ADULT COLOURING BOOKS

After a stressful day at work there is nothing I enjoy more than coming home to colour in front of the TV. I'm typing this with my dad's cardigan on and a cup of tea, and I'm already looking forward to some colouring after my bath. Pure comfort. Sometimes you just have to take some time out and focus your mind. And colouring is the perfect distraction. I'm building up a collection of books but I thought I'd show you a few of my favourites.

Secret Garden, by Johanna Basford, was the first colouring book I bought back in September. My nan had just died, and I'd had a couple of stressful weeks at work, so I was looking for something to clear my mind. That night, after bringing the book home, I coloured for about 5 hours. I get bored easily so this is impressive for me. I found that it really helped me to relax, especially after work and on my days off.

Basford is probably the most popular creator when it comes to colouring books. She has a few others but I remember seeing this book everywhere before I finally bought it. I want to buy Lost Ocean next.

Millie Marotta's colouring books are also increasingly popular and Wild Savannah is the newest addition to her collection. I'm going to South Africa in September so this seemed perfect for the plane on our looooong 15 hour flight.

As soon as I flicked through the pages I knew I had to have it. I usually use gel pens but I think I might start experimenting with pencils and shading for these pages, especially the Lion. I've seen a few photos on Instagram of pages people have coloured in and I am well and truly inspired.

I haven't started this book yet but I love it. It's inspired by pages of Vogue and the fashions in the fifties so there's a lot of ball gowns and cocktail dresses from a few different designers like Dior and Chanel.

The great thing about this book is you can experiment a lot more with the colours of the outfits. I think I'll end up spending ages on this book, making sure the outfits look good and the colours match. Not sure whether to use pencils or gel pens on this one because the gel pens sometimes bleed into each other, and I might want to do some shading like with Wild Savannah.

Apologies for lack of photos of my actual colouring in. I practice on some other books that I don't like as much as these ones.

It seems I'm not the only one buying colouring books at the moment. They've become incredibly popular recently, and they are a great way to de-stress. Let me know in the comments if you enjoy colouring in. I'd love to know what books you have.