Have you already encountered the definition of a 3D coloring book? I do not mean graphics, of course, for which special glasses would be necessary. No, I mean coloring books in which several colored graphics are combined into one. Akin to layers - you put different elements on by yourself, which then form into a single project, and the space between each layer will make it three-dimensional. It is difficult to describe in words - It would be easier to show.

There are 3D coloring books in Poland, but their themes are directed to children. That is why I had to turn my gaze to the foreign market - unfortunately, there is little variety to be found. The BBNC publishing house, which has two such books, both created by an extraordinary artist, came to my aid. Annemarie Vermaak, is a fan of Faience from Delft . Faience, similar to porcelain in a way - created in the Dutch houses of Delft in the seventeenth to mid-nineteenth century, hand-painted in shades of cobalt blue on a white tin enamel background. In general the most popular themes are Chinese, floral, birds, etc.

Her passion is visible in her works and the coloring book : Delfts Blauw flora & fauna kleurboek . In your free time, take a look at the book review. And it may be worth your time to take a look at the artist's website - if not out of curiosity, then for inspiration.

But let's go back to 3D coloring books. Annemarie has prepared a total of 2 titles - I'll introduce you to one of them.

Cut & Colour designed to be cut and colored, this book, printed in A4 format, has pictures to be colored and assembled - a total of six projects. Every project consists of several pictures - the more pictures there are, the more complex it is to complete, and the final picture will have a more depth.


Since I am an owner of two cats, it was easy to first choose the image: Theetafel - or as the author writes on her site "English High Tea ".

In addition to colored pencils, a few other tools will be useful, such as scissors, a knife, a ruler and small foam separators , such as those most often used in scrapbooking. You can opt out of the separators and simply put one element on the other - but inserting anything - foams or cardboard will make the depth of the project more apparent.

I was not sure whether to cut the pictures first and then color them, or do the opposite. However, I decided that it would be more convenient to put the color first. By doing this after cutting out the graphics, we risk bending small pieces of paper.


This is how a complete picture should look like:


And this is how its individual elements look ... on the right side...


and on the left side.


The right pictures have a white background, the gray ones will be discarded

Now the most pleasant part, i.e. coloring. Do not think it is easy - I color each part separately, but they will form a whole, so I had to think about what color it will look like once put together.

And I could not avoid mistakes anyway. Because I do not think that the stool with a vase with tulips (behind the cat) has to be wooden - I could as well have colored this material as a tablecloth. I could also stick to the original porcelain colors, which Annemarie based just on the faience of Delft. In the end, I do not know why I did not do that instead. The beautiful thing in coloring is however, that there are no rules. The same graphics may look very different, all depending on who colored it :).

The pencils used do not really matter - I used many: Giotto Stilnovo, Crayola, watercolor KARAT and Derwent Colorsoft. As you can see - I tested the colors on the same sheets as the graphics, knowing that after cutting only the beautifully colored elements will be left. The paper is not particularly thick, so I advise caution in using water.

When everything was ready, I bought a passe-partout frame and dug out the foam cubes that had been waiting for me in the drawer. Before gluing them on permanently, I did a general test, checking what order the elements should be put in place and whether or not I would need to improve the coloring somewhere.


Only when certain that everything is how I want it, I decided to stick the separators on and finally put the picture together.

 


Unfortunatelythe passe-partout was too wide, so I had to cut it with a knife. Someone might say I shouldn't have done that, but I really wanted to hide the edges of the whole picture, without covering most of the work.


 


Believe me - the photo does not reflect the beauty of this project. Perhaps it would look better without the glass, because during the day the changing sunlight would highlight 3D effect. However, pragmatism has spoken for me - the risk of destruction and becoming dusty, in a home with cats no less, is too great.

The picture already occupies an honorary place on the shelf with my other handicrafts.

And further projects await completion:

     


Cut & Colour does not differ especially from other coloring books. The author and publisher simply proposed an alternative form of presenting the whole work. Instead of framing 1 flat picture in a frame, it can fold several smaller ones. Looking from afar you will not even notice that there are elements cut out here, but the delicate shadow at the edges will give the graphics more depth.


I fell in love with this coloring book. I gave one of the projects to @Joanka_kolorujeand I'm curious how she likes it. Soon, You will be able to get another project, by taking part in the competition. I intend to give the others to relatives, after coloring and joining them of course.


If you still need more convincing, I invite you to watch the review - page by page.

If you already decided on getting one - this page – is where you can order both Cut & Color as well as the second item from the same series that we will be bringing for you from the Netherlands in the future.

  

And finally, I would like to thank the publishing house BBNC for providing this copy of the coloring book for review. Although we come from different countries, we speak different languages, we have one passion and that is what counts the most.

Have fun

Ania



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