Happy STAMPtember!

I am super excited to be representing Honey Bee Stamps on the Simon Says Stamp blog this week. I have three projects to share with you, and a video that walks through all three of them.

I will be listing all of the supplies used in my projects at the end of this post. Today I will be highlighting some of the brand new products from Honey Bee Stamps!

Zen Floral and Zen Bouquet were inspired from the popular adult coloring book trend. Both sets have matching dies and the large bouquet is almost 6 inches around. I thought that these would be perfect to show off today’s project share.

You can make a diy coloring book so many different ways, so I didn’t want to bore you with a step by step tutorial. Instead, I will walk through this project on camera and talk about several possible ways you can make your own custom coloring book with supplies you may have on hand already.

This coloring book measures approx. 5×7. To make this particular cover size, you will need two pieces of 5×7 chipboard, two pieces of cover paper measured at 5 ½ x 7 ½ , and two pieces of patterned paper that will go on the inside. Cut these slightly smaller than the chipboard. Mine measured 4 ¾ x 6 ¾.  I adhered all of the pieces together with Scor tape but you can use your favorite adhesive. You can even skip covering the chipboard or paint it with acrylic paint.

I chose to decorate my cover with the Honey Bee Stamps Zen floral border stamp and die. I also used the Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember stitched scallop die and the Honey Bee Stamps Color my world stamp set and die. I did some simple ink blending with distress inks then went over the letters with my  Sakura black Glaze pen. I even added a little shimmer inside the letters with my spectrum noir glitter marker.

I made the inside pages slightly bigger than a standard A2 card base with a bit extra at the top for binding. The inside pages are 4 ½ x 6 ½ . I have pre stamped some card bases for my recipient to color. Pages/ bases are all on Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock, Neenah solar white, or Strathmore bristol paper.  This is a great way to get more use out of your stamp collection. Consider stamping several pages in one session to make multiple books or card bases ready to color.

Another fun product that I have included is the Simon Says Stamp exclusive Suzy’s doodles. These are printed on Tim Holtz watercolor paper. I adhered each to a page in the book with temporary adhesive. This way they stay put in the book for coloring but when you’re ready to take it out and make a card it comes off easily.

I stamped each of the Honey Bee pages twice for each design. The top piece being the watercolor cardstock and then using temporary adhesive I glued that to the other stamped panel on Neenah solar white. The Bristol paper is embossed and is a separate sheet.

As a finishing touch to the coloring book I made a cute removable pallet that can go in and out of the book. I used a pack of Peerless watercolor sheets and although you can just cut these in small squares or rectangles I thought it would be fun to use the hexagon die from Simon Says Stamp perfect shapes dies to arrange the paint in a fun “Honey Bee Stamps” sort of feel. I arranged the little paint hexagons in a gate fold pallet. The pallet base is created by using a 6×9 piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper, 6×9 piece of printed paper and a piece of heavy acetate. The acetate protects the watercolors from running into each other should the pallet be put away damp, it can also be used as a mixing surface. Each end of the paper was scored at approx. 2 ¼ inches. I created a simple belly band to keep the pallet closed using a strip of the same patterned paper using the opposite side. I die cut a circle and stamped a floral from the Zen Bouquet stamp set to tie it all together.

I bound my coloring book using the We R Memory Keepers CINCH binding machine. There are other binding machines out there  but I have only used this one. You could also punch some holes with a and bind using mini album rings, or tie together with ribbon or twine. You could even use an old planner or traveler’s notebook… SO many possibilities to create a coloring book for friends or for yourself to color on the go.

I am giving this coloring book as a gift, so I placed my coloring book in a mesh bag along with a waterbrush and chamois that I picked up from my local craft store.

I also made a card that coordinates with the album. I used the huge Zen Bouquet stamp which I have cut down partially, I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to do the coloring and added little touches here and there with my glitter marker and glossy accents. I used the Simon Says Stamp A2 curved card edge die and layered striped patterned paper behind it. For the sentiment I cut apart a sentiment from Honey Bee Stamps Happy everything (You Make Me) and added the new SSS Inspire die cut in the middle instead of “make”. For the final little accent I added the bee stamp from Honey Bee Stamps Sweet as Honey stamp set and die.

Here is a bonus idea if you wanted to give coloring pens instead or in addition to the watercolors with your coloring book. These are the Kaiser craft gel pens. I am not a huge gel pen girl but these are pretty darn amazing. Especially the glitter ones. They have a really fine tip to get into small places and the ink flows really well.  I just removed the sticker and took the same patterned paper I used in my coloring book to make a belly band for the case. I die cut the word create which is a new Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember release, and glued that on the belly band. I finished it off with coloring one of the white hearts red, adding two thin strips of cardstock to the top and bottom and coating the die cut with my  Sakura clear Glaze gel pen.

Listed below are the links to the products (or comparable products) I have used for these projects.

I hope you found today’s project share inspiring and can think of ways to make your own personalized coloring book. Thank you to Simon Says Stamp for inviting Honey Bee Stamps and myself to share in the STAMPtember celebration!

Thank you for stopping by!