Grown-up colouring in...

...is currently all the rage here in the UK.

I don't understand why it has taken the publishing world so long to cotton-on to the fact...

Suddenly, retailers have shelves full of colouring books aimed at grown-ups and there is also a 'part-work' publication on the go at the moment promoting the fact that colouring can be very therapeutic - go figure; could have told them that yonks ago LOL

Still, I suppose it is better late than never and now grown-ups who might not otherwise craft can feel okay about buying colouring books rather than pretend they are for the kiddies.

I love colouring. I have always loved colouring and the craft world of stamps & digi images have fed this love over the years but I decided to treat myself to one of these...

 ...it is an A5 size journal type booklet full of a wide variety of designs that I can play around with. The weather is still playing up the old 'arfa-ritis' but these are images that I can block colour if I like and they are just for me.
This was the first image that I completed using my new Cracked Pistachio distress marker...

 ...I wanted to see what other shades from the range would work well as solid blocks rather than worrying about shading - I was rather pleased with the result.
I then pulled out all the browns & beiges and came up with this...

 ...now normally when I'm colouring, I would be using alcohol pens that blend smoothly but I quite liked the 'shabby', 'distressed' look that these markers have given. Yes; I know they are water-based and I could have blended everything with a water-brush but this was 'playtime' and I was rather pleased with this effect.
The great thing about colouring in like this is you can play around with colour combos. I wasn't so sure about this one...

 ...but it was great spending some 'me' time just following the lines and filling in the spaces - no pressure.
The booklet does contain a number of designs that I would not usually consider for colouring but I actually found this one to be quite useful when playing around with colour combos...

...the 3 cracked pistachio frames have different in-fills and the depth of colour really does create a different effect. The other 3 frames are all coloured with an in-fill of broken china and the actual frames are from the red range of shades - again, very different results.

So if you haven't done much colouring because you have been put off by the thought of having to stamp some images or pinching some pages from the kids colouring books - you can now get yourself some of your very own colouring books (there are themed books such as fairies, flowers, cities, Celtic etc.) and the fact that they come in A4 or A5 sizes you can pick what is most convenient for you.

For me, colouring and blending with my alcohol pens is still my passion but this type of 'no pressure, no worries' colouring is very relaxing - go on, give it a go...........................................................