Book Review: It’s A Dog’s Life – Colour Your Favourite Scene and Finish with Decorative Stickers

Title: It’s A Dog’s Life: Colour Your Favourite Scene and Finish with Decorative Stickers
Publisher: Parragon
Genre: Colouring
Book format: Paperback
Sweet Strawberries:

Review: I really like this book, I bought it some time ago at a local shop and just love looking at the pictures as well as colouring them in! The book is a bit larger than the Millie Marotta and Johanna Basford books in height and width, which are a little shorter than A4 in size, but only a bit and is roughly the same thickness.

It's a Dog's Life book page image one — ©The Strawberry Post

‘It’s a Dog’s Life’ is mainly a colouring book but also has a few pages of stickers at the back. Each of the colouring pages is thick but double-sided. I use pencils to colour in and they work great, so I can’t comment on how good pens are ( I rarely use them), but the pages are thick so it shouldn’t cause too many problems with felt pens as long as you are careful not to over-use them.

It's a Dog's Life book page image two — ©The Strawberry Post

The pages in this book are different to many colouring books I’ve tried. Each image is a typical scene where you might find dogs, like in the park, in the kitchen, a living room, etc. Each page has parts already coloured in, for example, the floor and cabinets are already coloured in the kitchen, the bench, trees and grass in the park, etc. Each double page image actually looks like a photograph which has had one area, like the wall or the floor blanked out and replaced with a pattern for you to colour. The areas to colour in are big though, and there’s plenty of creativity with so many different patterns and I like how intricate some of them are. Along with the detailed patterns there are less detailed ones too, so it’s a real mix of things to colour in.

It's a Dog's Life book page image three — ©The Strawberry Post

Once you’ve coloured in each double page you can then turn to the back of the book where there are a few pages of stickers. Each sticker is again photograph quality (rather than a cartoony image) and colourful and feature mainly dogs but also other items you can find in the rooms as well. The stickers are random. you can put any stickers into any scene you like (although saucepans might look weird on the street or in the park!), and I have to say I love creating unique images with these dog stickers added into the pictures. I haven’t tried to unpeel the stickers a while after sticking them into the book, but I was able to lift one off and replace it elsewhere (very carefully and slowly) when I wanted to change the look but I did this on an uncoloured patch so I don’t know if it will work well on parts you’ve coloured in (especially if like me you use pencils which leave a waxy residue) or if the stickers will unpeel after a long while of using this book.

It's a Dog's Life book page sticker page one — ©The Strawberry Post

I really like this book it’s a real treat. There’s so much fun in just colouring in the pictures but also the fun of the added stickers which I think more books should have, I’m secretly sticker crazy! I’d definitely recommend this to any dog lover of any age, as well as anyone who just loves colouring and stickers! It’s a bit of a different style of book, but I love it and I’m sure many others will too, so get your hands on a copy if you can! 🙂