Paint by Sticker: Architecture -- a Relaxing Friday Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in order to provide an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Did you have a sticker book when you were a child? Or a sticker collection? I loved stickers when I was young. Hazel did too. I find my students still love stickers even as high school students. A while ago I noticed Paint by Sticker books. I saw them first for children. I thought they were interesting but didn't give them much thought. I saw them come out with more complex ones for adults. This was during the big rise of adult coloring. I had so many coloring books I didn't spend the money on the sticker books. However, I jumped at the opportunity to review one for today. It was released this week. It is Paint by Sticker (Official): Architecture by Workman Publishing. This is not one of the kids versions but one for adults or young adults.

About the Book:

Discover and decorate stunning architecture from around the world with this exciting addition to the bestselling Paint by Sticker series.

Paint by Sticker: Architecture contains everything you need to create 12 totally unique polygon paintings of famous buildings and structures—simply find a sticker (for example, A1), place the sticker in the spot labeled A1 on the corresponding sticker map, and watch your art come to life, sticker by colorful sticker. Create the signature curves of the Sydney Opera House; the impressive spindle-shaped towers of Barcelona’s La Sagrada Família; the iconic blocklike facade of Habitat 67 in Canada; and more. Plus the card-stock pages are perforated, so every finished piece can be easily removed for gifting or display.

From Me:

The book has twelve pictures of famous architecture to create. On the front side of the page is the picture to put the stickers on and the back side gives information about the structure. At the back of the book are the stickers for each building. Some have two pages of stickers, and some only have one. The stickers are divided into groups labeled with letters and each sticker is numbered within the group. To paint by sticker, you simply find the letter and number like A1 on the picture and put sticker A1 on the space. Some are harder to place because the shape of it is symmetric, so you have to figure out which way the piece goes. I found sometimes I needed to look at the surrounding pieces to figure out which way to go. On the sticker pages there is a picture of the finished photograph, but it is small, so it isn't easy to see the details for each piece. 

I was excited to give painting by stickers a try. I decided to start with the picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a picture with a double page of stickers. The craft itself is easy to do but sometimes placing each piece can be difficult. As the instructions in the book say the pieces need to be placed carefully. They are not meant to be removed. I did find you could usually lift them quickly if you hadn't really pushed them down well. Some of the stickers are very small. The shape and sizes of the stickers vary quite a bit. It takes some practice. I feel my second picture, the Eiffel Tower, came out a bit better. 

Overall, this is a relaxing craft that is perfect for those who don't want to have colored pencils or pens and coloring books. It is also a great craft for traveling. I love that the structures are from all over the world. The pages are perforated however the picture pages did not rip as neatly as the sticker ones. The book is fun and the pictures and stickers create beautiful artwork that can be framed!