Creative Haven Glorious Gardens Color by Number Coloring Book (Adult Coloring Books: Flowers & Plants)

It's about time someone came out with a good color by number book! I got tired of staring at adult coloring books and trying to decide what color to use in which area, so bought this book. Problem solved. The numbers tell me what color to use, and I can decide if I want to change the color or not - I don't like yellow flowers, so they become purple or lavender. LOL. Paper is not thick enough for the watercolor pens I used, they bled through, so put a sheet of cardstock behind the page you are coloring. Enough pages in this book to keep me occupied for a year, my only complaint is that there aren't enough cats in it. Only way the book could get any better is if Dover came out with a set of large coloring pencils with the coordinating numbers on them.

This is a very beautiful coloring book! I love it!!

The designs in this book are charmingly sweet and relaxing to color. Some claim that color-by-number books discourage spontaneity and creativity. I beg to differ. I love this book. I love choosing between colored pencils, gel pens, and markers of various widths. I love the feeling of starting on a new number, and I also love keeping track of the materials I've associated with each number so far. When everything else in life seems uncertain, this book provides a clear and fulfilling sense of direction. Five stars!

This is my first color by number book and I've been enjoying it. Would be great if it came with its own set of pencils, since I've had some trouble finding good matches among my existing pencils, particularly for the 'beige' v 'light brown,' and 'yellow green' v 'light green' colors. I tend to color in most of the supposedly 'white' spaces. For the 'shaded' spaces, I usually have used a blackish-green, since most of the 'shaded' spaces are in the midst of other greens. The numbers are extremely tiny and light--fortunately I had a good magnifying glass on hand.

As expected, great paper quality.

Love the pictures. One think I did not like is that the numbers of the color to use is way to little. I have to struggle to see what the number is and have to use extra lighting to do so.

This is my 2nd color-by-number book from Creative Haven & I really enjoy them when I want something totally mindless to do & do not feel like concentrating on my art. They are safer than meds, & cheaper than therapy when I need to de-stress.

The artwork is really lovely, but on my first page, I've already noticed more than 7 errors like one area having multiple numbers (because of a missing dividing line between the two numbers), an incorrect number (using the colored preview images as a reference for where colors are supposed to be), or just missing numbers all together. There's a note in the tips and tricks section that says that some areas won't have a number because the details are too small or too fine to fit a number, but I've found several areas that very clearly would have fit a number but just didn't have one.For the most part I've been able to figure out my way around using the colored preview images, but I got a color by number book specifically so that I wouldn't have to think too hard about the coloring—this is supposed to be a stress reduction activity for me. So it's frustrating having to spend time and mental effort to make sure everything is where it's supposed to be.I'm using marker pens to outline some larger areas of color so I know relatively where colors should start and stop. The pens bleed through to the back somewhat but not enough to mark the next page. Still, I've taken to keeping a piece of cardstock behind my working page to protect the page behind it.The paper quality is relatively thick and nice but even using colored pencils to fill in color, I have one spot that began to pill up and produce unwanted textures on the page.I also wish the color palette list was a detachable piece so you can have it next to your working page all the time. I just made my own so I wouldn't have to keep flipping back to the front cover to reference the list.All of these things said, I've been enjoying myself and the illustrations really are lovely and engaging. I'll definitely continue to use this book and hope for some fixes for future books from this series!