Art Book: Hand Lettered Life

 Today I have a bit of a different book for you.  You know how sometimes I like to look at Adult Colouring Books?  Well today I have a new format of a 'colouring book' for you, called a Scratch and Create.  This one is called Hand Lettered Life and was put together by Shandra Smith.

This book is filled with 16 Scratch Board and 4 alphabet and ornament stencils to help you create your own quotes and colourful images.  In these pages, the colouring is done for you, all you need to do is create the colourful image.

To do so you have this handy dandy stylus to use.

Once you have your stylus in hand, you take your board (with perforated edge for ease of removal) and your stencils and then you basically scratch off the grey tile to reveal the bright colour underneath, using the stencil as a guide line.

I'll show you what I worked at with one board.

I thought I'd try a couple of things to see how the stylus and board worked.  I punched out a dragonfly and thought I'd see how tracing goes, because sometimes you just want an outline of something, you know?  Tracing the solid stencil worked really well.  Easy to do with the pointed end of the stylus.

I found that using the outline stencil didn't work as well.  I had to really push down on the edges of the outline to keep the lines smooth.  

It took some practice to figure out which end of the stylus was the best to use, and then how best to use it.  It's a good thing they give four practice boards in the front of the book eh?   Very helpful that!

I learned that the colours on the outside of the board reflect the colours underneath the silver coating.  

I must warn you, keep a cloth handy to keep the silver coating from transfering to your clothes, it washes out easily, but if you are out at a gathering, you don't need it on your nice clothes eh?

I can't say I'm completely enamoured with how it all turned out, I don't feel particularly creative to really make full use of this book. 

It also requires more attention to detail then what I am prone to give to any kind of art form.  Less forgiving of errors as well.  BUT overall I think for the right person this could be a stellar form of relaxation.  Sitting back and watching the colours come to life in front of you.

Hand-Lettered Life: design our own quotes with 16 scratch boards and 4 alphabet and ornament tiles
Shandra Smith
Series: Scratch & Create (four in series currently)
Rockport Publishers
24 pages
Colour, Stencil, Scratch, Art Book

Reviewed for: Quarto Group

Where Can I Find It?
Amazon.ca:  Hand-lettered Life.
Amazon.com:  Hand-lettered Life.

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