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Submitted by Susan O
Even though we didn’t know it, our parents were totally tricking us into doing art when we they gave us the watercolor Paint with Water books. It’s a shame most of us never graduated to painting with water without the books as a guide, however, many a masterpiece, torn from the book, were hung from our refrigerators. Most of our masterpieces are probably still filed away in some folder or file, waiting to be remembered.
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I always added too much water to the paint!
Holy cow, I had that exact same book!! Even though you could tear the pages out, I still just painted all the pages at once and they stuck together. Plus it was fun if you paint a page and then add the left-overs to your own piece of paper! Yeah, my folks were cheap.
Me too!
I gotta go thumbs down on this one. Not only is it Barbie but it’s a coloring book without the artistic input of a coloring book!
Big blocks of manila paper and the 64 count crayon box complete with the sharpener on the back, that’s the way to go!!!
I love these books!
In fact I just gave 2 of them with a gift to my daughter’s friend for her birthday this Fall.
I agree with sillywhiskers. I always added too much water, so the paper was always wavy and messy.
I LOVED these. I think this is the exact reason that my favorite artistic medium today is watercolor pencil.
I could never get these to work.
Then again, the page was soaking wet by the time I was done, so I suspect I know where the problem was.
What’s wrong with normal coloring books?
I totally had this as a kid. I begged and begged my granny to get it for me. I remember making a mess, even though it was water.
The trick about this paint-books, was that the color was on the lines. They looked black, but they were not. But yes, when you’re a kid, you soak the paper. I would really like to paint one of these books with my nices
))
Oh, man, I loved these. They were easy and fun, and didn’t require any actual talent. This was important as I wasn’t very good with crayons.
…Kinda want one now…
I remember my sister knocking a glass of water onto my book while I was painting. All the colors ran together. I cried!
I’m over it. Really.
OMG! I had the Barbie book in the picture. That booked sucked. Most the pictures were head shots of Barbie so all the paint was flesh toned. There were LOTS of head bands involved. Ahhh the 80’s.
Do they still sell Paint With Water?
I had all the Disney themed ones… The good ones, with ancient Micky.
not sure if i had this one, specially since I wasn’t born till 87, but I went through a bunch of barbie paint-w/-water books! I also had some fairy ones and possibly sleeping beauty.
not sure if they still make paint with water, but I know they have marker ones nowadays that are the same idea.
Colour is already there, just have to use the “magic white marker” to make them appear. my sis got me one for x-mas as a joke last year.
the colours are just as weak and smudgy as the old ones, but this one is road trip and travel safe. and the pages don’t become a sodden block.
I totally remember these books! They were so much fun!:)
how was that???
Mine was….Pound Puppies or Rainbow Brite. I can’t remember which.
I had one with trains and cars. I was always so careful that I had to keep dipping into my water again. The problem was, it was so rigid and uncreative and boring after a while. Wipe water over a page. Color leaks. Whoo. It’s like those new grids you snap in over a picture, push foam ‘clay’ in, and make a Disney mosaic…
I frickin’ HATED those things as a kid, but ironically, that Barbie book that’s shown was one of those stupid books that was given to me as a present, LOL!
Give me acrylics ANY day!
Had this same exact book.. I would purposely drip one drop of water on the “paint” part and watch the color swirl inside the drop. When I didn’t like the color of a certain part, I would use crayons. Sometimes I used both in one area.. Now that was fun!
oh my GOSH i loved those things!!! it was always amazing to paint with water and have colors appear. the barbie was just an added bonus for me.
These things sucked.
I had some Disney movie tie in ones. What was the point of them even? Put water on paper, weird greenish color appears, put water on different part of the paper, same weird greenish color appears, end up pouring the cup of water all over the thing, see weird greenish color appear all over.
Stifled creativity? Sure. Awesome? Yes!
I was allergic to these books!!!!! I would add water and then the color stuff would make me break out in hives!!! Ahhh…. good times.
I remember that, I had those kind of book back then. But I wonder how it works, I mean the chemical involved and all.
it’s probably carcinogenic…
Mine had dinosaurs on it!
“Most of our masterpieces are probably still filed away in some folder or file, waiting to be remembered.”
Absolutely, Susan. You keep telling your therapist that.
Maybe your therapist can tell you something that will improve your self-esteem so you don’t have to keep making fun of others like a 3rd grade playground bully.
Holy cow, I remember those! Mine were usually blobby until I finally learned not to add too much water…
does anyone know what kind of paper that is?!
I hated them too… and paint by numbers as well, along with standard coloring books… I liked to draw and paint my own pictures, so my mother never bothered to buy any of it for me… lots of paper, various art supplies, and the kids table made of metal that I would accidentally cut myself on sometimes, and I was set! Whenever my relatives would give me coloring books or the like for gifts, I would just augment the pages by drawing in extra things until I got bored and destroyed them for some project or other!
I had that exact Barbie Paint w Water book!
I still make hair for pin-ups & art like the 1983 Barbie Goes On A Trip coloring book I had. She also had a lhasa-apso, right?
I have looked every where for these books. I can only find them at AC Moore and they are expensive.
I LOVED these! I was really bad at them too. I always too much water. Plus, to get them to look decent, you had to do each color separately or they would get mixed up with each other.
I liked to lick them too. That way, you could get really nice colors since there isn’t enough saliva in your mouth to go overboard. My mom would always yell at me when I did that. Once, I licked one in front of my babysitter and I swear she was going to have a heart attack!
I had soooo many of these!! I loved them!