Little Mandalas Stained Glass Coloring Book (Dover Little Activity Books: Art & Desig)

Is this a repeat of another review? In bits it is but I've edited it for this book.I knew that I was ordering a small sized book. It was exactly what I wanted to color and give away to people I live with in the nursing home to enjoy in their offices or give to the joy of 5 year olds. I've done them with pencils, gel pens, and hi-lighters...I've even mixed the media. It's great fun to see the enjoyment of something I've created.Here's what I've discovered:One rule on every page of every stained glass coloring book, always put a blank piece of pager behind the one you are working on or my eyes crossed...remember, the areas you are working on as SEE THROUGH! Be nice to yourself and your eyes. Working this way also helps you see where you missed spots that you want to go over...all yellows especially!Colored pencils (I use Arlana's Vivid Colors because they are the smoothest without any scratchy bits inbeded) work well if I were going to use them as package decorations or looking at them close up. On a window, they just don't pop the way I want. Though I must say, parents of the 5 year olds who received them, just love them! (I must admit, I really more enjoy bright intense colors! That's me. You might favor them more...it's all a matter of personal preference.)Gel pens (I use Gel Pens 60 Pack with Case...the ones incased in a case almost as long as I'm tall) because I like the glittery ones' effects on things like stars. The gel pens sometimes flow well which means I don't have to keep going over and over them to show up as much as I want. I did some area with colored pencils where I couldn't find the right gel pen to give me my right color. I do like the pens for some of the tiny fiddly bits.OOPS! 'sorry, I forgot a WARNING! There is no way I could fill in the unicorn manes and tails and stay between the lines! DON'T PANIC if you have a similar problem! It will only show up close! On the window, the light only shows through the positive bits (the area you color)! You won't see it on the window! PROMISE!!In the set I got, there were 2 glitter pens that looked like they would fit my mental outcome for the mane and tail. One was silver, the other almost looked like it might be a glittery black. One the velum, it comes out more a glittery grey that sits on the paper better (ethically for me) and looked great on outer edges, I just don't like the silver in the stained glass. Flat white with pencil and gel pen just didn't do it for me many time. Again, play and see what you like. There are NO RULES IN COLORING...if there are, YOU ARE THE RULER!Oh, lines vs circles...I've used both and enjoyed the effects as typically the glass used in real windows is often imperfect. In tiny areas I liked the overlapping little circles best as they seemed to cover the areas faster and better. Again, try it and see what you like.Hi-lighters (yellow, green, pink) that I always have with me in ball point pens and pencils. Go over them twice to see something really pop! Pretty up close and far away! I've since had a friend pick up a purple and a blue pen. I'm so ready to play with them. I'm ordering more little geometric books like this because I doubt I would do another the same way. Thinking about using the hi-lighters on another, I wonder what effect I'd get if I used the hi-lighter blue on one side and yellow on the other...would the effect be green? See what I mean...the more you think about and try ideas that pop into your mind, the more you learn.I dearly love these little books because for a couple of dollars, you can get hours of fun. When I find a new coloring book, I always read the reviews. I find some great ideas from other people. Some have posted their completed pictures...love them! Some have backed the completed pictures to create a card to send to someone or put on a package. One of the aids suggest creating a mobile of them. If I wasn't intent on giving them away, I'd think about that idea.I'm ordering some water color pen/brushes to to see how they might add to my color time. I'm also ordering a colorless blender as I've heard they will work on colored pencils, pens, and water color as well. I want to revisit the pictures to see if I can improve them. I like these little books because I can get quick gratification! And a fast lesson when I experiment.

I purchased this little Mandalas book with the intention of attaching them in a patchwork sort of pattern onto a square lightbox lamp once they were all colored in. So far I have colored I have 2 done, because I am taking my time. After all...coloring is intended to be relaxing and I do find this book is both relaxing to color and the mandala patterns are nice to look at (whether colored or uncolored).I am really enjoying the texture of my pencils on this paper. It has a bit of a waxy feel to it and even when I press down hard with the pencil the paper holds up well under the pressure and remains flat and intact.When colored in they do look very lovely in a window or in front of any light source and I will likely purchase some of the other varieties for different art projects. These would also look very nice framed, either with a backing on the frame or with the backing removed.I am very happy with this little coloring book and having paid the full retail price I would gladly do the same again.This is a great little book for adult or child colorers alike. They would really be a nice gift for any age group.

This book is sooo cute. I bought it so that I can color and paint them and then use them as ornaments on the Christmas tree. It's really easy to do and a great project if you have kids, something you can do together. I have a single hole punch and I cut the black part of the page down about an inch so that I could punch a hole about 1/4 inch about the Mandala, then after I color it in I carefully cut around the Mandala and with some nice ribbon or string I make a loop. These are also good as gift tags if you have a light colored or metallic gel pen or those metallic sharpies. I used the gold and the silver to highlight and put some dots on the pattern after it's been colored to make it more festive and to make the design pop. You can't go wrong with this. This coloring book is great and has lots of nice patterns!

For a couple of bucks, this small coloring book led to quite a few hours of fun for me and my daughter. It's rather small in size (each page is about the size of my coffee cup) but my 3 yo really enjoyed how there was no set pattern and she could mix and match any colors in any way she wanted. The pictures are also supposed to look like stained glass, and look nice when you hang them in a window. There are not very many pictures in the book but still felt like a pretty good deal for around $2. We used washable markers to color these and the pages did not bleed through. We also bought the Garden Flowers stained glass coloring book which was very similar, and that one was nice too. Recommended if you have little ones who enjoy coloring and crafts. Pretty easy way to entertain them for an hour or so.

I bought this cute little coloring book for two reasons.1. It's 8 small and easy to color Mandalas.2. I wanted something I could practice on before starting on a more complex stained glass coloring book that I also just bought.I just got it and I have already colored 4 of them. Its so relaxing! There are a couple of things I would like to point out.1. While this is easy to color, I can spend some extra time practice your shading, which turns these pictures from pretty to WOW!2. I would recommend a couple of pages of plain white copy paper be placed under your picture as you are coloring, because the paper is see thru to give it that stained glass effect. This can make coloring it difficult because I can see the lines of the next page as I am trying to color.3. THESE PICTURES ARE SUPER PRETTY WHEN FINISHED!! I want to display them in a window!!!!!

I have bought a selection of these books and this review is for the "little Mandalas" stained glass colouring book. This is a mini book that has different designs of mandalas and other geometric symbols.They all have the image in the middle with the background being black. They are roughly 9cm and printed on transparent tracing type paper and the book is roughly 10cm x 10.9cm in size. The images that is printed shows through on either side. There are 8 different ones to colour in total.These are great to cut out and use as window decals and this will give your window a stained glass effect as the light can shine through the pages.You can colour in the pages using crayons, water colour paints/pencils or pens or alcohol pens.

Would def recommend

Okay if you like colouring in on something other than paper - I didn't

Nice pictures but book is tiny! I wasn't expecting an a4 book but I was expecting bigger than this

About 8 pages, daughter had them coloured in 10 minutes