I was quite surprised when I posted a photo of my colouring creation in the book The Secret Garden on Facebook the other day. Close to 50 likes and over 30 comments on the page, questions about the book and wonderful comments about how beautiful the page was looking. There were a lot of questions about the book, the quality of the paper, etc. Since I am a writer, what better than to use my blog to answer all your questions.

Over the winter I saw a piece on the Today Show about “adult” colouring books and how they are becoming all the rage. The piece was specifically about Johanna Basford and the success of her first book The Secret Garden and her new book The Enchanted Forest. It was then followed up on a piece on HuffPost and this is what started the craze that everyone has jumped on.

Of course, I went to to Chapters stores in search of the book. Unsuccessfully, as luck would have it – you get a spot on Today and HuffPost. I ended up ordering it on line and had it shipped to the store. I waited a couple of weeks and then it was ready for pick up.

Do the markers bleed through the pages?

While I was waiting for the book to arrive, I started to read some reviews on Amazon.ca about the book. Everyone was so impressed with the book, loved the pages and was so excited to get started colouring. The one comment was that the colour bleeds through to the page behind therefore you can’t really use the next page. When I got the book, I was surprised about the paper that was used. It is more like a ‘sketch’ pad, ivory colour paper, a bit rough, for lack of a better word. I would have thought it would be a white stronger ‘card stock’ type paper to avoid the colour bleed.

At first, I wanted to “save” the book, and photocopy the pages. I know that sounds crazy (as I was told by a friend yesterday) and decided to forgo that idea and start colouring. I am hooked. Can’t get enough. I have tried to take time out of job searching to get in some colouring. It really does de-stress. Seriously.

I bought a 24 pack of Sharpie ultra fine markers. A cool “80’s Glam” colour scheme. They do bleed through. On the authors blog, she addresses the issue and offers other marker suggestions that she has tried and do not bleed. The brand name is  Staedtler Triplus.

Or…you could be like my great Aunt (in her 80’s) who shared a photo of her OWN colouring book using coloured pencils – she said the pencils are great for shading. I haven’t tried coloured pencils yet, but I will give it a try at some point. Some of the pictures have very small patches to colour, and unless you have a very sharp pencil crayon, you may not get in the lines. That may be an issue for some. I am a bit of a perfectionist and I try really hard to stay in the lines, which is why I like the ultra fine sharpies.

The books are not ‘cheap’, but I think it was well worth the money and well worth the wait. Much cheaper than therapy…LOL…seriously….why should kids have all the fun.

Share your photos of your finished pages, I think sharing would give people inspiration.

I am happy my photo sparked such a great conversation.

Off to colour now,

Lisa