This post is mostly not about Thanksgiving.
If you are looking for Thanksgiving themed Crappy writings, try Thanksgiving Turkey, What I’m Thankful For or Favorite Holiday.
This post is mostly not about cats.
Like this video of cats wearing apple hats and ringing a bell for food. You are welcome.
This post is mostly not about bananas.
(Sorry, banana. Not your time yet.)
This post is about me requesting your help with something. Here is the backstory…
(Cats again. Still, this post is mostly not about cats.)
It started out really well. Rainbows! Flowers! Dinosaurs! Candy! Cars!
And then things got a little specific – yet still awesome.
Hedgehogs riding in a hot air balloon! A frog riding a bicycle! Bananas with faces! (See, Banana, I didn’t forget you.)
And now I have the majority of pages completed. Really, I could stop here and call it done!
But it isn’t done at all, because I want to hear from YOU.
Can I talk to your inner child for a moment? (Or your actual child if you have one handy who is willing to answer a question.)
This is a coloring book for kids. But not annoyingly so. This means that if you are asked, “Mama, can you color with me?” you won’t hate it. So you can answer for yourself or your child(ren) or both. It’s all okay.
No suggestion is too weird or too obvious. I’m hoping to find out two things:
1) if I am on the right track with the pages I’ve already done
2) if there are any embarrassing gaps I’ve probably missed (Like a squirrel holding a lollipop in front of a house made of candy. Don’t worry, I have that.)
Truly, your opinions are the most important part. This blog would not exist without you.
I have learned SO many parenting tricks from comments on this blog. So many stories you’ve shared have stuck with me. Remember that children’s books post? So many amazing book recommendations that became part of our lives. My favorite TV show comedy of all time? Someone suggested it in a comment. And of course a couple weeks ago, I was floored by all the people willing to take the time to give food blog suggestions. Seriously, you are like NO other blog community I have ever seen.
What would you most want inside of a coloring book?
(Other than paper pages to color. I beat you to it. Nice try though.)
PS – That little giving thanks section had nothing to do with Thanksgiving specifically, so it applies to all of you, even the non-US based folks who don’t give two craps about the holiday where Americans eat an unusually large bird and give thanks for what they have followed immediately by buying more things the very next day.
PPS – I’m not totally jaded. Only partially. Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a wonderful day with your family. Safe travels. Good food. All of it. With all the sad in the world right now I am even more thankful for simple pleasures like overeating in the company of the people who understand me the most. (Wait, actually my family thinks I’m weird. Perhaps “accepts me the most” is more honest.)
PPPS – I do not know when my coloring book will be released, I’m working my butt off to make it happen as fast as possible. I’ll let you know as soon as I know.
PPPPS – I will be using some ideas received here in comments. Even some of the obscure ones! So if you say something like “a cat holding a cupcake riding a unicorn who is running on a rainbow” I might actually draw that. Hopefully this is obvious, but only share an idea if you are okay with me drawing it for the coloring book.
A hippo riding a surfboard
Yes! I love it!
Horses. Anything with horses. Horses doing anything. Have I mentioned horses?
Thank you!!
Definitely horses. My daughter wont touch a v colouring book without horses.
Horses. With realistic markings and manes you can color in (not just penciled on in black already).
And my 4 year old daughter would request “Mommy animals and baby animals. With an udder for the mommy.”
Thank you! Mommy/baby animals is wonderful!
Horses came up here too – way to go Susanna, our kids think alike.
Mine said, um. . . superheroes? Horses? I don’t know.
If you WANTED To make a superhero horse feel free – but no obligation here.
BTW, Horses back legs are hard to draw…
Horses are the hardest animal for me to draw. But 20 horses/unicorns/pegasus in and I’m getting way better at it!
An udder for the mommy! Love it! 😀
Goats. My family is completely goat obsessed and they do so many things. The baby goats use their mamas for jungle gyms. Baby goats use everything for jungle gyms. Mine even have big floppy puppy ears but that is not mandatory!
Thank you! I love goats!
Yes – Goats! We have goats, chickens, rabbits, and quail. My kids would love to see these all represented in a coloring book, but most of all goats – because horses are great, but over represented!
Yes goats!
Goats in pajamas are even better for coloring books! Well, and in life.
I like!
Picnic scenes! Like the blanket, the food, etc and so on. I find that really fun to color for some reason.
Also, how about a whole coral reef under the sea, with sharks above for my kids, and pretty coral reefs for me to color underneath.
Thank you!!
Ferrets playing. If you are confused, just look up some video. Ferrets playing is the best thing ever!
I love ferrets! Thanks!
Otters playing are really fun too.
YES! Otters!
A narwhal fighting a unicorn. But happy. Maybe kittens could be watching. Hmm!
Unicorn narwhal fencing! I like the way you think! Thanks!
My oldest and middle child would say weather pictures. They are obsessed with tornados and storms. Also mountains with animals and lots of trees. Wolves, lions, tigers are popular too.
Thanks!
The book must include Frackles the unicorn. In the same vein, I know my boy would love to color poop from different animals. You could make it totally acceptable by adding somewhat scientific information. Maybe a matching section when you color and then link the poop to the paw prints?
This is not the first time poop has been requested. Hmmmm. Thanks!!
My 6 year old suggests “big baby hippos”.
Thank you!
A dolphin that jumps out of the water to do a backfill, but then sees fish, so he tries to get the fish and cracks his back before falling back into the water where he successfully eats the fish. There has to be there lines showing the dolphins back cracking that she can color as well. ?♀️
Thank you!
Happy (but still crappy) squid. Most squid are too ominous and that’s no fun.
Also, dolphins.
Thank you!!
Alpacas and yarn being made with alpaca hair. And maybe the alpaca is knitting or crocheting herself a sweater with said alpaca hair yarn.
Thank you!
Yes. My kids love to watch me knit and they love when anything includes knitting. They would love a coloring book with knitting.
Orca whales and whales and dolphins jumping beside a boat. A School of sea horses being taught and jelly fish on a beach..my 6 year old says.Me partial to mystic fairies princesses in woods and unicorns…
Thank you!
I asked my two boys, ages 9 & 11, and these were their responses:
Dragons
Castles
Wizards
Ladies walking out of the castle with swords
Knights
Samaris
Ninjas
Fighting princesses
Someone spraying their fabreeze at someone else’s fart cloud and saying pee-yew while holding their nose
Thank you for their list!!
Ladies walking out of the castle with swords. That. I would buy that book. (Well, I probably would regardless. But that would be my page to color.)
Oh, wait, the fighting princesses, too. Yup. Ladies with swords and fighting princesses. I love that these boys are our future. And it is my greatest wish that my boys believe in kick-ass girls, too!
Crappy chickens!
Thank you!
My 5 11/12 yo daughter notes that unicorns are required and that disco dancing chickens would be a bonus…I heartily agree with the dancing chickens & am chortling as images run through my head!
Elephants please. Anything with elephants. Maybe they can hold a parisol in their trunks! Maybe they are riding on the wing of a airplane? But alas, then I fear the parisol may be blown to bits.
The artist can use her own discretion here.
Miss you guys!
Thanks Jennifer! There is at least one elephant but she is sadly lacking a parasol. She DOES have a crown though. (I thought you’d say otter.;)
Elephants ice skating.
Planes, trains and automobiles. I’ve got three boys… this is all they think about. Oh and Voltron. My seven year old is obsessed with it… but I’m assuming there are licensing issues with that lol. And birthday cake. Who doesn’t like cake? Maybe a car eating a cake? I realize these are lame ideas, blame it on pregnancy and a cold.
These are the opposite of lame ideas! Thank you!
Otters. Otters doing pretty much anything. And also Fiona the baby hippo. She is the star at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Thanks!
Both my girls say flowers and leaves, and one emphatically adds “And UNICORNS. I love to color Unicorns!!!!”
My inner child says… Anything really really cute. Like baby animals and meerkats. (obviously)
Thank you!!
Pigs! Cute ones, not ugly ones.
Of course! Thanks!
I like the idea of a take on “dogs playing poker”, but a menagerie (think the characters of A Wind in the Willows) playing Uno or go fish.
thank you!!
A bear businessman in a suit sitting at a desk looking all important-like! But with silly things included in the picture. Like his phone is made of bananas. And his degree on the wall is from Goldilocks U.
Thank you!
Pirate penguins on a ship in the bathtub sailing toward a waterfall that is really the faucet.
Awesome, thanks!
Turtle in a top hat? Monocle optional of course 🙂
By the way, so so so so so so thankful that you’re back 🙂
Thank you!
Dragons are always my favourite. And penguins learning to fly would be cool.
Thank you!
I like 2 page themes for one big picture. I envision Mom at the table or counter with her cup o’ morning go-juice. Mommy’s cup of coffee should have unicorns and kittens and butterflies coming out of it like steam that flows over to the second page where the unicorns and kittens and butterflies surround and play with the children (and mom too!!). Maybe a kitchen scene that bleeds over to a play area. Or mom on the steps with the kids in the yard.
Coffee always gave me energy to think, plan, and play when my son was young. He may never know how much playtime was actually possible because of the energy I got from the coffee. It also kicked my mind in gear to think about ways to play and keep him entertained. Mom’s morning coffee made the magic happen!
Beautiful! I would want to color that and put it on the wall for inspiration.
Thank you!! Coffee is fueling this coloring book.
A blank Christmas tree, egg, heart, aquarium, whatever so kids can make their own version of it?
Thank you!
My son said “butts”….so maybe a bathroom? (Minus the nudity) 🙂
LOL. butts. Thank you!
A simple landscape. A tree and a few flowers. That’s what I draw when we are drawing together. Lol. My son reckons LEGO characters and my daughter would love elephants. 🙂
Thank you!
Animals and aliens playing musical instruments
Thank you!
My most important is for the pages to be only on one side so I can use markers. I hate having to chose between two pictures because they are on both sides of the page.
As far as content, I’m partial to flowers while my daughter suggests cute animals doing human things.
Word. The pages will be one sided. I’m a marker fan too.
I love that you say “Word.” too <3
This makes me just so happy. I cannot wait to get my hands on this colouring book!! It sounds absolutely perfect.
🙂
My boys say bugs, monsters and aliens.
Thank you!
I’m so excited to see the finished product! We are big on coloring in our house right now and the most desired for my daughter are anything like fairies, mermaids, elves or princesses. Lots of flowy hair and dresses. For me, I like houses and flowers and any patterns like stripes or polka dots.
Thanks!
Ducks. I like ducks. Cute little duckies doing cute things with rain boots on. Or any kind of shoe. Maybe some rockin heels.
Thank you!
Fairies without overly complicated wing patterns flying amongst the moon and stars!!! I love fairies but most coloring books with them have wings that are practically mandalas and I get tired of coloring a zillion little pieces per wing.
And dragons. Don’t forget dragons. Doing anything.
Thank you!
A bear eating potato chips while watching football
Hippopotamus as a garbage truck
Penguins cooking a pancake breakfast
Giraffe as a barista in a coffee shop full of lions
Thank you!!!
The many adventures we have with Josh the squirrel and Chester, a woodchuck made funnier when Dad decides to chase them away!! Has not yet happened, and way funnier to watch than TV
Thank yoU!
My 8 year old suggests a peacock on the plains with flowers (not quite sure what he’s doing on the plains, but at least that land formation/geography unit at school didn’t go to waste), or a bird flying in the sky leaving a trail of rainbows.
Lovely, thank you!
My 9-year-old son’s response to your query was “A giant BUG!” 🙂
Yay! I have a bug page.
One thing I loved from my coloring and activity books was the simple connect the dot drawings, and half done drawings where you finished it yourself. I especially enjoyed the ones where it was half of a face, and I could make the other half any way that I wanted to. There were a lot of half boy and girl, half young and half old pictures in my books, even half person half kitties! XD
I think an interesting take would be something that started as maybe the front part of a lion and you give it the end that suits the environment. Like a lion head and legs on the beach by the water, and you could finish it like a crocodile or mermaid if you wanted to. Or you could finish drawing the two legs and tail.
I really love those activity books too. This one won’t be like that, but I’d love to do one someday.
Butterflies sipping tea and eating sandwiches with dragonflies. Cucumber sandwiches. And a honey pot.
Lovely! Thanks!
Tangles, and incomplete tangles.
Thanks!
My 9 year old suggested a cornucopia filled with fruits, especially pineapples!
Nice, thanks!
Llamas and flamingos… Maybe not together… Or hey what the heck let them flamingle!
Flamingle. 🙂
I’d love a little city or village scene, to color the buildings with diff colors and textures, diff architecture, and if you want to
spice it up as it seems you may…it could be a city in space or the buildings are all made out of candy or all the houses are upside down. Or a beach scene? Or a little farmers market so there are lots of details and colorful options. Tigers in the Navy?
Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
THank you!
Also a panda or a koala eating grapes 🙂
A whole page of nursing animals! Maybe farm animals, just happy baby animals having milk from their animal mamas. My kids like seeing mummy and baby animals together but they’re not so often depicted having mama milk!
Unicorns and dragons and dinosaurs in a marching band.
I don’t know if it’s been said, but my boys would love a T Rex driving a monster truck, which is jumping over a plane that is on fire.
Epic.
My 7 year old said a robot playing the drums, hahaha! A whole droid band would be cool!
First of all, I love you so much for taking on this project. I’m totally buying a stack of them as soon as I can; licensed character books are the bane of my maternal journey: coloring is fun, characters are familiar, but my children insist that the characters are colored accurately, then give me only the crayon of their choice, usually yellow or white, and then boss me around and yell for not coloring, then yell for coloring the wrong things the wrong colors with my wrong crayon. So. Books that have things that come in so many other colors is a miracle and a blessing. Everyday scenes like grocery stores and post offices excite my kids, in addition to the usual jungles and tropical reefs.
As far as a specific outlandish and selfish request, I feel that clothing is often totally ignored in coloring books, so some complex outfits like with scarves and cardigans would excite me!! But with probably octopi. Or, foxes.
Could I see some fox girlfriends trying on dresses together at a department store?
Yes, clothes are fun! I have animals wearing clothes and even a page of ball gowns for my OWN inner child.
Ball gowns are the BEST.
Chickens! Squatting and fussing in nest boxes, scratching in the dirt, teaching chicks what to eat, etc 😀
An opposum with her babies on her back!!!
What you have sounds lovely!
I’d like to see a chipmunk riding a narwhal. My kids like both chipmunks & narwhals, so that would be a hit here.
Oh, also someone needs to have a falcon on their arm. Maybe the chipmunk? I don’t know, the chipmunk would need to be unusually large.
Pineapples.
Also, space things…Stars, moon, etc
I request a llama, wearing a cowboy hat, skateboarding on some hills. My 6-year old wants a cheetah princess.
Butterflies ! A long time ago, when I was a child I loved drawing butterflies just to use all the colors I had and make the most beautifull wings ever ! butterflies are the best (well unicorns are pretty cool with rainbow of course but…)
Asked my 6 year old daughter:
-A t-Rex eating a banana
-a juggling ankylosaurus
– a hippo punching its face
-a snake
-a goldfish chasing a shark
A sloth eating pizza. Or a sloth themed thing that’s typically fast, like a sloth roller coaster. We’re a little sloth obsessed.
I love them too!
I always felt pressure to colour things the way they are *supposed* to be – brown horse with black mane, people with hair-coloured hair and skin-coloured skin, brown trees with green leaves…
I like colouring things that aren’t *supposed* to be any set colour. Daffodils are yellow but flaffomils can be ANY colour! I want fantasy, made-up stuff so I don’t feel restricted by what colours I use. (Even if they are just perceived societal restrictions.)
Yes, it’s fun when there are no rules.
My son says Lilo and Stitch fighting the Ninja Turtles, and also a maze and five tic tac toe games. He’s six.
Bats are my son’s favorite animal. My daughter said “us”, so a family and their pet dogs.
Seabra (sea zebra) (3 yr old)
Hammerhead shark (7 yr old)
Sea turtle (5 yr old)
We are landlocked fans of the sea 🙂
Seabra is lovely!
My 6yo says she would like to see bathtub toys having an adventure. She has, no joke, almost 50 rubber duckies (all “dressed” differently), and they go on epic, Lord of the Ring meets Pirates of the Caribbean quests. She would be thrilled beyond belief to see a picture of epic bathtub toy adventures.
A mom gardening with a baby being carried on her back and a couple older kids running around causing chaos.
Miraculously, I actually HAVE that page done already! Thank you!
5yold boy…
Poop… would not elaborate then decided against it.
Jaguar eating meat.
Bald eagle eating a snake.
Termites building a house.
…and his mom took the moment to recall an adult coloring book featuring an exquisite Mandala radiating out from the word F*&$.
I suppose coloring sheets on Shopping at Target and Car Seat Hallucinations would be too literal?
As a child I would have wanted a flying unicorn flying over a rainbow in a sky filled with hearts. My son would want an otter wearing glasses.
My 4yo old says a racecar and a trampoline. Also a spooky haunted house.
“cats and unicorns and rainbows” – 5 y.o. So I guess that cat riding a unicorn running on a rainbow would be good…
I would like to see a robot holding a flower. Or a bunch of balloons. Or both.
Robots having a picnic
Elephants driving tiny cars
Ducks fitting on hats in a shop
Balloons floating by a rainbow
4 yr old says a cooking chef and a serving chef!
My daughter and all her friends are super into fairies. Fairies with pets, fairies with flowers, fairies with sweets, anything fairy. And horses, unicorns, Pegasus or a combo. Oh, and anything sweet like cupcakes, donuts, ice cream sundaes. So maybe a fairy riding a pegicorn holding a beautiful cupcake? And my son is into cranes, military vehicles, submarines, giant squids, venomous or giant snakes…so maybe a crane lifting a submarine being attacked by a giant squid. 😀
As a fellow former cheesehead who’s also very recently relocated back to central Wisconsin after a couple decades overseas we’re all a bit obsessed with squirrels. So definitely a squirrel holding a nut. Or maybe juggling a few of them.
Other suggestions from 3 boys:
Geckos. And maybe water dragons. But definitely lizards (cute ones)
Octopus
A mountain with a ski lift
A blank house so the details could be filled in
Complicated highway interchanges/roads from a birdseye view
Maps (any level – cities, states, countries, world, solar system…)
Trees 🙂
My daughter suggests a caterpillar riding a train in space.
My daughter likes pigs, so she suggested a pig painting. My husband likes chickens, so I will suggest you include a chicken somewhere in his honor. I personally think you should have a snowman building an igloo. My son….well our conversation went something like this:
Me: If you were making a coloring book to sell at the store, what would be in it?
Him: A ninja turtle or Mickey Mouse?
Me: Err…those are copyrighted characters, I don’t believe you can just use them. Think of something fun you’d like to color.
Him: A glass of water?
Me: Uhh ok?
Him: How about singing grapes?
About two hrs later, he told me you should draw a pickle on the front of a cereal box. Good luck!
My 3 year old told me about his dream last night – an icecream man who delivers ice cream from a helicopter (instead of a boring old van).
My son has requested a trex farting causing devistation to the half of the park behind him.
My daughter says poop and unicorns, but I would have to say I’d happily colour a perfectly ordered room, or dishes properly stacked, or scenes of kids helping eachother with homework QUIETLY.
Flamingos. Flamingos eating fun things, like chips and pickles. Turtles winning races and driving cars. Bears drinking hot cocoa in warm socks. Snakes with sassy eyebrows and little stick arms (because they make this momma laugh)
Thanks for your crappy pictures!
I asked my kids and here were some suggestions:
Hippogriff and a broomstick (the older kids are reading Harry Potter now)
People playing sports
knights on horses with dragons
cowboys on horses
Sorry, they didn’t have more suggestions. They were busy rocking on horses (2 year old), playing Harry Potter and building broomsticks out of wiki sticks and branches that they have shaved the bark off of. To busy to answer Mom’s request. Best of luck on your book though:)
Rollerskating bumblebees with a disco ball.
A mermaid pirate please.
Kites! and animals wearing cool socks.
Dinosaurs! Anything with dinosaurs! Acting like children. Having a party. Getting caught eating your cookies! Trying to hide behind a tree. Hiding-go-sosaures!
You are a genius! I like any animal in a tutu or a suit and tie or hats too.
Monster trucks driving over a rainbow,
Wild wheels (wild animals as monster trucks?)
Beavers eating cake
Friends taking turns jumping off the toilet
These are from the mind of my 6 1/2 year old
A dog pooping on the lawn,
Kitties crawling on me,
A blue gift bag, from my almost 5 year old
Kitties singing (my 3 year old)
Distracted 4 year old says “birthday cake in the shape of a heart”.
Oh, one more. Kids or animals with glasses that are not black (so the glasses can be colored, too).
4yo says Batman, but there are probably copyright issues there. I vote for dinoaurs, unicorns, rainbows, and robots. Hey, you know what could be a great coloring book? One page with simple lines for kids, and the other side complex for mom. So when the coloring book is open on the table you can each get a page. I guess it breaks down when you have more than one kid. Or your kid has boundary issues…so maybe not such a great idea. Sigh.
A woman and a Thylacine having a picnic. Please please please?
No autocorrect, no! Not a woman and a Thylacine, a WOMBAT!
LOL, and here I almost drew a scary thylacine.
A wombat and a thylacine? That would be… um… hmmmm. I don’t know what that would be. Probably awesome. Maybe draw all three to be safe. Or more scary. You could add rainbow unicorn poop so the scene will make perfect sense to everyone. Right? Yay!
*Dogs ( actual breeds) sitting around a table eating cereal
*A pixie hiding behind a photo frame in a lounge room while a child is playing with a toy that looks identical to it.
*butterflies
First off: I’m glad you’re family thinks you’re weird. It means we really WOULD get along in person (my family thinks I’m weird too).
Secondly: I FREAKING HATE colouring. Like I am legit bad at it. This is my deep dark secret. I am a legit artist who is legit crap at colouring.
So maybe your publisher would hate this, but I would LOVE there to be some blank pages in the book for drawing. Or like half filled out ones (a house without details, a landscape without trees, a face without features). I know there are books like this already and it isn’t what you are asking and I am not your target audience. So maybe just ignore all my suggestions. Plenty of people LOVE colouring books. But you asked about our inner child. And my inner child just drew on the front and back blank pages and ignored the rest of the book.
*disclaimer
If this comment offends you in any way pretend my dog wrote it. I don’t have a cat. Not one that can write anyway.
I really like activity books too! I’d love to do one eventually.
Whatever you do, please do not put any princesses in the book. My 5 year old daughter is obsessed with princess-themed books and I cannot read anymore about the beautiful WHITE materlistic princess meeting the handsome white VAIN prince!
Please put dogs it – doing anything that dogs do or do not do. I love dogs, and so do kids, well most of them.
If you’ve got rainbows, then unicorns should be added, animals in tuxedos are always great, wine…oh wait it’s for kids too, nix that idea, how about turtles, mermaids, pirates, narwhals are pretty awesome, platypus, I think that covers it 😉 maybe a capybara raising baby turtles, lol like this https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiG1fffwdPXAhUq4IMKHf2DBPIQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F33073378485810686%2F&psig=AOvVaw2E2YnVzPG7fFZ-uvp0O7BK&ust=1511485809921754
You know those mandala pictures everybody colors? Well, instead of boring swoops and swishes and curves, I’d like to see fun items used like ice cream cones surrounded by a row of fish and keep layering and layering with funny things like sloths and clouds and pumpkins and crabs and shields and toothbrushes and things we use and see everyday used in an artistic way.
You put into words what I was thinking. ?
70’s and 80’s rock stars!!
A llama with curlers in its hair talking on the phone.
Drums! for my 5yr old son. Also, lollipops!
Horses! for his mama 🙂
My son said his new bathrobe makes him feel like a ninja penguin wizard. I think a ninja penguin wizard would be amazing.
An animal (like a fish) playing electric bass.
Please draw a Mom trying to practice yoga with her 11 year old son who gives her a crazy pool as they try to get into down dog or tree pose while their two kittens scratch the heck out of our feet, and bite us on the ankle and even attach themselves to our legs!! (one of the kittens has a very bushy tail that he runs under my nose as I try to do cobra pose!! U might have have to oook up those poses to draw them but I think it would b hilarious to see how u draw it!!! I would Personally buy 10 if them!!!
My daughter says her favorite pictures would be fairies riding ponies. Lol. She’s 6 years old.
the only thing i can think of is “mommy and me” pages. so on one side is a kid page, and the opposing side is a mommy side. but NOT the super complicated with tiny spaces type page… i dont like them to take me tooooo long… 😛
Birds ? My oldest is obsessed with them. I asked him the other day why they were his favorite animal.
‘They can fly, they lay eggs, and they can poop on people’
Those are great reasons!
A skunk family dancing in the moonlight to a woodland animal jug band.
Top 5:
The Leaning Tower of Pisa
The Sphinx
A tiger
A racecar
A cat
My son says butts and my girl says dragons.
Garbage trucks, construction trucks, skate board jumps, etc. My grandson is always asking me to draw them so he can color them. I’m actually waiting on a quilt pattern for a garbage truck he loves them so much. Chickens in sweaters might be good.
Bugs doing things. Bugs Building houses, butterflies swinging on a swing set, cricket playing baseball. A spider climbing a playground style rock wall. Rollie pollies playing ski ball. A fly flying a helicopter.
Bugs doing things. Bugs Building houses, butterflies swinging on a swing set, cricket playing baseball. A spider climbing a playground style rock wall. Rollie pollies playing ski ball. A fly flying a helicopter.
An old timey acrobatic family act doing a human pyramid.
My four-year-old twin girls say a rainbow and a rainbow Alicorn. ( I had to Google that one, lol) Also the answer I got was “probably like everything in the whole wide world”. I like to color butterflies and beach scenes with palm trees.
Some of these comments are absolutely incredible!!
I’d love for the coloring book to lay flat with easy to tear out pages that won’t destroy the binding.
Rabbits or hedgehogs living in a gingerbread house.
Dinosaurs on skateboards. Sharks in hammocks. Pirates.
Musical notes arguing about who gets to harmonise with whom.
Ahhh sweet randomness! Looking forward to lmao while colouring!!
Mermaids! And fairies!
I’m thinking a giant comfy looking bed with a fun patterned duvet and tons of different shaped pillows with fun patterns! (Can you tell I’m tired?!)
Candy and donuts raining down onto a crazy playground.
I also love the everyday object Mandala idea!!!
A really pretty tea set on a beautiful, old-timely table, all set up like for a tea party. Cups and saucers, doilies, a little vase of flowers. Beside the table is a window, and it’s raining outside. There are pretty fluffy curtains on the window. Maybe a cute bug peeking out from behind the teapot (and not a gross bug, but like a pretty ladybug with a little fancy hat, holding a parasol).
A sloth riding a unicorn in space! Maybe eating Donuts.
Perhaps you could draw a picture of Van Gogh’s Scream but the screamer is looking at a shocking mess the kids made?
I’m sorry my seven children have eaten all the creativity out of me.
Flowers, lots of flowers, with bugs of all kinds and butterflies. Picture a field with weeds in the background with a dilapidated gate. Then a riot of flowers of all kinds with the bugs and butterflies and frogs in the foreground.
A penguin pajama party where they are eating pancakes, and another page with a garbage truck picking up the garbage cans for by trash obsessed kiddo…he’d probably love if the garbage collectors were cats instead of people.
Flying steampunk ships and pirates.
Anything space related. Horses in spaceships. Cats riding comets. Dogs chasing their tails in weightlessness. Doesn’t matter as long as it’s space related. Thanks and you’re welcome!
I will never forget your post about the adorable mistakes kids say, specifically kitty “glitter” – so maybe a crappy cat and a crappy litter box that we can color (and of course, we will add glitter to that page) 🙂
My son says: A dog driving a car.
My daughter says: A cat chasing a butterfly (to play, not eat 😉 LOL)
I say: 3 baby elephants eating a messy pie
A super-heroine with a cape and some practical shorts (because super-heroing in a dress can be hard) who is flying and also enjoying karate-chopping right in the face a villainess who is wearing a tiara to try to appear good but really she’s bad, while a shocked onlooker observes the heroic act. (My five-year-old daughter [who always wears a dress]’s idea)
A uterus!!
… with funky mandala patterns inside?
A unicorn wearing sunglasses playing the saxophone ina hammock on the beach! Because ya know… all of thise things are pretty awesome! 😀
Big colouring areas and small colouring areas. So Mom can colour the little fiddly things (teensy flowers, elves, whatever) and Kiddo can colour the big things (big flowers, sharks, whatever) (sharks and elves probably not the same picture)
My inner child requests that the drawings have large details and thick lines. I never much liked little finicky details for coloring.
A cat poo
A few of my thoughts:
– A basket of kittens.
– Girls doing “boy” stuff like fixing cars, flying spaceships, construction work etc.
– Robots
– Huge, ridiculously sugar frosted, sprinkle laden cakes
– Giraffes (my oldest daughter’s favourite animal)
– Red Pandas (my favourite)
I was bought a Star Wars colouring book last birthday and me and my girls love doing that together as it’s god a good mixture of princesses and heroes, animals, robots and spaceships.
Cozy sleeping/cuddling scenes of mama/papa and baby animals…in nests, dens, barns, trees, forests.
I’m hoping for a narwhal with a horn loaded with sprinkle doughnuts.
My youngest daughter, who is 10, would like to see a walrus coloring a picture of a walrus.
So even though she’s a girly girl and wears dresses and loves unicorns and glitter, it’s hockey season so my eight year old wants Goalies, preferably Andrei Vasilevskiy from the Tampa Bay Lightning but any goalie will do. Yep that’s what’s up. I’m sure it has a lot to do with her meeting him last week and him calling her a princess but I just wanted to add a little variety. Although she did say anything with mermaids would be cool too!
Rainbows with the proper number of rows to do a full Roy G Biv. Used to get so annoyed as a child when the rainbows only had space for six shades. Why’d they teach me Roy G Biv if I didn’t have a coloring page that let me use 7 colors?!
Niko (Age 4): A T-Rex bowling
From my kids: detailed dragons, deep sea creatures, and designs and patterns.
I like pictures that allow lots of color coordinating patterns, like clowns, dolls, dancers… I guess mostly people or things with clothes, but clothes that have patterns. And I love the coral reef idea!
My kids said: planets! Earth. And moon. And Saturn. And Jupiter. And mars. And mercury. Oh, and cars.
Hello. Because my 10 y.o. Daughter and her 14 y.o. Brother are decorating and putting up the Christmas tree…she says something Christmas-y. I was always thinking of what my toys did while I wasn’t around (very similar to toy story). So how about Christmas tree and decorations doing stuff when no one is around…we have various sizes and different types of Christmas trees (some are traditional, others are made out of a piece of metal that is a spiral).
Not super different or creative…
Ninja unicorns.
Hippo ballerinas.
Dogtors.
Mermen.
A meatball sitting in a pile of saucy pasta, wearing a top hat, with a monocle, and ritzy cane, swinging a piece of noodle around like a flapper in the twenties did with her long beads, might as well put a classy meatball flapper next to him with a cute bob cut and tasseled dress.
From my kid “realistic fairies”
“Birds, different places around the world like Antarctica ”
“A farm with farm animals “
A t-rex at night with people behind him he wants to eat.
A dinner plate. With a meal that isn’t pizza, nuggets or spaghetti bol. And has broccoli. Mmmm yum what are you going to colour first?
an astronaut cooking with food toys in a play kitchen and the astronaut should be purple, or will be if my kiddo has anything to do with it. xo
Outer space, the planets, stars, supernova, etc.
Female scientists: Katherine Johnson, Ada Lovelace, Marie Curie, Grace Hopper, Rachel Carson, Rosalind Franklin, Jane Goodall, Margaret Sanger, etc. Children need role models to emulate. Check out the books Women in Science and Dead Feminists.
Scenes from Shakespeare plays: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, Winter’s Tale, etc. Get children interested in literature early. So many people are afraid of Shakespeare, I think adults would be less terrified of Shakespeare if they colored scenes from plays with their kids. I would promote your book in my Shakespeare reading groups.
The periodic table of elements with pictures representing each element. Oliver Sacks does this thing where he celebrates his birthday themed around the element number corresponding to his age.
The multiplication table with perhaps the right number of animals for each equation. I hated memorizing the multiplication table as a child. I remember crying at the kitchen table staring vacantly at it. The whole process may have been less traumatic in the form of a coloring book.
The 7 chakras with a short blurb about each chakra. Check out Anodea Judith’s Wheels of Life and Eastern Body Western Mind. May just change your entire outlook on life and raising kids.
The menstrual cycle, maybe some graphs of progesterone and estrogen. Check out Taking Charge of Your Fertility. Sad that women are not more aware of their own bodies and as boys age they ought to be aware of how women’s bodies work too.
Emotions … might get kind of abstract but getting a hold of emotions is a big deal for kids. Being able to identify, label, and express emtions in a healthy way is something that adults struggle with too.
Foreign language alphabet, in most other countries kids are expected to learn more than one language. For some odd reason we don’t start it early enough in the USA. It’s like we purposely wait until prime language acquisition time is over before we try to teach it.
People in traditional dress and environment from all over the world. Check out Before They Pass Away. So much of the conflict in the world is due to underexposure and underappreciation of other ways of living. Sharon Sheridan said in an interview that she specifically wanted to raise her kids in NYC because they will be forced to mix with different cultures and be in a place where the CEO and janitor ride the same train. Would the election results turn out they way it did if the Midwest was less homogenous?
The weather system. Check out The Living Earth Book of Wind and Weather. We need to be more aware of our place in the world and how we impact planet earth.
*the way it did if the Midwest was less *homogeneous
Note to self: proof read before posting.
These are such thoughtful, wonderful ideas! My coloring book is fun but devoid of underlying meaning.
A bunny rabbit holding an ice cream cone topped with so many different scoops of ice cream, that it towers over the bunny.
And mermaids. And fancy stars.
I do have at least one multiple scooped ice cream cone!
Koala bears
Pelicans
beach scene with pretty umbrellas, waves, sunshine and people on the beach
My daughter (6.5 years) said “a really detailed Christmas tree). She’s getting to the point where she wants to be more detailed in her coloring and her mind is on Christmas right now. ?
Mermaids. Unicorns. Foxes. Turtles. Any combination would put my kids out of their minds with glee.
A child feeding a giraffe from his or her hand through an open car window. (This actually happened over Thanksgiving break, so it’s particularly awesome.)
Really? That’s amazing!
Monsters. One whole page with science stuff with different kinds cells, DNA, heartbeat, magnifying glass stuff…
A cupcake holding an umbrella while a hand is making sprinkles rain down from above.
My daughter would love to see a flying four -headed tiger that can do anything. It has super powers and can breath fire. (It’s her alter ego and she is obsessed by this made up species. When nervous she turns into this roaring beast and can tackle all sorts of fears or reject unwanted hugs from relatives) also, cats.
Can’t wait for this to come out. She is an avid colorer and I love your blog:)