About Coloring Archives - The Coloring Cafe

How to Save Money on Coloring

I am a known cheapskate.

There, I said it. Not so much that I’d show up on a segment of “World’s Cheapest Ever Ever Ever” reality show on the Lifetime channel, but I really don’t care about the fanciest labels and brands or having the latest electronic gadget.

But I will shell out a little extra for something that I think is worth it.

I go by the “cost per wearing” philosophy when it comes to shoes and clothes. For instance, I bought a pair of Frye boots over ten years ago (at a deep discount since it was a discontinued color, mind you but still a higher price than I would normally spend on boots) and I have worn those babies to death and they still look awesome and are super comfortable. Probably even more awesome because of their worn-in-like-a-best-friend-patina. I will probably have them for the rest of my life.

But if I need a cute sparkly top for a holiday party? Well, then I’m heading to my favorite thrift store for that! So, cost per wearing on the cute top? Maybe $7 (unless it’s half price day). The boots will end up costing me fractions of pennies by the time I have to retire them (which will be…never).

But sometimes budgets are tight, or an unexpected bill pops up (hello second to the last upper molar)! First the fun stuff goes away while we pay the non-negotiables.

But how do we save money on the hobby that also just might be saving our sanity? Coloring books and pencils (especially the good pencils) can fall into the “sorry, hon, maybe next month” category. I’ve come up with a few ideas on how you can still enjoy your stress-busting hobby without breaking the bank (or…er…that molar).

Hello, Thrift Shop!

After the initial craze of adult coloring, a LOT of people bought coloring books and they found it just wasn’t the right hobby for them, or they received a book as a gift that didn’t suit their taste. Guess where they head next? Yup, your nearest charity shop!

I have found lots of unused coloring books at thrift stores, especially at my local Goodwill store. At least at my local store, their book section is super organized, and I’ve spotted coloring books in the arts and craft section, the “self-help” area, and have found adult coloring books stuck in with the children’s books.

Even if a couple of pages are already finished, you can slice those out and have the rest all to yourself! Also, make sure you check out the school supply and craft areas for colored pencils, organizing bins, and clip boards (something I always use when coloring loose pages).

Free Coloring Pages are Your Friend

You already know how many free pages there are out there, so start accumulating them. It’s a great way to “test out” an artist’s work before buying a whole book (which is one of the reasons we publish free ones, btw, plus we like you!). I know not everyone has a printer, but you could load them onto a thumb drive (which you can buy at a dollar store) and bring them to an office supply store to print or even to your local library (check to see if you can use a thumb drive though, they may prohibit that). Speaking of public libraries, some even have pages to pick up and take home with you.

Also…organize the free pages you have already printed out into a folder or notebook so you can choose the next page to color easily. Its your own custom coloring book!

Gather the Coloring Troops

Host a swap night! Get together with your other crafty and/or coloring pals and bring along the materials that don’t suit you but may be perfect for someone else. Food, fun, and free stuff—what could be better than that?

Home is Where the Color Is

Go through the books you already have and mark pages that you haven’t colored yet with post-it notes. I suspect (not that I know anything about this), you may find you have lots to choose from your own stash! And the pages you passed over before may be just the perfect one for you right now.

I hope that’s helpful to you and as always—happy coloring, my friend!

PS. And yes, I know most dollar store have coloring books, but I have not found them to be the quality we prefer. Every once in a while you’ll find a gem, and if you do, buy two!

5 Ways to Improve Your Coloring Pages

If you’re new to coloring or even if you’ve been coloring for years, these five tips can help take your coloring pages from good to great!

#1 Learn How to Blend your Colors

Many colorists start out simply choosing a color they like and filling in the spaces on their page. One space, one color.

But after a while they see other artist’s pages on social media and think, “why are their pages so pretty and mine are kind of, ‘meh’”?

Look closely and you will see how they are probably blending colors. Which sounds more complicated than it needs to be.

Look at the sample below. In Step 1, I simply laid down a pretty pink for the front petals and a medium pink for the ones behind. In the second step, I used darker shades of each color to give it dimension. In Step 3, I used an even deeper shade of the same color to really make it stand out. And finally, I did the same with the center of the flower.

Practice this technique on some of your older pictures and watch how your pictures come to life!

#2 Plan Your Palette

No need to use every color in your box on every page. Some of the most striking pictures can be achieved with limiting the number of colors you use.

You can even challenge yourself to try a page using say, all blues or pinks, or only yellow and purple. You can achieve amazing results by limiting your choices.

#3 A Little Art Appreciation Goes a Long Way

Pay attention to the art you like, whether it’s at your local big box store, a fancy museum, or on your own wall.

What colors did the artist choose? How did they handle contrast? Did they use texture or patterns to create marks?

Studying how they did it and thinking about why you are attracted to it will help you employ new techniques to improve your coloring.

#4 Contrast is King!

Using contrast in your pictures is the easiest way to improve their look. Sometimes, you finish a whole picture and although it’s okay, it might seem a little flat and not very exciting.

Well, adding contrast is what brings the party to your pages!

Contrast is the difference between two elements in a picture. The use of contrast adds drama to a picture. It’s dark against light, smooth next to texture, strong colors next to pastel.

Achieving it is easy. Just make sure you have a variety of light, mid-tone, and dark colors in your pictures. If you feel like your picture is “flat”, go back over some of the colors with a deeper tone of the same color to increase the interest and drama in your picture. See the difference in the two pictures below?

You can also flip through this book to see all the wonderful pages to color. Just click here!

#5 When You Can, Improve your Coloring Materials

It’s usually true that quality supplies often bring better results. For most things— although I have yet to tell the difference between store brand and name brand peanut butter!

But with art supplies I have found that to be true. However, if you don’t have the top brand of colored pencils, that does not mean that you cannot create amazing pictures!

Use what you have, enjoy the process and when you can, move to better supplies—but trust me, the generic peanut butter is fine!

10 Things to Love About Coloring

There are lots of things to love about coloring! Getting lost in a design, challenging yourself to improve your skills, and the satisfaction of finishing a complicated page are just a few things. But I’ve added 10 more reasons that we’ve chosen this path to express our creativity!

1. Express Your Creativity

With the wide variety of subjects and styles, coloring books can provide you with the framework for making your own special marks on the page. Once you start coloring, it becomes your unique piece of art and you get to decide how the final picture will look.

2. Coloring Calms a Monkey Mind—at least for a while, anyway.

Coloring has long been used as a part of art therapy and with only a coloring book and some colored pencils you too can calm you mind. Although not a substitute for counseling or therapy, coloring can be a piece of your self-care. Learn more here.

3. It’s portable

No need to tote a million art supplies with you when you travel or know you could be delayed. Just pull out a coloring book and a small pack of colored pencils and color away the boring bits of life like sitting in the DMV waiting for your number to be called. There are travel books available too which are so easy to tuck into your purse or bag (and by the way—everyone else will be jealous of you)!

4. It’s clean

One of the few crafts that doesn’t leave a mess behind or all over your hands! No need for water that can spill, sticky glue, or glitter that gets everywhere) to bring your colorful pages to life.

5. You can color and still watch Netflix!

Coloring takes “some” of your concentration, but not all of it! It’s a great way to work on your pages and still enjoy the next season of Schitt’s Creek or Outlander.

6. If you’re coloring, you can’t eat!

Cookie crumbs and potato chip stains can really wreck a beautiful picture! Mindless coloring is way healthier than mindless eating and you end up with a masterpiece to boot. (and the Oreos will be waiting for you when you’re ready for a break)

7. The decisions you make are not earth-shattering

For sure, we “make mistakes” when we color—wishing we’d chosen a different color, or we messed up a pattern, but we’re not being graded on our work, and most of the time you can fix what you don’t like by coloring over with a darker color or changing up the pattern. It’s not about perfection, but expression and relaxation. And if you really hate it, you can always tear it out of the book and start a new page!

8. Your Pages become Memories

Just like songs can bring us back to a time and place in our life, so can creativity. As you look back on the pages you colored you can remember how you felt at the time that you colored them. And like anything, we get better the more we do something so you can track your progress by looking back at your previous pages. Some colorists like to sign and date their pages, so they remember when they created them. What a colorful diary to look back on!

9. Color Alone or with Friends

Coloring is a perfect hobby to do just for (and with) yourself, but pull out some coloring books, pencils and a few snacks and watch your friends and family gather ‘round for coloring and conversation. It’s usually the ones that say “Really, you guys??? Coloring?” that are the ones that get into it the most!

10. Coloring = Happiness

Just watch how your mood changes when you open a book and start coloring. After a few strokes of pink, or yellow, or deep blue, did your shoulders relax? Did you let out a sigh? Do you feel just a little lighter? Blending colors that please you or finding new combinations you haven’t used before can make you smile, and when you smile, everything looks cleaner and brighter.

Coloring in Weird Times

The world can feel a little wobbly some days, especially when we’re busy with work, taking care of parents, crafting yet another home-cooked meal, or trying not to melt down over another “zoom school” crisis.

But think back “before” (you remember “before” right?) we had ever heard the name “Covid-19” or “corona virus” and “pandemic” sounded like something from ancient history. Coloring back in those times was comforting and stress relieving and actually fun! Maybe you’ve set it aside since there are just so many things to take care of right now but now—especially now, coloring can be an even greater source of comfort and a place to bring something beautiful back to your world.

Think of the sound of the pencil moving across the page of your coloring book, filling in spaces with rich hues and shades of your favorite colors. The mini-choices you get to make that are all yours, the impact of those decisions is minimal; they are purely there to make you a tiny bit happier, nothing earth shattering here. There is no wrong when it comes to coloring. You think those flowers look better in purple? Go ahead. Or red. Or orange. It’s all up to you.

I realized after drawing the pages of over 25 coloring books that once they are placed in your hands, they become yours, not mine. You didn’t color a Ronnie Walter picture, you colored a Sarah Smith, or Yvonne York or a Patti Parsons. It’s yours now, all yours. Make it the way you want to. You have the power, my dear!

Finding a quiet spot for yourself amid uncertainty, noise and confusion is one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself these days (along with wearing a mask in public and eating a vegetable now and then). Creative expression in any form sooths us, encourages us, and gives us a place to put all those feelings. We get to leave them on the page. Oh, and you get a cool picture and memory to boot!

I’d call that a win-win—especially in weird times like these.

-Ronnie

You are Enough Special Edition Coloring Book

Need some Stress Relief?

How A Childhood Pastime Now Helps Adults Relieve Stress

By Jim Marcotte

Adult Coloring books are showing up on bestseller lists worldwide. Coloring for adults has moved out into the mainstream, people are toting books and pencils around with them wherever they go. What the “colorists” know, however is this pastime is not only fun, there can be significant therapeutic value as well.

So how is this more than just a fun way to pass some time?

Art in many forms (music, dance, painting and drawing) has long been used in various therapeutic settings. A century ago Carl Jung would instruct his patients to color in mandalas to improve their focus and allow the subconscious to let go. Getting people comfortable with expressing themselves creatively can help resolve issues with stress, self-esteem and communication problems, problems with attention and focus, even some physical and behavioral issues. It’s not just a theoretical link, published papers now show that art therapies can benefit patients with issues related to cancer, PTSD, and other stress-based disorders and anxiety.

Color My Heart Happy and It's a Girl Thing Coloring books from The Coloring Cafe®

Coloring pages from To-Go the Coloring Cafe

Adult coloring, while not technically a medical procedure, is thought to work in a similar manner. The calming, repetitive motion can temporarily “rewire” the brain and shift focus away from dominating negative thoughts and onto the colors and movements. Dr. J. Pearson, a neuroscientist at the University of New South Wales, says the actions of coloring – looking at the shape and size, finding the edges, picking out the colors – can help reduce the appearance of anxiety producing thoughts and images by occupying the same area of the brain with what is essentially a meditative process. As Dr. Pearson told NineMSN, “Anything that helps control your attention is going to help. With coloring, you have some rules but it’s not too challenging. You need to focus in to achieve it but it doesn’t have so many rules that it’s stressful.”

Some therapists refer to coloring as a form of “active meditation.”

It has long been accepted that repetitive motions can help with focus and calming of the mind, and where the mind goes the body follows. Runners and walkers, knitters and even doodlers have long enjoyed the benefits that come from practiced, repetitive motions—and now, equipped with a set of pencils and a coloring book you can enjoy those benefits anywhere. We hear from moms who swear by a little coloring to end the day and quiet their minds after the kids are in bed. Students bring them to lectures because they can actually concentrate better while coloring diverts their nervous energy.

Sometimes people just want to unplug for while, and coloring is a low cost, low tech method to help ease the stress of our fast-paced high tech world. Settle in, pick a color and listen to the rhythm of that pencil on the paper as your creativity flows onto the page. It is a beautiful thing, but remember not every “colorist” is in it for the therapy. Adult Coloring is a fun and relaxing creative pastime, it’s rewarding all by itself. The other benefits – those are a bonus!

Jim Marcotte is a writer and business consultant. He and his wife, artist Ronnie Walter, are the founders of The Coloring Cafe®.

Why Adult Coloring Is Such A Hit

by Jim Marcotte

As I write this, ten of the top fifty books on Amazon’s Best Seller list are adult coloring books. Six of those are in the top twenty-five, including the book at number one. Numero Uno. Their bestselling book, selling millions of copies. Even though there has been a fair amount of media coverage about adult coloring of late, for many people this is still a bit of a head-shaker. Coloring books? For grown-ups?

Absolutely. And they are trending up with a vengeance.

Adult coloring is not exactly new. It has been around for years as a therapy tool, mostly used as a means to reduce stress and anxiety. There was also a small group of dedicated “coloristas” who enjoyed coloring as a hobby, but that group is no longer small by any measure. So what happened?

A few years back a Scottish artist named Johanna Basford pitched an adult coloring book to her publisher. Though skeptical, they decided to publish a first run of thirteen thousand books – a pretty big commitment – and promptly sold them all. Now, several million books later, Basford is credited with kickstarting a trend that shows no signs of peaking.

So what is it about coloring? There are a number of reasons it is so popular:

You do not need to be a skilled artist to create a beautiful design. Here at The Coloring Café we have coined the term “guided creativity” to explain it. Because you are not starting from a blank sheet, coloring becomes a calming, non-threatening method of expressing creativity. All you need is a book, some colored pencils or markers, and you are on your way.
It’s simple, basic therapy. Fans of coloring report that it helps quiet the mind and at the same time increases their focus. It’s a great way to disconnect for a bit, to leave the frantic pace of our digital world behind and mindfully create something beautiful. It’s meditation without the mantra or cramped legs.
Coloring is a versatile pastime. It can be a quiet calming moment, perhaps unwinding after the kids are in bed, or it can be a social event complete with wine, snacks and laughter (just don’t spill on your newly created masterpiece!). We have supplied coloring get-togethers, birthday parties and wedding showers with coloring book and pencil kits, and the participants have raved about how much fun it was.
Coloring is portable. You can tuck a book and pencils into a purse, tote or briefcase and use them to pass the time anywhere. Long waits at the doctor’s office, in the car to pick up the kids, passing time in a hospital room—virtually any spot can be a coloring refuge.
Coloring can be social. There are Facebook groups with thousands of members, Pinterest and Instagram pics galore, groups springing up in cities large and small. Even the “anti-social media” social media site Reddit has some coloring subs. You can share your creativity on these sites or just hang out and be inspired by others, because with coloring there are no rules!
Coloring is a versatile pastime. It can be a quiet calming moment, perhaps unwinding after the kids are in bed, or it can be a social event complete with wine, snacks and laughter (just don’t spill on your newly created masterpiece!). We have supplied coloring get-togethers, birthday parties and wedding showers with coloring book and pencil kits, and the participants have raved about how much fun it was.

For all these reasons and more, I think coloring will be much more than a fad, in fact I believe it will remain popular for a long time to come. So jump in, shed that stress and make something beautiful!

Jim Marcotte is a writer and business consultant. He and his wife, artist Ronnie Walter, are the founders of The Coloring Cafe®.