Bookshare campaign | Bookplates

On page 24 of July’s The Simple Things, we introduce our Bookshare campaign

How it works:

1 Choose a book to pass on.

2 Find a place you’d like to leave it.

3 Stick one of our book plates in the first page.

4 Write in your name, date and where you’re leaving it.

5 Leave it for someone else to enjoy.

6 Share socially: say where you left it and tag @simplethingsmag on Instagram.

DOWNLOAD OUR BOOKPLATES

You’ll be able to print them at home, A4 size, to cut and paste into your books.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the July issue:

More reading:

Mindful moments | Download a chatterbox to colour in

Pretty much any activity can be a mindful activity, it’s fair to say, but colouring in, carefully and attentively, is particularly suitable. These beautiful illustrations by Emma Farrarons combine a colouring exercise with simple, fun and imaginative activities to help make any day a little more mindful. Download Emma’s chatterbox now or turn to page 52 of June’s The Simple Things for more mindful activities and colouring doodles.

Remember how much fun you had making chatterboxes as a child? Create a mindfulness chatterbox filled with eight different activities to help remind you to break your day and make time for mindfulness. Fold a square piece of paper as shown here. Come up with your own ideas or you can use the template as a guide.

More from the June issue:

More mindfulness:

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here.

Hirameki: Download our ink blot doodles

Every blot’s an inspiration, every line is free, unlock your imagination and draw what you see! Try your hand at Hirameki - ink blot doodling where you draw what you see

If you’ve ever doodled, then you can turn your hand to a bit of Hirameki. The word means ‘brainwave’ or ‘flash of inspiration’ in Japanese and it is the art of turning a seemingly random paint blot into a picture by adding a few dots and lines. Artists Peng and Hu realised that the tiniest blot could be easily turned into something amazing; even the most inexperienced doodlers can make something from a blot. 

“It is simply about drawing what you see,” says Peng. “All you need is a pen and a dash of imagination.”

On the subject of pens, they recommend the following: “A Hirameki pen should be no longer than your arm and no shorter than your little finger. The ink should be coal black or midnight blue, never shrieky yellow or shrinking violet. Calligraphy brushes, quills and charcoal are all acceptable. Best of all, though, is a fine-tipped felt pen.”

This new take on doodling is a fun version of the famous Rorschach inkblot test, created to reveal unconscious thinking.

Peng says: “It’s creative and a little bit anarchic for those who are bored of drawing inside the lines. And it’s a delight for hand, eye and mind, giving you an unexpected sense of satisfaction.”

Have a play with the blots on our Hirameki download PDFs or splatter your own. Just enter your email below and we'll email you with the Hirameki sheets and our fortnightly newsletter.

About Peng & Hu 
Artists Peng, from Austria, and Hu, from Germany, discovered Hirameki when they saw a cow with a splotch that looked just like a film star

Taken from Hirameki and Hirameki Cats & Dogs (Thames & Hudson) by Peng & Hu

Life in colour: FREE colouring card download

Grown-up colouring is having something of a moment; colouring books for adults are currently rubbing shoulders with the likes of Mary Berry in the bestseller charts and this month, The School of Life and the Tate launch a range of eight grown-up colouring posters. Colouring is an absorbing activity that forces you to focus – an alternative to mind-numbing flicking from electronic screen to screen.

Download our free design now, and ready those pencils, felt-tips and crayons. And – you know what? – we really don’t mind if you go over the lines.

Share your coloured-in design with us via Twitter or Instagram – use the hashtag #simplecolouring and we’ll show-and-tell our favourites. And in the next issue you can see how some talented designer-maker types did it, as we feature their designs.

Want more colouring cards?

Buy June's issue of The Simple Things and get a set of colouring cards free.

 

READER OFFER

Mindful colouring needs mindful pencils. Those nice people at The School of Life are offering readers 20% off their ‘The Psychology of Colour’ pencil set (usually £18). Along with musical notes and the letters of the alphabet, colours provide the building blocks of our emotions. An accompanying booklet reveals your inner qualities through colour preference (red: adventurous, witty, a little heartless?) and each pencil is stamped with a defining characteristic (Violet: ambiguity; Light blue: clarity). You get the gist. Use the code ‘SIMPLE’ at www.theschooloflife.com/shop 

Offer closes 24 June.

If you get the colouring-in bug you can buy The Mindfulness Colouring Book (pictured left, Boxtree, £7.99). 

June's The Simple Things is available from all good newsagents, supermarkets and our official online store. Sold out? Download it from Apple Newsstand or subscribe now.