Color and Relax Thursday - Christmas in July

Hello, my friends! It is HOT - in the high 90's and low 100's - where I live...so let's do some more Christmas in July! Today I am sharing a coloring book project that I finished about a year ago, maybe a bit longer. I have not had a chance to share it on the blog, so here goes!

I completed this...I guess you would call it a circular mandala of sorts...using colored pencils. There is a lot going on here, so I chose a limited color palette. I stuck with red, green, white, tan, and gold.  Very simple colors.

I worked my way around the page by coloring like objects, such as coloring all the flowers, then moving to all the candy, and so on. I tried to make sure to "sprinkle" the colors evenly around the page. 

The book is this one by Johanna Basford, which you can find all over the place, but also on Amazon HERE. It is under $10 as of this writing. I actually have two copies...one I bought for a few dollars second hand, but it had several pages scribbled upon. A friend gave me a second copy, just in case. {smile} 

The book is approximately 10" x 10" and contains 80 single sided pages. The back sides of each page have a gray line "wallpaper" design that can be colored as well. It is a lovely book with all sorts of Christmas-themed drawings. The book has been out for a while, but is still widely available. 

I chose to use colored pencils because alcohol markers seemed too "fat" for all the tiny spaces. Plus, I adore using pencils. (Do NOT tell my Copics that!) There is a tiny bit of gel pen for the snow here and there as well.

I used Arteza Expert colored pencils, which I purchased directly from Arteza HERE. I actually have two sets, because they had a huge price break at one point, so I bought a "back-up" set. {Don't judge!} They have since begun to sell open stock pencils, too! The current price for the 120 set is around $68, but it fluctuates, plus they sometimes run sales and specials. A three-pack of single color replacement pencils is currently $6.  

Note: I do NOT have any affiliate links. I just post links to where I personally purchase things. I also have NOT received any product for free in exchange for giving a review. These items are things I purchased for myself and enjoy using.

And, yes, I have a lot of pencil sets and brands! I cannot help it! I love to try all sorts. Every time I think, that was the LAST set I will purchase...another one catches my eye! I have cheap sets, and mid-level sets, and low-end expensive sets. I have yet to purchase one of the super expensive high-end sets....but you never know!  

The Arteza pencils were pretty nice to use on this paper. The paper in this book is fairly thick (feels close to 80#), smooth, and slightly off-white. The pencils could blend a little bit, but the paper did not take too many layers. Aretza is a fairly waxy pencil as well.

It took so long to do this page that in the end I decided to NOT do a background. I was thinking to do a black or deep blue background, but did not want to have to color around all those tiny objects! In the end I decided I liked the white background!

If you have never tried this type of coloring project, give it a go! It is a lot of fun to do when you are sitting watching TV, or trapped in the doctor's office, or bench-sitting while waiting on your kids. 

Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions, or if you have suggestions of other types of things you'd like me to color and share.