Creating a Coloring Book by Michael Webb

    Have you run out of gift ideas again for your anniversary, spouse’s birthday or some other special occasion? Here is an idea that takes basically no money but does take a few hours to create.

    Everyone thinks that coloring books are for children only, but adults like them too. There is no better way to take the stress out of your life than to sit down with a coloring book and a box of 64 crayons.

    To create a personalized coloring book you should come up with a theme and decide which pictures to include in the coloring book. It can be a story of your darling’s life or your first few dates together. It can be a book on a vacation you took together or a sampling of all the vacations you took together.  For our fifth year anniversary, I made a coloring book for my wife that included a scene from each country we had visited and many of the states we had seen during our years of marriage.

    You don’t have to be an artist to create a coloring book. I’m certainly not. Stick figures and other crudely drawn objects actually make the book more fun to look at.  Also, each page should have a description at the bottom for the benefit of others who are bound to see the book and just in case your drawing is really that bad that your sweetheart has no idea what they are looking at.

    Aim to have the coloring book at least a dozen pages in length and include a cover sheet that explains that it is a thematic coloring book. The first coloring book I made was for a first grade class where I volunteered and I called Mr. Webb Goes to Hawaii Coloring Book I had as much fun creating it as they had coloring it.  Hopefully you will too.

Michael Webb is editor of The RoMANtic Newsletter: Hundreds of Tips to Enrich Your Relationship ($15/yr). For more information call 888-4ROMANTIC or visit www.TheRomantic.com.