A grown up guide to colouring in

We love colouring in around here. So much so that we have almost an entire shelf on the bookcase dedicated to colouring in books. And don't get me started on the variety of crayons, textas and pencils that goes with it.

Being artistically challenged, I always go for the colouring books where someone with real talent has done all the hard work and I just have to fill in the blanks. Seeing as I do much of my colouring in with a 4 and a 3 year old, we all like to come out at the end with our version of a master piece.

These are a few of my very favourite colouring books which are great for both young and old.

With the recent movie release, Alice's already huge popularity has taken a staggering leap forward. But as with all the classics, the original is always the best. This is a 64 page abridged edition with colouring in pages of the originally published illustrations.

You really can't beat the Rosie Flo's and Johnny Joe's colouring books for a cross between paper dolls and colouring in. There is currently around 16 different books in the range.

Taro Gomi is the king of squiggles. His big fat drawing and colouring books are great fun as they encourage you to elaborate on his simple designs and complete the picture. Great for older children who are a bit beyond simply colouring between the lines and developmental learning and following direction

Issue 5 of Anorak is dedicated to colouring in. I love Anorak as it has a bit of everything for kids and every issue has a colouring and drawing feature and it's always something out of the ordinary. Issue 13 is all about drawing too!


Currently one of my favourite graphic artists is S Britt. His artwork keeps popping up in all the places I love... Junior Society.... School Years Journal.... and so many more. This is his clever little colouring book you can get from his store on Etsy! Oh and his website is my ultimate favourite too!

I'm sure there are so many more, these are just a few of my favourites. If you know of others, let me know, the collection always has room to grow!

Hump Day Helper #14: More colouring in

I've been doing a bit of blog catch up reading today and a recent post on Zooglobble was a review on John and Mark's Children's Album which looks like fun and must make a mental note to go back and check out again later.

Anyhoo, we've also gone colouring in page crazy here at the moment with a creative little preschooler who never stops doodling. We have a *massive* box of colouring in books at home, I like to find really old and vintage ones for the girls too, but then I sometimes can't bring myself to let them sabotage them. So problem solved, John and Mark have made a downloadable PDF colouring in book from the artwork on their album. They describe it as "16 pages of mildly disconcerting fun!" which sounds right up my alley :)

Find it here