Coloring on a Budget Part One

Inexpensive Coloring Books and Pages

Recently, Sue approached me with an excellent idea for a new series of monthly articles. She wanted to explore the options available for people who love to color but also want to stay within a certain budget when it comes to spending money on coloring books and supplies.

Being a thrifty spender myself, I was immediately on board with Sue’s idea and I am pleased to bring you the first of several articles that are going to focus on saving money on what can often be a very expensive hobby — adult coloring. Enjoy!

Where to Find Inexpensive Coloring Books

I belong to a myriad of Facebook coloring groups that center on adult coloring. I joined these groups to chat with fellow coloring enthusiasts, learn new coloring tips and techniques, catch up on favorite artists, and to find out all about new artists and new coloring book releases. There seems to be an awesome new coloring book being released just about every other day. There will often be a new style of art that I haven’t seen before and that little voice inside my head screams and giggles and says, Yes! You must have this book! Which is all fine and dandy until I open up my wallet to buy that new book and another little voice inside my head (you know, the reasonable one), starts scolding my wild spending ways and reminds me that I also need to pay bills and eat. Oh yeah, groceries. Dang it!

Early-Bird and Mailing Lists

Sign up for free coloring pages!

Okay, so now what? I really want this new book in my life but how can I make it happen? I have noticed that when releasing a new coloring book, in order to get a lot of exposure, artists will often offer the new book at an “early bird” or “pre-order” price. This is awesome for both the artist and the colorists because it gives the book a great jump start in sales while at the same time, saves the customers money! Artists will advertise these prices in various coloring groups on Facebook, on their own artist profiles, and their own websites and mailing lists. In order to see the deals, join those groups, seek out your favorite artist websites and don’t be afraid to sign up for a few mailing lists. You get to stay current on all the latest art they have to offer and can get exclusive opportunities to save a few dollars.

→ Related: Free Coloring Pages in Your Inbox

Some artists, including our very own Sue Chastain, will sometimes implement a “pay what you want” deal for a limited time when releasing a new book. This means you get to choose the amount of money you think the book is worth or simply what you can afford to pay. There is often a small minimum price to cover printing costs but this option let’s you decide what you’re willing to pay and that’s pretty sweet!

Thrift Stores

Another resource for finding inexpensive coloring books is checking out thrift stores in your area. Some people will get into adult coloring really heavy at first but then other life situations pop up and they decide to get rid of their coloring books and supplies. I have seen some amazing finds from thrift stores including brand new coloring books that have never been colored in. And if you find a book that has a couple pages colored in already, who cares? At thrift store prices, it’s still a great deal! If you shop at thrift stores, you know to check in often as trendy items such as coloring books and coloring supplies will be snatched up in a heartbeat.

Dollar Stores

One more option for finding very affordable coloring books is shopping at your local dollar store. Whole coloring books for a buck? Um, yes! This isn’t my favorite way to save money because you will often get what you pay for at a dollar store. Meaning the quality of the paper used in the books might not be that great or the books could be rather generic. But if you’re really strapped for extra spending money, you can still get your coloring fix. Because the adult coloring trend is so popular, lots of companies are scrambling to get their share of the bounty and dollar stores now offer a pretty decent selection of adult coloring books. Just the other day I found eight different coloring books specifically geared to adult colorists and I didn’t even explore the whole section.

→ Related: Avoiding Bad Coloring Books

Inexpensive Coloring Pages

Sometimes, even at a great discount, I just can’t afford to buy a whole new book. Or if I can afford the whole book, I will get it home and realize I only truly love a few of the pages and the rest of the book, though perfectly fine, will most likely go uncolored. I feel bad when it comes to waste so I was really excited when I discovered that many artists will offer small bundles usually featuring less than ten pages or even single coloring pages to print out for a super low price! I love this idea! Now I have the option of paying for just the pages I want to color and not having to buy a whole coloring book.

→ Related: OrnaMENTALs Coloring Bundles

I found the best way to buy small bundles or single pages to print is through the website Etsy, and also through many artist’s own websites. You can purchase the pages you want directly, and completely save on shipping costs. Seriously, anything that saves shipping costs is a plus in my book!

→ Related: Using a Print Shop for Coloring Pages

My Favorite Four Letter Word: Free!

I’ve created a couple of coloring sheets to go with this post. You are welcome to color them and to share this post so others can find them as well. https://www.facebook.com/ColoringGifts/posts/846580612136573

Posted by Coloring Gifts on Thursday, March 17, 2016

Honestly, is there anyone out there that doesn’t like free stuff? Yeah, I didn’t think so. So how do we get free coloring pages? The answer is pretty simple but before I delve into the good stuff I want to take a moment to remind everyone to respect all artists’ copyrights and to never partake in or turn a blind eye to the theft of artwork.

Stealing copyrighted material is illegal and is a huge insult to artists and all the hard work they put into the art they are making for us. I would advise staying away from websites such as Pinterest when looking for free coloring pages, unless the Pinterest account is directly linked to an artist’s actual website and very clearly states that the images are free to print and color. I would also strongly discourage using images solely from a search in Google or any other such internet search engine as these are often times not directly posted by the artist but by people who are sharing the images without permission.

Exclusive 3-pack OrnaMENTALs Sampler for members of Color Create, Inspire Facebook group.

Okay now that we got the serious stuff out of the way, let’s get back to what we really want to know…getting free coloring pages! There are literally hundreds of legitimately free coloring pages just waiting for you to come along and print out.

The biggest source of free images for coloring that I have come across is Facebook coloring groups. Your big name groups such as Coloring Books for Adults, ColoUring for Weirdos, Adult Coloring Book Treasury, Sue’s group Color Create Inspire and many more have tons of free pages available in their photo albums. They will often be in albums listed by artist name. The big coloring groups get free images from artists wanting to promote their work and get exposure. You probably won’t find whole coloring books but the amount of images available could keep you coloring for years.

Now I do have to mention there are a slight few groups out there that have been caught sharing images without permission. The best way to avoid running into that is to stick with groups you are familiar with and read the group rules. If they state in their rules that they discourage the sharing of copyrighted material without permission then you are probably dealing with a decent group.

Besides coloring groups, another great way to find free images is by liking or joining actual artist pages on Facebook. I know almost all of my favorite artists offer free images on their pages and I like getting permission directly from the artists themselves. Be sure to pay attention to and respect the artist’s wishes when it comes to using their images and don’t take it upon yourself to share the images with your friends. Instead, just point them in the direction of the artist’s page and let them get their own. Also, when sharing colored images in coloring groups, remember to be courteous and give credit to the artist for their work. This helps the artist get exposure and also ensures they will be willing to keep offering their fans free images.

Sign up for free coloring pages!

Artist websites (like this one) will also often feature free sample images to download and color. Many artists have mailing lists you can sign up for and will send you free images directly to your email. Easy peasy!

So Many Options!

Wow! There are tons of sources for finding inexpensive coloring books and pages, as well as free images for coloring, if you know where to look. The hobby of adult coloring doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg and you can still get good quality material. Now get out there and explore your options! You don’t have to let cost prevent you from enjoying what you love! Be sure to watch for next month’s money saving tips in Part Two of our Coloring on a Budget series.

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As always, thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, or want to share your tips for finding inexpensive coloring books and pages, we would love to see them. Just leave your comments below and happy coloring!