Reading, Writing & Pondering

  Do you like to color to relax? I do. I find anything artsy helps me relax if I put my mind into it and release my cares. New Mercies I See by Jennifer Tucker is full of gorgeous inspirational pictures to color. New Mercies I See has 96 pages of one-sided 10 by 10 pictures to color. The pages are thick and with the fact that they are one-sided, they work with markers, colors, or colored pencils. I personally like to use colored pencils the most but whatever medium you enjoy could be employed in this book with the way that it is layed out. It is a beautiful coloring book. There are gold accents on the pages. I like that but it also takes away a little bit of the coloring space, so just something to think about. I like to put on music to relax and just let myself color my cares away.   I received a copy of this coloring book from the publisher through TLC Book Tours. All opinions within this review are my own.

I received a sample packet of some really neat witnessing and memory verse tools for all ages from MemoryCross.com. One of the items I especially liked in this packet were the memory verse cards. They fold in and out so that you can learn part of the verse at a time. Hebrews 12:1-2 is my life verse and that was one of the verses. I think these would make memorizing both easier and more enjoyable with young ones or for myself if they were verses I didn't know. According to the company's website, "Memory Cross creates a unique origami style card that is used to share the Gospel. Each card contains four panels that are designed so the card never stops folding. The design fascinates children and adults, which is what makes it such great way to share God's love."They have the foldable card described so well that it makes it easy to understand how these cards work. In a similar fashion, there is the plan of salvation in a foldable cross message called ...

Creative Journaling is one of my favorite things to do to relax. 30 Days to Joy is a 30 day creative journal designed for people who like to write, draw, photograph, or collage. You can personalize the journal however you would like. 3 0 Days to Joy starts out with a short introduction explaining the difference between joy and happiness.The journal then has Scripture verses and quotes about joy interspersed throughout the book. In-between are pages with prompts to make your own creative work. There are also pages in the back to list the songs that bring you joy to make your own playlist on Spotify. The concluding pages of the journal invite you to write about what you have learned about yourself and where do you want to go from here. You can end the journal with a short page about you and all of the people you want to thank in your life as the author of your own book. I know I will use and enjoy this 30 Days to Joy journal. I have read through all of the prompts and the quote...

Coloring is still one of my favorite things to do. The Big and Little Coloring Devotional has something to offer both children and adults in one nifty package so both the young and the older can enjoy coloring. This dual age coloring book devotional allows adults to read a short uplifting devotional reading and to relax while coloring a more complex coloring picture. On the opposite page, there is a simpler picture for children to color that is age appropriate for younger ones. The Big and Little Coloring Devotional has 112 pages of uplifting pictures and readings to do together. I love the idea of this intergenerational coloring devotional. I have to be honest and say that I don't have little ones to color with me right now, although I am not above borrowing nieces or neighbor children to color with me with a mom's blessing. However, I still found the readings in the Big and Little Coloring Devotional to be encouraging and fun as an adult. They are short and refreshin...

Here's Some Happy: A Coloring Journal to Lift the Soul by Gina Graham is a large formatted beautiful coloring journal. Gina Graham has designed beautiful and whimsical pictures, some with Scripture verses and some without, in this journal that measure 10.1 inches square. There are plenty of lines amidst the pictures of birds, animals, flowers, adorable people, and other whimsical designs. They are indeed happy pictures to color and they are all on thick paper to minimize bleed-through. I have read that coloring reduces stress and these designs feel especially stress-reducing to me. Journaling also is said to reduce stress. Putting the two together in this gorgeous book should make for some "happy" to think about. People of all ages could enjoy this book too. The designs aren't too tiny for those of us who like larger designs like I do. This is a real feel-good coloring journal that would be fun for anyone who enjoys both coloring and journaling. I highly...

Reading my Bible and journaling at the same time helps me to process better what I am reading and allows me to use my creative side. The NIV Beautiful Word Coloring Large Print Bible allows all of those things to happen for me: reading my Bible, blank space to journal and pictures to color. Best of all, Large Print means this beautiful Bible is printed in a 10-point type size for easy readability. The Beautiful Word Large Print Coloring Bible measures about 9 3/4 by 7 3/4 inches.  The NIV Beautiful Word Bible is also done in a thicker white paper so artwork and journaling are less likely to bleed through. It also has a gorgeous floral fabric cover. Coloring Page with space on one page to journal or create your own picture and the other side with a coloring picture. Beautiful Full Spread Coloring Page in the NIV Beautiful Word Coloring Bible Three Large Print Journaling Bibles side by side: The Inspire Large Print Edition from Tyndale House Publishers in New L...

I have been using colored pencils more in my art journaling and wanted to learn more about blending and shading so thought I would try this book. Colored Pencil Painting Portraits is a truly gorgeous book. The author's portraits look like photographs, they are so amazingly well done. Colored Pencil Painting Portraits has 7 chapters. In Chapter 1, Nickelsen talks about what tools to get, work surfaces and materials to make your portraits the best. In Chapter 2, she takes the rules of successful oil painting and applies them to the colored pencil medium. In Chapter 3, she shares the techniques and methods for painting with pencils. In Chapter 4, she talks about understanding color and the properties of pigments. In Chapter 5, Nickelsen discusses composing a portrait from start to finish. In Chapter 6, she offers advice on practicing the key components of good portraits such as skin tone and facial features. In Chapter 7, Nickelsen talks about painting the portrait from start to ...

The Big Picture Interactive Bible Story Coloring and Activity Book is a great book for kids who like to color and do activity type worksheets. This large book has more than 200 coloring pages and more than 150 activity pages. This book is 384 pages total. It retails for 6.99 and I honestly thought it was a great buy for all of the fun things to do in this book. Along with the fun, kids are learning about Jesus and the Bible too. The Big Picture Bible Story Coloring and Activity book starts out with a note to parents explaining the goal of this book--to turn our young people's hearts to Jesus. This book is also designed to stand alone or to be used in companion with the Big Picture Bible and related books. The second page of the activity book offers a Parent Connection page to do a devotion and ask questions with your children along with the book. Then this big book is divided into Old Testament and New Testament activities. Besides all of the coloring pages, the activity pages...

The Parables of Jesus coloring book devotional is unlike any other Christian coloring book that I have seen. Besides containing a devotional, this book also contains pictures that are a modern artist's rendition of Bible stories. They remind me of some of the beautiful stained glass windows that I have seen at some old churches with their bold lines and beg to be filled with bright colors. The devotionals in this coloring book all contain a Bible verse(s)followed by reflections on the verses for each devotional and concluding with a prayer or a closing thought/activity/question related to the verse. Because this book contains parables from Jesus, as one would expect, the readings are all from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This large, beautiful book roughly measures 10 inches square and contains 46 illustrations that correspond with each devotional. For coloring purposes, each picture is done on heavy paper with a blank back side making it nice to use for ...

A Giving Heart by Stephanie Corfee is a coloring book created with mothers in mind through and through. This book would be great for any mom who likes to color. Mom can grab a cup of their favorite hot beverage, put on some relaxing music and grab their favorite coloring tools for a little "Me" time. A Giving Heart has 46 coloring pages featuring beautiful pictures of quotes, Bible verses, flowers, and many more things that Moms enjoy. There is a large variety of pictures in this collection. The pictures are on one side with the backsides either blank or with a single printed verse and accompanying tiny design. This is a good book for those who like to color with a heavier hand or to use markers without worrying about page bleed through. Putting an extra piece of paper or cardboard behind the piece you are coloring is also helpful, although these pages are made of a nice heavy stock. This collection of designs in A Giving Heart is made up of drawings with smaller, finer...

The Joyful Inspirations Coloring Book by Robin Mead is a beautifully illustrated coloring book brimming with cheerful, whimsical designs. The Joyful Inspirations Coloring Book has 96 pages of well drawn illustrations to color. I like Mead's renditions of people and animals with cheerful faces and large, bright eyes. I also like her illustrations of  summer beach scenes, churches, flowers, butterflies, birds, sunrises/sunsets, and so much more--many of which have Scripture verses that accompany them. This is just a wonderful coloring book to turn on your favorite playlist and relax with. I also especially like that Mead includes a page at the back of this book that list her favorite coloring products along with tips for using those products to create your best work. She also has a page with ten coloring tips that I found helpful. I tried blending some oranges and yellows to create the ball part of my sun in this picture. I hadn't done that previously. I plan to try that ...

One of the ways I best relax and diffuse stress is by spending time with God and creating. I like that Tranquility: A Prayer and Reflection Coloring Journal offers a way to do that in this beautiful little book. Tranquility has pages designed for uplifting your spirit through prayer and meditation, coloring, journaling, and drawing. In the introduction, you are encouraged to, "take it Slow," and to use the journal in your own way to reflect and connect with God in a creative way that is meaningful for you. I like the journaling prompts, prayers, and coloring pictures in Tranquility . I would encourage everyone to have sharp colored pencils ready for their creative work in this book as the coloring designs are on the smaller side. I also think the pages are too thin to use markers so I would stick with colored pencils. The coloring designs do have a bit of pre-printed coloring already done to them on some of the pages which means you'll want to stay within their c...

Many of us do think of our moms when we think of our homes. Home is Wherever Mom Is is a beautiful new coloring book honoring moms. This book is quite eye catching with its foil cover. Home Is Wherever Mom Is has more than 90 beautiful illustrations to color. The pictures are all nice homey type pictures and most are more intricate that some coloring books so you will want to use fine point markers or well sharpened colored pencils for your work in this book. There are a lot of nice Bible verses and quotes relating to moms throughout this book as well. Part of the quotes are to color within the coloring pages and part of them are part of the Hand Lettering tutorial. The front page in the book explains how to learn the hand lettering and it has a practice page in the back of the book. I wish it had about 3 practice pages but you can practice on your own paper too. This beautiful coloring book would make a nice book for mom to use to relax with if she enjoys creative p...

This week, Tyndale released a line of colorable stickers to use for journaling, scrapbooking or any other craft where you might see a use for these. I like the idea of colorable stickers. These designs are quite nice, as are the words on the stickers. I will use them in my journaling Bible or my journal. My only complaint is that I wish the designs were larger to color. At the least, I wish a few of the designs had larger areas to color. I needed to use my fineliner markers or especially sharp colored pencils to color the designs. Someone with especially good eye sight and better skills than I have may have no problems. I understand they are stickers so need to be smaller than a coloring book page but I think the lettering could have been a little larger for me. Still, I love the designs and the words so I would recommend them but  you do need to keep in mind the designs are quite small. I see the stickers are available at most places that carry Tyndale products: Amazon, C...

Everything Beautiful:A Coloring Book for Inspiration and Reflection is an exceptionally beautiful adult coloring book. This book is designed for coloring and meditation to remind the user that there is beauty in every day and our Savior is with us, no matter what our circumstances are. Waterbrook also has an Everything Beautiful playlist on Spotify to play while you are coloring. . .or anytime that you would like to be uplifted with this beautiful selection of songs based on this coloring book theme. Thick pages, front side only, perforated for easy removal, and a variety of both verses and quotes make this book exceptional in quality. Everything Beautiful contains original designs from nine different artists and is 96 pages long. There is a wide variety of subject matter in the designs which I especially liked. I also liked that the designs were ones that didn't have a lot of tiny spaces to color, which I prefer. I also appreciate that there is the complete words to a song...

One of my new favorite ways to relax is with adult coloring books and Bible art journaling. Zondervan's new NIV Beautiful Word Coloring Bible is a hardcover Bible illustrated with "hundreds of verses to color" and "lined, wide margins for notes, reflections and art." The NIV Beautiful Word Coloring Bible does have many great verses to color in. Most of them are in the side margins but a few of them take up a page or two and are especially gorgeous like this one: If you also enjoy art and writing in the margins of your Bible, this would be a great Bible for you to consider. Zondervan has made the white paper a little thicker for less bleed through. Although I would still encourage you to use colored pencils over markers. Some of the pictures have finer detail so you would also want those pencils to be well-sharpened. I think the print is nice and dark in the words of this Bible text. However, as I get older and my eyesight isn't quite as good, ...

The new Life Verse Creative Journal and Blank Journal are a beautiful, petite journal set. I already have a life verse but I loved this set. My life verses are, " Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." The Life Verse Creative Journal is a smaller size that I quite liked to stick inside my Bible to create along with my quiet time with God. This journal is aimed at choosing a life verse and making it your own, but even with having a life verse, there was plenty to help me learn and grow in God's Word. There are 15 verses with journaling prompts within the beautiful illustrations to color and work through. Eve...

Wonderland is a beautiful new adult coloring book form Amy Shen. Inspired by Alice"s Adventures in Wonderland, I think Wonderland is more than a coloring book. . .It offers a chance for you to give Alice a new adventure with your colored pencils. This beautifully illustrated coloring book tells a bit of Alice's story through the pages. You can meet the Cheshire cat, have tea with the Mad Hatter, and play croquet with the Queen of Hearts.  Besides coloring delicate scenes, Wonderland offers a few places for you to draw in your own pictures. For example, you may add butterflies to a page with two butterflies or add a few owls to the page with three owls on it. There is also a maze and a series of puzzles on "the playing car's scroll." I especially enjoyed the extra activities along with the coloring. Wonderland is best colored with well-sharpened colored pencils as most of the designs are fairly intricate. Some pages the coloring picture takes up the whole p...

The Wonders of Creation coloring book is a beautiful 96 page coloring book for adults. I have a few of the new coloring books and I have to say this one is especially nice. There are no words or verses in this book but instead the book is full of a variety of the animals God created. A few of the animal pictures included are a platypus, lion, rhinoceros, flamingos, monkey, penguin, sea horses in the ocean, and wild horse in the desert. Some of the pictures look true to life and some of them just look fanciful. Some are in fine detail and others aren't quite as intricate. I like that this book has variety all the way around. I colored one 2-page spread with colored pencils: The picture on the backside, I used both markers and colored pencils: I do think you need sharp colored pencils to do the intricate lines. Also, I had a little trouble with the markers smearing the black lines on the rooster page. I think you especially can see it in his feet. For that reason, I w...