family coloring activities Archives

Four Ways to Use Coloring Pages this Christmas

6 March 20185 December 2016 by Dr Lewis

Turn your MERRY CHRISTMAS family coloring pages into gift wrap paper - #ZisubuArtique Coloring is nice to do, but what do you do with your masterpiece when you have filled the page with a rainbow of color? Do you throw the page away? File it in some dark drawer never to be seen again? Keep it visible in the hopes that someone will notice your artistic genius and compliment you? You invested a lot of effort into filling the page with color, so it only seems right to do something creative with your masterpiece. But what?

4 WAYS to USE COLORING PAGES

Here are FOUR ideas that will work for using and/preserving any colored page, but are particularly well suited to Christmas themed paper such as the MERRY CHRISTMAS FAMILY COLORING PAGES from Zisubu Artique. Have fun celebrating the countdown to Christmas with these easy-to-implement ideas.

1 – MAKE TABLE PLACE MATS

Many local office supply stores offer lamination as a service. Take your family’s masterpieces and have them laminated in the heaviest coating your budget will allow. (Don’t forget to ask each family member to sign and date the back of their page before you take the trip to the store. That way, next year when you pull out the placemats for December, you will be able to reminisce together about your masterpieces.) The laminated pages make unusual and festive place mats for your dining table throughout the year, but especially at Christmas.

2 – MAKE CHRISTMAS GIFT WRAP

A letter-sized (or A4) page is just the right size for gift wrapping a tiny gift. If you are giving small items (e.g. plastic gift cards or small candy bars or toys), they can easily be wrapped in a colorful page. Turn the unwrapping session into a fun guessing game, by getting each gift recipient to guess who colored their wrapping paper. If you are only wrapping BIG BOXES this Christmas, consider wrapping the boxes in simple kraft or other monotone paper. Cut the undecorated border away from the colored region of the page. Glue the vibrantly colored part of the page onto each of the six sides of the plain-paper covered big box to produce unusually decorated gift wrap.

3- MAKE A STRING ART GALLERY

Remember those strings strung above the fireplace on which people would hang the Christmas greeting cards they received in the mail? Borrow from that idea and create a string gallery for your family’s Christmas greeting masterpieces. Use colored clothespins to hang the pages from a line, and create a festive “art gallery” in your living room.

4 – CREATE A JUNK JOURNAL

Junk journals (also called dream diaries, keepsake albums, traveler notebook, etc.) are fun books that you can fill with all sorts of ephemera (that’s scrapbook talk for odds and ends that mean something to you e.g. newspaper cuttings, ticket to the first movie you ever watched with your husband-to-be, recipes, quotes you love, dreams you cherish, etc.). You can think of a junk journal as a scrapbook with none of the OCD rules of real scrapbooking. Create a junk journal to document this Christmas countdown and cover your journal with one of colored pages. Use other colored pages to make unusual interior pages for your journal.

COLORING IS AN INVESTMENT

Coloring is good for you, but it is also a time investment. Don’t toss your colored pages in the trash. Invest a couple extra minutes this festive season, and turn your coloring efforts into something useful that will start conversations and bring back memories in years to come.

Bigger is Better for Christmas Gifting

24 October 2016 by Dr Lewis

#ColortheCarols - Color the Christmas Carols COMBO Comparison If you have spent any time with me, then you know I struggle to get through a conversation without asking questions. How. Why. When. But it seems I am not the only one with a case of the dreaded questionitis. You have questions, too. And it only seems fair that I should spend some time answering your questions. (By the way, if you would like to ask me a question, feel free to use the contact form on this website to connect with me.)

I am going to devote a few blog posts to answering questions about our family’s newest creative project: the Color the Carols COMBO. If you are not already familiar with this product, you can read more about it how this project evolved in earlier posts on this blog. In this post, we are going to explore why there are TWO versions of this COMBO, and which one is the best fit for YOU.

Why create TWO versions of COLOR the CAROLS COMBO?
It is said that variety is the spice of life, is it not? We know people like to be able to exercise their freedom of choice, plus we wanted to create variations that would work for a variety of different folk. But we didn’t want to offer too many choices – that makes shopping stressful, and this COMBO is all about de-stressing. So we settled on two variations: the basic COMBO, and the BIG COMBO. Both COMBOs are currently sold and shipped (domestically and internationally) by the Tiger Music Store in Texas. Both COMBOS are ideal as gifts (or to treat yourself) – the BIG COMBO simply packs a few extras into the parcel.
What is the difference between the COMBOs?
The basic COLOR the CAROLS COMBO includes the following items: a copy of the UNADORNED TRUMPET CAROLS CD, a copy of the COLOR the TRUMPET CAROLS adult-friendly coloring book, an insert that lists all 49 tracks from the album in alphabetical order (so its easy to find your favorites quickly), and a letter from the creators of the product.
The COLOR the CAROLS BIG COMBO includes the following items: a copy of the UNADORNED TRUMPET CAROLS CD, a copy of the COLOR the TRUMPET CAROLS adult-friendly coloring book, an insert that lists all 49 tracks from the album in alphabetical order (so its easy to find your favorites quickly), a letter from the creators of the product, PLUS a set of colored pencils, a pencil sharpener (because it’s easier to color with sharp pencils), and a ready-to-color Christmas card (and envelope – so you can mail it as soon as you have finished coloring the card).
Which COMBO should I get?
The COMBO you select for yourself depends on what you already own (or can borrow from your children’s school supplies). If you already own a box of colored pencils or markers, then you probably don’t need a set that contains these items – the basic COMBO will suit you. The colorable Christmas card is a fun item to add your own creativity to, but note that the BIG COMBO only contains one such Christmas card. (The basic COMBO does not include a colorable card.) Need more than one card? You can buy a family-sized set of these ready-to-color Christmas cards directly from my ETSY store.
If you are buying a COMBO as a gift, and don’t know the recipient too well e.g. you have no idea if they already do a lot of coloring or not, consider buying the BIG COMBO. It includes everything the gift recipient needs to get started right away with coloring. (A coloring book without crayons is a bit like a battery-operated toy without batteries – not so much fun.) The major advantage to purchasing the BIG COMBO is that you can start coloring as soon as you unpack your order. No need to make a trip to the store to get colored pencils or a sharpener. You are ready for coloring action, so there is no excuse to put off starting your relaxing countdown to Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS Family Coloring Pages

6 March 201821 October 2016 by Dr Lewis

Coloring is not just for kids PLUS it’s good for your health. How many times have you heard that said recently? You know it’s true, but your nine-year old is adamant that he is too old to color, and dad… well, dad thinks he outgrew crayons before the turn of the century. Then grandma wants to color, but she says the adult coloring books are too detailed for her eyeglass prescription strength. The solution?

FAMILY TIME

The MERRY CHRISTMAS FAMILY COLORING PAGES were created to bring families together around the kitchen table (or on the lounge floor if you don’t have a big table). The set of pages uses just one basic illustration built on the words: MERRY CHRISTMAS. The basic illustration is further evolved to include three additional skill levels. The result is an easy-to-print, coloring activity that is suitable for the whole family. Print one page for each member of the family. Choose the page that is appropriate for each person based on their age, attention span, dexterity, and ability to take on a challenge.

BEGINNER LEVEL

BEGINNER (Level 1): This is a basic, broad-lined illustration built on the words “MERRY CHRISTMAS”. There are large open areas to color, and the shapes are a mix of gently rounded and facetted. This illustration can be comfortably colored with wax crayons and colored pencils or markers. This illustration is best for the youngest members of the family or those with impaired eyesight.

INTERMEDIATE LEVELS

INTERMEDIATE I (Level 2): The BEGINNER illustration is upgraded to include some smaller areas. The use of wax crayons may become more challenging with this illustration. This illustration is best for colorists who are comfortable with staying inside lines and need a little more challenge than a BEGINNER colorist does.

INTERMEDIATE II (Level 3): The BEGINNER illustration now has many small regions begging for color. Fine pointed pens or pencils work best for this illustration.

ADVANCED LEVEL

ADVANCED (Level 4): This page takes the BEGINNER design to new heights. You will find LOTS of small details to color on this page. The small, open areas seen in the other illustrations now boast small patterns and embellishments. If you have a family member that thinks coloring is for little kids, THIS is the page you hand to them. This is a very detailed page and likely to be overwhelming for the youngest members of the family.

MAKE IT A GAME

Get the family together, open that extra big box of colored pencils (or invest in a couple of 12-pencil sets so there is no fighting at the table), and distribute the page assignments. The entire family will be working on the same illustration, just in varying degrees of detail, so everyone can feel that they are part of the same project. The activity can be made more fun by adding restrictions for the older family members. For example, let the youngest colorist choose the colors of the letters. Everyone else must stick to this color choice for their bases colors, but are challenged to use their imagination to integrate those colors in a creative and eye-catching way. If you have ideas for creative coloring restrictions that make this activity more enjoyable for the teens and adults, please add them in the comment section below.

CHRISTMAS BOOT CAMP

Coloring together stimulates conversation. Have you been longing for family chats, but have a family that is too glued to their phones to remember the archaic activity called conversation? Announce a Christmas Preparation Boot Camp (just don’t call it “boot camp” or they may take to the hills) for the family, set aside two hours after a weekend dinner (those “I am so bored” rainy days work best for families that are new to coloring), and just do it. Inevitably, conversation will flow. It’s difficult to maintain silence for a couple of hours when you are using your hands for more than just “swiping and clicking”. It might start with “stop stealing my red crayon!“, but eventually the debate about which color to use may lead to other more interesting topics. Give it a try. Download your MERRY CHRISTMAS FAMILY COLORING PAGES from Zisubu Artique.