New Old Obsession! Coloring Books/Posters

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I have always loved to color, both inside and outside the lines.  With the uber cold weather and snow this month has brought us here in Upper East Tennessee it's brought back memories of snowdays and long hours spent with a box of Crayolas by my elbow and that particular scent of crayons tickling my nose.

Super Tubes from 1990's 

My senior year in high school we had a blizzard that resulted in a week long hiatus from school where I filled the hours coloring on a Giant Coloring Poster (22 x 34) that came in a Super Tube by Creative Coloring. The tubes were color coded based on difficulty: Red - Ultimate Challenge, Yellow - Skilled, and intermediate and novice, but I don't remember the color of their tubes. The Super Tubes had a variety of designs and patterns you could choose from and they came with a pack of 10 markers. The markers were not very good, because you'd get a corner of the poster done and you were suddenly out of ink and you couldn't match the color with any other marker brand.  The only long lasting rich color marker is the crayola.  I finished my first super tube poster with crayola markers.  I went looking for it, but its buried with my husband's poster collection and I would need his help to pull it out.  I think the picture to the right gives you a good idea of the size, scope, and detail these things had.  My first super tube was of a giant celtic knot.  So gorgeous.  My second is the Fantasy Kingdom, pictured here. Unfortunately, it met with a tragic end when I spilled my soda over the bottom portion. The other poster, Scope, was doused with water. These posters have been in their tubes for years, forgotten.  I pulled them out this past fall to show Neverness's girlfriend, Ms.K . She likes to color too.  She has several of the Dover coloring books that she colors with Gel Pens while we are gaming or what have you.  They really intrigued me, but as my me-time calendar was so full last fall that I didn't persue the thought. I was telling her that after several years these coloring posters just disappeared and you couldn't find them any more.

Rose Art Super Tube
 Window Ultimate Challenge

She found them at Ben Franklin Crafts. The Super Tubes were produced by Rose Art and I got one for my Birthday!  This is almost the exact duplicate of my first poster.  The catch to working on something this size is to have a space to spread it out to work on.  Right now I don't have a place big enough. I'm tempted to get a big board and get down in the floor with it, but then I would have to contend with furry four footed helpers.

For Christmas I got Ms. K a new coloring book that the more I look at it the more I like it, but haven't been able to find it at the local book stores or Micheals.  The Bink and I went to see Disney's Frozen and as I have a Disney coloring book collection to go along with my Crayola collection I went into a little bit of a mad dash trying to find a Frozen Coloring book.  I'm sad to say that every Frozen, water color, coloring book is a disappointment.  The detail in every one is so small that even the finest tip would result in disaster.  I gave up the chase on that.

We eventually found ourselves with a hour to kill while waiting for a table at Chili's with Neverness, Ms. K, the Blonde Wolf,  and Da Masta Cheef. After storming Barnes and Noble for suitable coloring endeavors. I called it quits as I had plenty to keep me occupied in the studio, when Ms. K presented me with a copy of Coloring Book for Grown-Ups.

I pulled out my trusty crayola markers that I've had for so long that 2 out of the 50 are dead.  Since I'm actually watching TV this year due to some fantastic shows like:  Almost Human, Blacklist, FaceOff, and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. I pull out my book and markers while watching my shows.  This allows me to be creative and meditative without dragging the studio into the living room.

Coloring Book for Grown-Ups
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