Art Therapy Adult Coloring Kit

Healing Patterns Adult Coloring Art Therapy Kit for Christians“Healing Patterns: A Coloring Book for Adults” has become the focal point for a new art therapy kit. The scripture-centered coloring book, which has been available since May 2015, has now been released as part of a ready-to-give gift set. These gift sets are currently sold in ETSY’s Zisubu Artique craft store. 

While using a book like “Healing Patterns: A Coloring Book for Adults” is relaxing and therapeutic no matter what your state of health, adult coloring books are especially beneficial for those facing illness or battling through a difficult recovery period. Often people are unsure of what gifts would be appropriate for someone who is ill, facing surgery, in a rehabilitation facility, or confined to a sick bed. An adult coloring book is a great way to combine entertainment with health benefits. It doesn’t require a great deal of concentration to color an illustration, so even those too medicated to enjoy much reading may still be able to engage in coloring. And an illustration can be colored in tiny increments, so a patient can do as much or as little coloring as they have energy for. An earlier blog post entitled “The Effect of Art of Healing” details some of the physical health benefits of an activity like coloring.

The HEALING PATTERNS art therapy kit was created to take the work out of getting started with therapeutic coloring. The kit brings together everything you (or the person you gift it to) will need to start coloring. Inside each gift set (packaged in a clear, re-sealable plastic bag) you will find:

  • One SIGNED copy of “Healing Patterns: A Coloring Book for Adults” – I have made signed copies (with a short hand-written message) available for these art therapy kits so the kits offer something different from what is available directly from the book stores (e.g. Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Lulu, Ingram, The Book Depository) in USA and Europe.
  • One ready-to-color greeting card and envelope – the front of the greeting card displays a design that brings together elements of one of the illustrations in the book and a scripture (Mark 10:27). The card can be colored and framed as an artwork, or used a greeting card (with or without coloring it). The card is blank inside to encourage the user to express their own thoughts, write poetry, or simply jot a note for someone else. Part of the joy of being creative lies in sharing your creative efforts with others. This greeting card is a simple opportunity for the user to benefit from a coloring exercise, while also making something useful to share with someone else.
  • One Healing Patterns postcard (4″ x 6″) – the colorful card is printed with a variation of the image from the back of the coloring book. The reverse side of the postcard has space for a message, an address, and a stamp. The postcard can be mailed using a standard postal stamp.
  • A set of pre-sharpened colored pencils (12 pencils)
  • A pencil sharpener (because pencils won’t stay sharp on their own) – anticipating that this kit may be given as a gift to people who are not necessarily in their own home where they have access to everything they need, we included a small pencil sharpener in the kit. That way, there is no need to give up your coloring time just because a pencil tip broke or wore down.

If you don’t want to try coloring for yourself and you don’t know anyone you could gift an art therapy kit to, consider donating one or two kits to your local clinic/hospital or assisted living facility. Many churches also have hospital visitation programs – drop some art therapy kits at your local church and ask them to distribute the kits to people during their hospital or home care visits. Zisubu Artique ships these art therapy kits worldwide.

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Create Your Own Greeting Card Characters

Rainy Day Crafts "Make a Face" DIY Card KitDeveloping learning materials requires mental flexibility. You have to bend your thinking to wrap itself inside and around the project objectives. Some days, you are faced with heavy, academic projects, where the highlight of the day coincides with you spotting that delinquent isosceles triangle masquerading as an equilateral. Other days, the challenge is less academic and rather reminiscent of carefree playtime. But therein lies the delight of learning: there is no one right way to encourage learning. Variety keeps the learning experience engaging for the developer and the user of the learning materials. Learning materials can take the form of textbooks so heavy they could serve as lethal weapons if you tapped them a little too vigorously on someone’s head. But learning materials can just as easily evolve as toys, art assignments, woodworking tasks, sewing projects, or some other imaginative activity. Some people may not consider craft kits to be more than a pre-planned activity to keep children busy, but crafting is a wonderful way for children (and adults) to learn on a number of different levels. Craft kits lean towards the “playtime” edge of the learning spectrum, so the lessons learned by crafting are not always obvious in an academic sense. It’s unlikely that an activity such as making a handmade greeting card will directly affect your ability to ace your next calculus test. However, making greeting cards along with any other crafting activity you engage in, should  be stimulating your imagination while contributing to your skill repertoire. (Next time you buy a book or toy for your child, ask yourself what they will gain by using your gift.)

One of the highlights on my work this month was the opportunity to design a new greeting card kit. The first run of these “MAKE A FACE” DIY card kits were released last week. These kits are currently available from Zisubu Artique, a craft store on Etsy.

When I sat down to design this kit, I wanted to give families the opportunity to gather around the kitchen table and make something unusual together. But, I didn’t want something so unusual (in the bizarre sense of the word) that it would be destined for the trash bin. I like to make practical, useful craft items for myself, so I usually try to maintain that same objective when designing for others.  Greeting cards are an enjoyable way for people of all ages to share their thoughts, encourage others, and practise gratitude. And what better way to add value to the words you share, than by making the greeting card yourself? The “MAKE A FACE” DIY card kit contains most of what you need to make a character-focused, handmade greeting card. You add the craft glue and a marker pen (or colored pencils, if you prefer). A pair of scissors is not required, unless you want to take your creativity to the next level. Even though this looks like a children’s craft item, don’t be fooled. It’s best to stock up on enough kits to satisfy the whole family, because no-one can resist googly eyes. The “MAKE A FACE” kit is the kind of kit that will bring out hidden creativity in everyone from the pre-schooler to grandpa.

Crafting has the tendency to become tedious if it’s too easy, so I like to throw a challenge into my kit designs, even if its just a small challenge. Don’t be alarmed – the “MAKE A FACE” kits involve a little more than gluing. Yes, you get to draw! And yes, I know some people are terrified of drawing, because someone way back in their past made them believe they are useless at drawing. If that is you, then today is your day to start afresh. Treat this kit as if it is your first drawing assignment ever, and remember that the character you create is all yours.  You can’t draw your character incorrectly, because your character comes from inside your head. If he ends up with a crooked smile, broken nose, messed up hair, and squint eyes then BRAVO! THAT is your character and you created him to look that way.  Don’t let anyone tell you differently.

Included in the kit are five blank head shapes. They are your foundation for character development. I cut these heads free hand, so every kit is guaranteed to have five unique starter characters for you to play with.  You can use all five heads on your card, but I prefer working with three heads.  Glue down your favorite heads in any arrangement you like. Now add the googly (moving) eyes. The eyes are everyone’s favorite bit, but watch out for “jumping eyes”. The googly eyes tend to build up static and may jump out of your hand when you try to free them from the package they come in. Hold on tight or you will crawling around on the floor looking for eyeballs.

Once the heads and eyes are glued in place, you can free your inner creative genius. Start small by adding a curved line as a smile. If that doesn’t seem too scary, add a wild hairstyle, a scarf, perhaps a bowtie, or even a hat. Still feeling the flow of creative juices? Go on. Don’t stop now. Add a body. Remember that there are no rules here – the creature you create can be terrestrial or alien, so don’t worry if you end up with three legs and seven hands. Mistakes can evolve into something  quite remarkable, if you permit it.

If you are doing this activity as a family or in a group environment, encourage the participants to talk about the characters they are creating. Share ideas. Develop a story together. This is a great opportunity to help young people develop story-telling skills.

When your character card is complete, turn it over and attach the “made especially for you by….” label provided in the kit package. Sign the label so the card’s recipient knows who put in the effort to make such a memorable greeting. Then give your handmade card to someone and let that person know you how much they mean to you.

 

 

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