Vive Le Color! India (Coloring Book): Color In; De-stress (72 Tear-out Pages) Paperback – Coloring Book, 19 Aug. 2015

The media could not be loaded.  There is a wide variety of themes available in the Vive Le Color series, I have three in total which were sent to me directly from the publishers to review on my myrandomreviewsblog blog, I figured I'd post my thoughts on amazon too. This review is for the India themed book. In this book you’ll find a lovely selection of designs featuring elephants, flowers, Indian Gods as well as several henna and paisley style patterns. There’s also a bird or two in there.The flower in my photos has been completed with Crayola Supertips, which did not bleed through and the Henna style pattern I completed with Marco Renoir Fine Color coloured pencils,which are available on Amazon. There are varying levels of difficulty, some designs have larger spaces to colour, while there’s some very intricate designs for those who love colouring complex images. The less intricate designs are perfect for my daughter as they can be completed more quickly, she loves the complex designs but doesn’t have as much time as she’d like to complete them because of school work. I find the complex designs more relaxing, it takes more concentration to colour these in, which means my mind is taken off my anxiety. With 72 pages there should be plenty to suit whatever style you prefer. The book measures 17 x 17 CM and has a sturdy cardboard back, meaning that they are very portable and you don’t have to work at a table. My Daughter carries the one around with her in her school bag with some mini pencils so she can sit in the yard and colour on her lap during lunch breaks. Even the most complex of the images don’t seem so daunting thanks to the size. The images are big enough to offer opportunity for shading and fine details, while also being a manageable size. Great for experts and beginners like myself. The paper is a good quality, meaning most mediums will not bleed through, but should you experience bleeding it’s not a problem as the paper is only printed on one side. I really love when adult colouring publishers do this as I know I can use anything I like to colour and I won’t be ruining another image should my pens bleed through. Placing a peice of card stock inbetween offers extra reassurance if you need it, but we didn’t have any issues with ink soaking to the page underneath. Each book, when opened lays flat. I love this because it means it’s easy to colour near the binding. We find that with other books we’ve used, once you get a quarter of the way in through the pages you have to put a lot of pressure on the spine to open up the book to reach the designs and it’s really nice to not have to do that with this book. The pages can be easily torn out without ruining the paper, this means you can either tear them out to colour if you wish, or frame your completed designs, my Daughter plans to write a poem or personal message on the blank reverse and laminate some of her completed designs to give as gifts or instead of Birthday cards to her friends and family. I think it’s a great idea.

Very small book, with lots of intricate pictures - difficult to colour without using fine liners. Paper quality is excellent, and it's easy to carry around, but a lot of images don't seem particularly Indian, or are too small to colour. If this book was A4 sized, with the pictures increased in size to match, it would be much better.

When am stressed I like to do these books and just zone out great buy