National Trust: The Colouring Book of Cards and Envelopes - Christmas

I was rather excited to receive this beautiful book as I handmade my Christmas Cards. This year I can colour them instead. I already own The Colouring Book of Cards and Envelopes: Flowers and Butterflies so I knew that this would be the same beautiful quality and well-made book. The Colouring Book of Cards and Envelopes: Christmas by Rebecca Jones is a large square book. It is glue bound and contains 24 x Christmas Cards to colour, 24 x Envelopes to make and colour, and 24 stickers to seal the envelopes with. the cover is aqua and white with a beautiful wreath design surrounded by Christmas motifs. It is further decorated with red foiling. Open the book and on the inside of the front cover is easy to follow simple instructions accompanied with diagrams of how to make your cards and envelopes, which is very simple as most of the work besides colouring has been done for you as you will see. There are 24 cards to colour, all made from good quality cardstock and there are two per page. They are perforated for easy removal (fold first along the perforated line then you won’t get any tearing mistakes), the separate cards are already almost cut out and scored down the middle ready for folding. This makes removal easy – just tear along the perforation and detach the small parts where each card is still joined. Then cut along the line near the perforated edge and the little ‘tabs’ that are left to neaten your card up and fold along the pre-scored line and you have a card sized 13cm x 13cm (5″ x 5″) square when folded. You can choose to colour the designs in the book before you remove them or take it out of the book and then colour it. The illustrations are beautiful. Modern, cute and festive with just the right level of detail. There are cute polar bears, birds, reindeer, santa, trees, holly, stockings, wreaths and more giving a good variety of themes and motifs and types of designs to suite different recipients. There is a beautiful design on the front of each. Open the card to find a simple motif on the left side with a decorative border on the right ready for you to write your message. On the back of each card is a decorative “coloured for you by” plate with space to write your name on. They are beautifully made, the perforations and cuts are crisp and well-done so removal is easy. After the cards are the envelope pages. There are again 24 different designs, each made to coordinate with its matching card. These are made from good quality thick paper. To remove again tear out the page carefully along the perforation and cut along the line inside the perforated one to neaten the edges. All the folds are pre-scored so all you need to do is colour and follow the simple folding instructions on the inside front cover. The envelopes feature a central design which will be the front of your envelope, coordinating designs on each of the main four flaps and a patterned wallpaper repeat design on the reverse which will be the inside of your envelopes. Many of the main designs are almost as detailed as the card fronts so would probably be best for the family and friends that you are giving the cards to by hand, although there are a few with simple corner motifs or ones that allow space for adding address details for those you wish to post. The last page of the book contains 24 stickers to seal the envelopes with. These are pre-coloured and cut out, all you need to do is peel them off the background sheet and stick down the main flap of your envelope to seal it. I chose to colour this medium detailed illustration with its cute santas, mice on mushrooms, trees, presents, puddings, gingerbread men, stockings and other festive motifs. I found it a joy to colour and it took my water-based Stabilo power felt-tip pens well with no hint of shadowing, bleed-through or feathering of ink. They will equally take pencils or gel pens well. I have taken a variety of photographs to show you all the designs coloured. I chose only to add a few splashes of colour on the inside of the envelope as I didn’t want to colour all the little details, but this is a personal choice and will look good coloured, partially coloured or left black and white. I thoroughly enjoyed colouring them and will definitely be colouring my own cards to send this year. I was sent a copy of The Colouring Book of Cards and Envelopes:Christmas in exchange for an honest and fair review. All thoughts and opinions are however my own.

Absolutely love it! Such cute pictures and they are just so adorable. I really enjoy colouring them in too , so cute xx

Excellent. If you love colouring and crafting and want to make your own cards then purchase these. Fun to do, calming hour or two at the end of a busy week.

Great cards, really enjoyed colouring them but would like to be able to use alcohol pens on them too.

This book is absolutely perfect for all ages, the quality of paper is what you’d find in some of the well know artist/illustrator adult colouring books. This was the first time I’d seen a Christmas card colouring book using such nice quality paper and illustrations which are all beautifully drawn including the envelope inside and out The only means of securing the card inside the envelope was a sticker which is supplied on the last page of the book, In my opinion this was a real let down having gone that extra mile in producing such a detailed colouring book. The card didn’t feel secure going through the postal service so I recommend using sellotape to secure the envelope, in spite of this I highly recommend this colouring book

Had such fun doing these

Lovely colouring books. Good designs, lots to colour without being too overwhelming. Enjoyable for both adults and children, and the cards can be sent to people, as a thoughtful home made gift. Both cards and envelopes are well designed.

I bought these as I had seen the book in a National Trust shop and thought it might be a good idea for my boys to colour in their own Christmas cards. I usually get them blank cards to design their own but they tend to get a bit bored after the first couple so I thought these might be an alternative. The designs are beautiful and there is a good variety for both the cards and the envelopes. My youngest two (aged six and eight) particularly enjoyed choosing which cards and envelopes they wanted to colour and did a great job with them. My oldest (age ten) is more of a perfectionist and got a bit annoyed when his card didn't go to plan so he gave up more easily. The one thing I would point out is that the cards are quite detailed and there is more work involved than I had anticipated so we didn't complete them all. You colour in the envelopes as well so there is a lot of colouring in to do. I am happy to keep the remainder for next Christmas though as the cards were a big hit but we will need to start them a little earlier! Also, make sure you have fine tipped pens to colour them in as ordinary kids' felt tip pens will probably be too big.

I used the cards to send Christmas cards this year. I am no artist, but after I colored the cards and envelopes, they looked pretty good. The drawings were great.

Vale la pena el producto. Aunque es verdad que tardó varios días en llegar

Ce livre vous propose de réaliser 24 cartes prédécoupées, à colorier, avec de très beaux motifs d'animaux, nature, père Noël, sapins... Il propose également les enveloppes assorties à colorier et plier, ainsi que des stickers colorés pour fermer joliment l'enveloppe. Le papier est épais, cartonné, et on peut colorier aux crayons, stylos gel ou aux feutres. Vraiment très sympa pour réaliser des cartes personnalisées pour Noël pour pas très cher ! Ce livre est en anglais, mais il y a peu de texte, seulement une mention "colored for you by" (colorié pour vous par) au dos de la carte, ainsi que les explications, mais on comprend facilement comment détacher les cartes et enveloppes même sans être anglophone ! Il existe aussi en version française chez Gallimard Jeunesse (Noël : cartes et enveloppes à colorier) mais un peu plus chère.

Excellent book recommend to all

I love this book and I can see myself buying it over and over again at Christmas time! I bought it because I work with seniors who love to color, but I selfishly kept this one for myself. I can’t wait to send family and friends Christmas cards this year! I’m shocked that more pictures aren’t included in the item so I thought that people might be interested to see what they look like.