoy coloring the best. For someone more advanced at coloring, this book would be boring. I'm split over enjoying half of the pages and hating the rest.

ISBN-13: 978-1-68022-244-9
Published by New Seasons, a division of Publications International, Ltd.
Created and designed in the USA.
Manufactured in the USA.

Review - Simple 1-2-3 Color and Frame Nature

I was thrilled to find Simple 1-2-3 Color and Frame Nature at Marshall's. It has a variety of pages to color. It is preforated, so the pages are easy to tear out. The pages are 8 inches by 10 inches. If you like to frame your creations, this book is a great choice. The pages are one sided. There are no two page spreads. The book is spiral bound.

I don't like how some of the designs spill over past the preforated line, so you lose some of the design. I would have liked it better if they left the perforated area as white space.

The paper quality is not standard printer paper or thin, but it's not high quality paper either.

I love the variety of designs. The coloring book has fruit, owls, abstract designs, flowers, fish, and much more. There is even a cute camping page to color.

Here are some preview pages:

 

  

   

 

  

I especially look forward to coloring these adorable little cacti!

I like that this book offers some simple pages to color that can be finished quickly. Sometimes I'm in the mood just to color a page without starting a big coloring project. This book offers the both of best worlds. There are intricate designs and simplicity.

I used Stabilo 88 .4 mm fineliners. I had a couple of tiny bleed throughs on the back of the page, but nothing bled through to the next sheet. You can always place another sheet of paper behind the page you are working on. If you're using markers, don't use a heavy hand or go back over the same spot more than once or let the link pool. If you used very "wet" markers, you'd probably have more bleed through. You can also tear the pages out ahead of time and not worry about bleed through at all. Colored pencils would work wonderfully on pages in this book. I bought this book specifically to try out my Stabilo fineliners though.

ISBN-13: 978-1-68022-111-4
Published by New Seasons, a division of Publications International, Ltd.
Created and designed in the USA. Manufactured in China.
02/29/2016 publish date

Color and Frame - Nature and Stabilo fineliners

This weekend I picked up a copy of Color and Frame - Nature by Simple 1-2-3. It has one sided pages that are easy to tear out. I thought this coloring book would be perfect to try new techniques on before I start scribbling in some of my more expensive coloring books. I found this book for $4.99 at Marshall's.

I wanted to buy some Staedtler fine liner markers this weekend to see how I liked coloring with those. I had my 40% off coupon ready to go at Michael's, but they were all sold out of Staedtler pens. I did find a 30 pack of Stabilo 88 point markers, so I bought them instead. I am very excited to try those out for a review.

Don't forget you can buy colored pencils and markers/fineliners at Michael's and use their online coupons! You can usually always score at least 30% off. They do not let you use coupons on coloring books though.

>> Click here for my review of Color and Frame Nature.