The adult colouring book trend has been huge for several years, and it's for good reason: taking the time to colour is truly therapeutic and can be great for relaxation and practicing mindfulness, which can help reduce anxiety. If you've hit up the colouring books and are looking for something new, we've rounded up some portable books that contain activities to keep your focus, and encourage creativity.
With a set of geometric stickers, this intricate book requires concentration as you peel and stick to create gorgeous, colourful animal designs like owls, bears, birds, and more.
Blackout poetry is an easily accessible form of poetry that involves making old text new again simply by blacking out unwanted words. The book contains passages from authors like Jane Auston and Victor Hugo, along with tips to help get you started with blackout poetry.
Artful Etching: Midnight Garden
Coming with an attached tool for etching, this book is filled with outlines of colourful animals and flowers, which you can use the tool to reveal. It's also up to you how intricate you'd like the design to be.
This sketchbook is designed to challenge your creativity by encouraging you to doodle a hundred days in a row. The book is filled with prompts and backgrounds to get your creativity going, but your book will still be completely unique.
This book is filled with guides to help you relax by drawing your own mandala designs, which you can then colour in later.
The Royal Botanic Gardens Fantastic Flowers Dot-to-Dot Book
This book has you tracing the dots to create gorgeous botanical and floral designs, which are also perfect for colouring in afterwards too.
Map It! Seek & Find Atlas of Brainy Challenges
This fun twist on a puzzle presents you with 24 states map to explore, encouraging you to search for and locate a number of different locations. If you're looking for something to grab your attention that isn't creative, this is a great option.
Sticker Extremely Cute Animals
If you're into puzzles, chances are you'll like this book! Unlike other sticker books, the stickers aren't numbered, meaning you have to think a little more to find which sticker goes where. Each of the animal images come with reusable stickers for you to complete the puzzle.
From blogger Amy Latta from One Artsy Mama, Hand Lettering for Relaxation guides beginners through creating calligraphy as well as added embellishments like flowers, scrolls, and more, all intended to promote relaxation. The book is divided into different workshops as you learn new aspects of hand lettering, and you're encouraged to practice after each one.
From YouTube vlogger Sarah Albert, this book teaches you super cute kawaii-inspired doodles like cacti, ice cream, cats, and more. Because each item is presented in only six or less steps, its easy enough for even those who don't consider themselves great doodles, and its super portable as well - all you need is a ballpoint pen!
Cattitude: Drawing Cats for Creative People
If you're a cat lover, you'll love this drawing book which focuses just on cats! The activities are all quirky and unique, to really challenge your creativity and get you to think outside the box while having fun.
Inspiring mindful creativity, this book comes with everything you need to get started creating beautiful mosaics of your own. There are five included projects that come complete with templates and paper tiles, with the projects gradually getting harder as you move through the book.
If you're not feeling super creative and yet want to enjoy the mindful practice of creating, this book is a great option. All you need is water and a paintbrush to reveal the happiness-inspiring images and words.
Mandalas for Meditation: Scratch-Off Nightscapes
Coming with a stylus, this beautiful books has you reveal incredibly colourful mandalas. The repetitive, intricate designs are really relaxing to work through anytime you need to take a moment for yourself.
Create images of 20 iconic cities by connecting the dots, including tonal shading and detailed line work. The activity, which is helpful for improving concentration, also comes with a poster to complete.
Start with a Dot: Guided Journal
This guided journal is truly centred on inspiring your creativity in an unusual way. The book focuses on creating a dot, and then you move into several simple and yet interesting exercises using dots and lines in this non-intimidating approach to practicing creativity and exploration.
Star to Star: Astronomical Dot-to-Dot Puzzles
A combination between a dot-to-do and a puzzle, this book presents you with several different night skies, having you find and draw out constellations by connecting the dots. Each puzzle also has interesting background information about the history of the constellation.
A twist on traditional mandala colouring books, all of the mandalas in this book are actually challenging mazes as well. Each design is also printed twice, giving you the opportunity to both complete the maze and colour it in.
Truly designed to alleviate stress and anxiety, this workbook has you copying soothing words and sentence to help calm your mind. Rather than focusing on techniques, your mind is truly focused on copying each script.
From Here to There: A Book of Mazes to Wonder and Explore
These intricate mazes are inspired by architecture and natural elements, meaning that your mind can wander as you find your way through the paths.
If you're looking to try pointed pen calligraphy, this book is a great one to grab. This thick, lined pages are perfect for learning letters, plus there are several inspiring sayings at the end to show off your skills.
Designed to inspire you to practice creativity for the course of a year, Jennifer Orkin Lewis leads you through a theme for each month to inspire your doodling. You're encouraging to use a variety of materials to stretch your creativity, plus the book includes a number of different paper types to further get creative.
Filled with inspirational words and messages, this mindful dot-to-dot is designed to calm while also leaving you with some positivity. Plus, they're easy to colour in when you're done!
Sticker By Sticker: Calming Creatures
Filled with 12 gorgeous creatures, this book is designed to help you practice both mindfulness and creativity. Plus, each animal is paired with a corresponding mindfulness exercise for you to meditate on as you piece together the image.
Cities: Scratch-Off Nightscapes
With images of skylines of well-known cities like New York, Paris, London, Toronto, and Sydney, this scratch-off book is soothing in its geometric patterns and is intricate enough to require your full attention.
Take a trip to the sea and create beautiful ocean-inspired mosaic images like a lighthouse, sea turtle, and other colourful underwater creatures with this sticker book.
Zen Scratch Art: Magical Woodlands
Zen Scratch Art contains six colourful and imaginative woodland forests, with animals hidden in each. The included stylus is double sided, allowing you to work the details or uncover larger areas.
Trace & Color in Any Medium: Wild Animals
With six detailed templates, you'll learn how to create line drawings of wild animals, which can then be filled out with any medium of your choice, whether its pastels, paints, or pencils.
With removable pages that are designed to fit in an 8 x 10 frame, the book has a soothing colour palette to help you relax, as well as inspiring and uplifting messages.