If you’re a parent, you’ll know that moment. It’s raining, everyone’s bored, and the phrase “Mum, what can I do?” appears approximately every 11 seconds.
I’ve learned over the years that having a few low-effort creative activities up your sleeve can make you look far more organised than you actually are. One of my recent discoveries is Colomio, a website full of colouring pages and creative tools that are perfect for those “I’m bored” moments.
And the best bit? A lot of it is completely free.
Create your own colouring pages with AI (yes, really)
The feature that really caught my attention is their free AI colouring page generator.
Instead of scrolling endlessly to find the perfect colouring sheet, you can simply type what you want. A unicorn flying over a rainbow? A dinosaur driving a fire engine? A cat astronaut? Done. The AI turns your idea into a printable colouring page in seconds.
This means kids can create exactly what they feel like colouring that day. It’s surprisingly addictive.
A few ideas my kids came up with within five minutes:
- “A hamster riding a skateboard”
- “A princess with a dragon pet”
- “A robot playing football”
The AI generates a clean line drawing that’s ideal for colouring and can be printed at home straight away. It’s basically like having an infinite colouring book that adapts to whatever random idea pops into your child’s head.
You can colour them online too
Another feature I really like is that the colouring pages don’t have to stay on paper.
On Colomio you can colour the pictures directly online, using digital colours and tools in your browser. It’s a nice option if you don’t want pencils scattered across the entire house (again).
Even better, kids can publish their finished artwork if they’re particularly proud of it. There’s something about seeing their picture online that makes them feel like proper little artists.
Thousands of free colouring pages if you don’t want to create your own
If you’re not in the mood to generate your own designs, the site also has a huge library of ready-made colouring sheets.
You’ll find things like:
- animals
- vehicles
- fairy-tale characters
- nature scenes
- mandalas and more
Colouring isn’t just a way to keep kids busy either. Activities like colouring help with concentration, creativity and fine motor skills, which is why teachers and parents often use them for learning activities too.
A surprisingly useful boredom-buster
What I like about the site is that it’s simple. No complicated downloads, no crafting supplies you realise you don’t own halfway through the activity.
Just open the site, type an idea, print (or colour online), and you’re done.
And if it buys you 20 minutes of peace to drink a cup of tea while it’s still hot… well, that’s practically a parenting miracle.
If you want to try it yourself, you can check out the AI colouring page generator here:
https://www.colomio.com/
Just don’t blame me when your child insists on generating 27 different dinosaur colouring pages in one afternoon.