As I mentioned a few posts ago, I have been in contact with many people who are allowing me to review their work. In the spirit of being upfront and not accused of copying anyone else, I will list these below so we all know what we've got to look forward to seeing on my blog in the near future! First of all, I am excited to announce that companies such as Stabilo, Tinc, BiC, Pentel, Uni-ball, Edding and West Design Products have offered to send me some pens and pencils for me to review here on Colour with Claire! Check out what I have received so far! As you all know, I'm a massive stationery geek so this is a dream come true for me! Stay tuned for my pen reviews coming soon! Click the blue 'Read More' link to see what amazing books I have coming!
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Hi everyone. I have been saddened this past couple of days to have received several messages from 'followers' of another colouring blog, whom I won't name, alleging that I have 'stolen' the idea of reviewing colouring books. It was also phrased to me as 'stealing someone else's clientele'. I have found this bullying behaviour quite stressful, and frankly to have so much hostility directed towards me for doing something I love has been extremely upsetting.
I'd like to make a statement to those people who have messaged me, and the blog they have come from. Anyone can review any product, unless someone has obtained exclusive reviewing rights with an author or publisher. If this is the case, the publisher/author will inform the person of this fact when they make a request. Since I began this blog, I have been in contact with many, many different authors and publishers, NONE of whom have said they have given exclusive review rights to another party. The authors/publishers I have communicated with have gifted me review copies HAPPILY, many of them contacting me first. Let me reiterate: Unless an agreement has been made with an author/publisher, NO ONE owns anyone else's work to say that they are THEIR products to review, or THEIR clientele alone. Something I have been repeatedly accused of is liaising with the same publishers/authors as this other blog. The Adult Colouring book market is fairly new, and not saturated with vast amounts of books as other genres are. As bloggers for colouring, we are BOUND to come across the same publishers and books, and as long as we don't copy and paste each other's reviews and market them as our own, there's no harm in that! It's a perfectly standard procedure for an author/publisher to receive many requests for review copies of their work. When a person has a product that is suitable for review, they want as many reviews as they can get. It's all publicity, it's all good! Unless those reviews are a carbon copy of someone else's words, there is no copyright infringement. To review the same book as someone else has reviewed is not copyright infringement. If it was, Amazon would only allow 1 review on their products, as would Goodreads! No one is ever going to be the only person reviewing a line of products, as nice as that might be, because no one owns the market. There is always going to be other blogs popping up- especially in this growing trend that is Adult Colouring. Here's the difference: I welcome it. I love reading other people's thoughts on books, and seeing their beautiful colouring. I'd love for Adult Colouring to have hundreds of blogs, getting the subject out there and sharing it with the world. I love chatting with other colourers and the community that is growing with it. After all, isn't this all supposed to be fun and enjoyable? Another thing that's barely worth mentioning but has been directed at me a couple of times is that I 'stole' the phrase 'pen porn'! I had a good laugh about that one, especially as I checked the blog just out of curiosity and couldn't find the phrase anywhere- not that a phrase can be owned by anyone of course, unless you're some mega corporation! I'd now like to mention the people who have been supportive of me in this venture, and the lovely comments I have received on my blog and Facebook page so far. Your continued support is helping keep a smile on my face and my spirits up, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Hi everyone, boy have I had a mad 24 hours responding to requests from authors and publishers, and making requests of my own. I have LOADS of great colouring books and products on the way from all over the globe to review for you, and I'm so excited to get colouring! Just a few of these are: Doodle Invasion and Doodle Realm by Zifflin.
I'm in the middle of doing a review for a gorgeous book, Colour Therapy, which will be up very shortly. In the meantime, I've put my Sharpies to good use in getting my fan ready for summer! Let me know what you think! Claire xx I have been pretty obsessed with stationery, particularly pens, since my school days. I used to spend lessons swapping what I had with others, trying always to swap whatever cheap pens my Mum could afford with other people's illustrious Uniball Signo gels! Now I can afford my own, I thought I'd show you exactly what I use to do my colouring. I've only recently purchased these Ergo Soft pencils by Staedtler, and I'm finding them great for blending and shading especially. They have a white core around the lead, which supposedly helps them not to break. The presentation case is lovely, but I can't help thinking it will be useless once the pencils have been sharpened to a shorter length. The pencils themselves give great coverage, and are true to the colour they're supposed to be. They are very soft and silky to the touch, and with them being triangular they're comfortable to hold for long periods of time. Here is a pic I did with them: These are the pens I use the most and I LOVE them! The fineliners are just 0.3mm and are ideal for intricate designs, whilst the fibre tips are 1mm and easier to use in bigger white spaces. They both give brilliant, vibrant colour, and glide over the paper so smoothly it truly is a joy to use them. They do not bleed through any paper I've used so far, which is a MASSIVE bonus. I've been using them now for a month, and done plenty of colouring but they're still going strong with no noticeable signs of running out. They are dry-safe, which is great for those of you, like me, with children who love to help Mum colour but aren't so good at remembering to put the tops back on! They're also triangular for comfort, and presented in a another useful, foldable case. I bought mine from Amazon for around £10 each set, but you can buy them from pretty much any good stationery shops. I saw they have the fineliners on sale in Rymans for £8.99, so it might be worth popping in and snapping some up before they go! The pics below were done with these pens (though the lady's face on the first pic was done in pencil). Now for my Crayola Twistables collection! These are a cross between pencil and wax, and give out the most glorious bold colour that looks like marker, at the same time allowing you to shade like a pencil. These are my go-to pens when I want my picture to look really striking and bursting with colour. There's no mess with these, as you simply twist the end and more pencil screws out, so they're quick and easy to use. There are an array of different colours available; I got these + the fatter version (which are great for bigger spaces) in something called a 'Colour Can' for around £10 on eBay, and they last absolutely AGES. I would definitely recommend them! Have a look at the gorgeous pics I have done with them below. Last but not least, my gel pens! Bought these from 'The Works' for £4 per pack of 30. They're assorted metallic, neon and glitter, and are absolutely gorgeous! They glide perfectly, without leaving any of those scratchy marks you might find with other gel pens. The ink flows well, the downside of which is that they seem to go low quite quickly. Still, the glitter ones are extremely glittery! For £4 a pack, you can't afford not to have these in your collection. I hope you've enjoyed rifling through my pencil case! What pens are your favourites, and which would you not recommend? Why? Please leave me a comment and I will reply :)
A few days ago I nipped into a brilliant discount bookstore we have here in the UK called 'The Works' to see what I could see- and found this beautiful colouring book called Vintage Patterns. It was on sale at just £5, and I knew as soon as I saw the word 'vintage' I definitely had to buy it! As you can see in the photo, I also bought a pack of gel pens- more about those later!I was so impressed with the book, I decided to contact the publisher and they very kindly sent me a copy of their new travel-sized book, The Gorgeous Colouring Book for Grown Ups! Although a few of the pages in each book were the same, I had so much fun colouring the beautiful retro designs that I can't wait to do them a second time in different colours! I'll be talking about both books in this post, due to the similarites. The paper quality is very high; my Triplus fine/fibre tips did not bleed at all, but Sharpies (as usual) did go through the other side. The smaller book has a lovely soft feel cover, and is just larger than A5, meaning you can slip it in your bag and take it wherever you go- I used mine in the doctor's waiting room yesterday! The designs are done in an assortment of line thicknesses, from delicate fine point drawings to thick bordered outlines. I loved the variety because it meant I could use different mediums for different effects- gel pens or fineliners for more intricate detail, and my fat markers for the large, bold patterns! Here are some of the pages I've completed so far! I used a mixture of Crayola Twistables, assorted gel pens, and my triplus markers. As you can see, I had LOADS of fun colouring these designs, and I'm looking forward to completing the books so I can show you some more! I would really recommend these two books for the variety of designs alone, especially for someone who's a fan of all things vintage- it definitely takes you back to that great old 60s and 70s wallpaper!
You can purchase Vintage Patterns and The Gorgeous Colouring Book for Grown Ups at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vintage-Patterns-Creative-Colouring-Grown-Ups/dp/1782432272/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1429717821&sr=8-2&keywords=vintage+colouring+book and here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gorgeous-Colouring-Book-Grown-Ups-Discover/dp/1782434461/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1429717879&sr=8-2&keywords=gorgeous+colouring+for+grown-ups Welcome, new followers, to my brand new blog, in which I will be keeping you up to date with all the new books and materials I buy and receive along my colouring journey, as well as reviews of each book/product so you can get an insight into them before you buy! I hope you will continue to follow me as I discover new things about the world of adult colouring!
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