In December 2023, I created a website called colorosaur.com, The Coloring Dinosaur, to offer free, family-friendly coloring pages for every occasion. At first glance, the website might seem simple or perhaps even unnecessary, but my intention was entirely different.

I hadn’t built a website or an application from scratch in quite some time. Although I had been involved in maintenance and working on other people’s projects, it had been a while since I’d embarked on a project of my own. I wanted to challenge myself with something new, so I began looking for an idea that would allow me to apply my skills in PHP while learning a new framework, Laravel.

I decided to create this website to provide a fun, creative outlet while also serving as a platform to refresh and expand my development skills. I designed, developed, and deployed everything entirely on my own — from the logo and website code to the domain registration, the SSL certificate, and the cloud hosting setup. The project was motivating and educational, and I built it from the ground up in just two weeks. This process included everything from brainstorming functionality to mastering the Laravel framework and launching a complete, fully functional product.

The website offers several key features. Users can choose from hundreds of carefully selected coloring pages, which can be printed individually or combined into a custom PDF collection for easy printing. Each PDF also includes a QR code that quickly directs users back to the website for more coloring pages.

While colorosaur.com, The Coloring Dinosaur may appear simple, but it represents a significant personal achievement. It merges creativity with technology and serves as a fun, accessible resource for families.

Happy coloring!

Create Project

composer create-project laravel/laravel <project_name>
cd <project_name>

Application Encryption Key

php artisan key:generate

Set proper group and privileges for the web server (nginx)

sudo chgrp -R www-data .
sudo chmod -R 775 ./storage

Fix privileges on files and folders (optional)

find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} +
find ./storage -type d -exec chmod 775 {} +