Adult Coloring Books

Have you heard about the latest trend in stress relief?  It's adult coloring books, and they are all the rage!  I have been seeing them everywhere lately.  About a month ago, I ordered one from Amazon. Then, I walked into the book store a couple weekends ago, and there was a huge display of them right up front.  At the craft store earlier this week, I saw still more coloring pages, and then just a few days ago, I saw that Zulily was featuring them too.  I can't turn a corner without seeing them everywhere these days!

Unlike their kiddie counterparts, adult coloring books feature interesting subject matter, usually with detailed and intricate patterns.  They are designed to allow you to zone out on a calming activity while putting your creative juices to good use.  

I now have two of them.  Although I have only started coloring in the folk art book so far.  

Here's a look at my first masterpiece, colored with markers.  There are lots of pages like this, with repeating and symmetrical patterns.  For this page, I repeated my colors through the whole design for a very consistent look. Oh, and if you are using markers, I would recommend putting a blank piece of paper behind your coloring page so the markers don't bleed to other pages. 

And my second page- I also used markers on this one.  I feel like Dr. Seuss might just live in this little village. I left a few pieces of this one uncolored for a little more negative space.  And I really like how it turned out. 

My most recent page is one that I completed with crayons.  I feel like I have more color options with crayons, but they have to be sharpened to get in those small spaces and patterns. 

I'm finding that each page so far takes me a couple hours to complete and I definitely don't finish them all in one sitting.  But that's the nice part about it.  You can always come back to it.  It's not a race to finish- it's supposed to be relaxing, remember?  When you are out of time or are no longer feeling inspired, just put it down and save it for another peaceful time.  I've been coloring before bedtime, and it really does put me in a very calm state at the end of the day. 

Anyone else out there giving these books a try?  I'm thinking this is the perfect activity for the cooler fall and winter days ahead.  I always loved coloring as a kid.  I guess some things just never change!