Hobonichi Techo Weeks 2019 - Review

Hey everyone!

In this blog post I’m coming with something new and exciting! I’ve recently purchased a Hobonichi Weeks planner and I can’t wait to share my thoughts with you. Before I start, I’d like to mention that I’m not planning to stop my bullet journaling. However, I’ve been looking for a while now to add another planner in my everyday planning and organisation routine, and the Hobonichi Weeks ticked all the boxes. ☺️ I truly believe that you should be able to use more than one planning system, if that suits your needs and it will make you plan your days more efficiently.

So, I’m introducing you my new planner. It’s a Hobonichi Techo Weeks 2019. I’ve chosen the colour Strawberry Latte which is this lovely shade of pink. I’ve also went for the Spring version, which means that the planner starts from April. More specifically, it has a yearly index from April 2019 - March 2020 (2 pages), a monthly calendar from March 2019 - April 2020 (28 pages) and a weekly calendar from February 25th, 2019 - April 5th, 2020 (116 pages). I’ve ordered it from the original Hobonichi Website and it took a bit more than a week to arrive!

It has 240 pages and it’s incredibly compact and lightweight. It’s 9 mm thick and weighs under 140 gr.

The cover is made out of fabric which has a really nice finish. It is a hardcover planner, however the cover is not too hard and it has some give to it so it still bends. On the front you can see the 2019 printed in a strawberry red colour, which is very complementary to the light pink. The 2019 is also embossed on the spine of the planner, and there is also the Hobonichi logo embossed on the back cover.

When you open the planner you can see the endpaper, which has a design with the letters from the Hobonichi’s logo — shortened to HOBO.

A convenient double-page spread shows the Yearly Calendars for 2018, 2019 and 2020 at a glance for a useful reference when planning ahead. I personally like to plan my vacation on a yearly calendar, as well as any holidays, bank holidays and the days that the kids are off school.

On the next page there is the Yearly Index. It is full-page spread of the entire year (2019) and it is designed for long-term planning and tracking. On the top of each monthly column, there are seven blank lines where you can add more notes for each month. Maybe some goals, things you want to track etc. I’m planning to use this page as a tracker for my workouts and things like that.

Then comes the Monthly Calendar for each one of the months. They are grouped all together in this section, instead of having the monthly calendar at the beginning of each month, followed by the weekly spreads. So, this is a bit different for me. The header on the top left includes the year, the numerical month, the traditional Japanese name of the month, and the English name of the month. Each box is lightly printed with a graph design to make it easy to fill in a full day’s worth of plans. At the beginning of each week it shows the number of that week. You can also see that it includes the moon phases, the Rokuyo (traditional Japanese calendar) as well as the Japanese national holidays. At the bottom of each monthly calendar, there is some free space for notes etc. as well as 4 checkboxes for listing goals and tasks for the month ahead.

Then come the Weekly Pages. The weekly spread contains the weekly calendar on the left page and the blank graph paper on the right page. The daily pages include the number of the week, as you can see on the top right corner of the left page. There are some clever things on this page, that can help you to create sections and arrange your week as you want. There are two subtle dots on the weekly calendar, that you can use it to split each day into morning, afternoon, and evening. Or you can separate tasks for different categories. Of course you can also disregarding the dots altogether, if you don’t want to create any sections. The space on the right page of each weekly spread can be used in many different ways. The graph paper is very useful in making lines and creating sections. You can also draw lines across the page to correspond with each of the 7 days on the left to give yourself more writing room. There’s also a “Secret Line”. This is a vertical line on the memo page that allows such things as topics on the left and details on the right, or drawing out visual timetables and plans. The line is printed lightly enough that you can ignore it when using the page as a whole.

At the beginning of the notebook pages is a list of abbreviations often used for shorthand note-taking. Also, there is an index for your Notebook Pages.

Then there are 73 memo pages. They have a 3.55 millimeter graph paper and they also have the subtle vertical line that I mentioned before, which makes it easier to create sections.

Page numbers are listed on the corner of each page, which makes it very easy to index your pages. I plan to use these pages as my bullet journal and have both my planning systems in one notebook. ☺️

After that, there’s loads of Informational Pages in Japanese, which unfortunately I can’t use… 😕

The paper of the Hobonichi Weeks is really thin and light, and it has a nice cream colour. It’s called Tomoe River paper, and it’s supposed to be strong and resistant to bleeding. I have to say that I was really sceptical at first, because this is a very very thin paper. So, of course I had to create a pen test page at the back of the memo pages.

As you can see I decided to use the pens that I use the most, as well as my two fountain pens, and the markers that I like to highlight and draw with.

And to my surprise there is no bleeding!!!! 😳 Yes, there is ghosting, which I was expecting with a paper so thin, but no bleeding!!! I’ve also heard that you can even use watercolours on this paper and there won’t be any bleeding even then!

Things to take into consideration before buying:

• At 3.55 mm, the graph paper’s grid is slightly smaller than that of the daily planners. So, if your handwriting is quite big, that might make it a bit difficult for you.

• The Japanese writing, which is all over this notebook.

• The thinness of the paper. Yes, there is no bleeding, but there is ghosting that might bother some people.

• The size. It’s a smaller notebook, and if you’ve been using an A5 bullet journal up until now, the size might bother you at first.

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When you order the Hobonichi Techo Weeks, you will also receive a clear, adhesive corner pocket and a mini-size fold-out Hobonichi Japan Railway Map 2019.

I also bought a clear cover, that is sold separately, to protect the planner.

It has convenient pockets where you can store notes, receipts or your stickers, like I did in the photo. These are mini notes stickers that I created specifically for the Hobonichi Weeks and you can find them in my Etsy shop.

There are more pockets at the back and a very handy pen holder.

I’m really pleased with my Hobonichi Techo Weeks and I can’t wait to start planning in it!!! Have you used a Hobonichi before? What are your thoughts about it?

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Pad And Quill Notebook Review

If you've been following me for a while, you'll know that I love testing and reviewing notebooks. Especially notebooks that are meant for bullet journaling. All through the years that I've been bullet journaling, I've tried lots of brands of dotted grid notebooks, and I get so excited when I find new notebooks that I haven't seen before. So, when the people from Pad & Quill contacted me to review and give my honest opinion about their notebooks, I immediately said yes.

I received the package within the next few days and I liked how nicely and securely everything was packaged. I always pay attention to details, and I loved the wax seal with the company's logo.

I was also surprised that they've sent me not one but two notebooks and a leather case! 

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Leather Case

I'll start with the leather case that is amazing! It feels so soft and it is of very good quality.

It is their Deluxe Full-Grain Leather Journal Cover in medium size, which comes in two different colours. I have the 'Whiskey' colour which is a lovely light brown one.

It has a very sturdy and thick elastic band in black colour, and a lovely engraved detail of the company's logo at the back. It has parachute grade thread all around and elegant French-hemmed edges.

It has 2 business card slots on the inside and each case is discreetly signed on the inside by the artisan who crafted it. The dimensions of the leather case are 8.9in x 6.5in and it fits nicely A5 sized notebooks

I really like the quality of the leather case and it makes your bullet journal look more professional, no matter what notebook you're using.

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Journal Notebook Medium

The first notebook I received was this lovely grey one. It is a linen cloth bound hardback in the colour London Grey. That is the only colour their notebooks come in, and it aims for a more classic and professional style, that is unisex as well.

It is slightly smaller than an A5 sized notebook with dimensions 8.3in x 5.6in. and has a Smyth-sewn lay flat bookbinding.

It has an elastic band closure and an expandable back pocket, which is always handy!

On the very first page you find a nameplate where you can add your details, followed by a 2-page table of contents.

The pages are numbered and the dots are very light grey that come 5mm apart. It also comes with 2 ribbon bookmarks in light grey and orange. The notebook has 192 pages of 100gsm acid-free recycled paper. 

As always I tested my most used pens at one of the back pages of the notebook and I was surprised to see that it didn't do as well as I was expecting. There is definitely lots of ghosting but there was also some bleeding from the Tombow Fudesonuke pens and the Zebra Mildliners. However, there was no bleeding from the fountain pen, which I found really interesting. 

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Journal Notebook Small

The smaller notebook is simply adorable! The cover is made of the same fabric material as the first one, and it also comes in one grey colour as you can see in the picture. I was sent the plain paper one.

Apart from the plain pages, the smaller notebook has the same exact characteristics that the medium sized one has. 

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I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the all of the Pad & Quill products that I was sent. Especially the leather case was amazing and I would totally recommend it, if you're looking for a cover for your notebook. The notebooks are really good, for journaling. But if you like to draw and doodle with markers in your journals, be prepared because there will definitely be ghosting and possible bleeding through the pages. For more information about the Pad & Quill products, make sure to visit their website: www.padandquill.com

Have you used any of the Pad & Quill products? What do you think of them? Let me know in the comments below.

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Mint Printcess Notebook Review

Hello, friends and Happy New Year! 

This is the first blog post for 2018! I am so excited for the new year and all the amazing opportunities and experiences it's going to bring. I hope you had a good time during the holidays, and that you took the time to be close to your family and loved ones. That's exactly what I did and I'm so grateful of all the lovely moments and memories we created during that time.

Today's review is about a bullet journal notebook by Mint Printcess on Etsy. I always like to test and review bullet journal notebooks, so when I was contacted to do a review for Mint Printcess I said yes straight away.

What I noticed the minute I checked her Etsy shop, was the variety of covers she's offering. I had to choose from 114 different designs! That took me a while for sure! But I love the one I've chosen and the best part was that I could personalise the cover too. So, I added my name, but of course you can add anything you want - your word of the year, your business' name etc. The design I chose is called Selena and has these beautiful dark blue-purple flowers.

The cover is made of heavy card stock laminated with 10 mil laminating pouch, making the front and back, not only sturdy but also waterproof.

The spiral coil is plastic and you can select between 3 colours: Mint, Navy Blue and White. I chose the Navy Blue one and I really like how it matches the notebook.

When you open the notebook you have a page with the Mint Printcess Logo, which I think is adorable and a plastic ruler that is retractable and can be used as a page marker as well.

Each notebook has 280 pages of 70 lb high quality paper (140 sheets). It's size is 8.5" x 7.5" and on each page you get 43 dotted lines vertical and 37 dotted lines horizontal. The pages are not numbered, and they feel really nice and smooth.

When I did the pen test at the back of the notebook, I was amazed with the result. I tested all the pens and markers that I use on a daily basis and you can hardly see any ghosting at the back of the page. So, I really really like the quality of this paper!

Even though I'm used to the A5 size of my previous bullet journal notebooks, I really like how much bigger this notebook is from my other ones. But it's not as big as an A4, which is really difficult for me to take around in my bag, so that's great.

The other thing I love, is that you can choose different coloured pages and you can totally customise your notebook. There are 8 different colours to choose from. There is purple, pink, kraft and blue which come in 70 gsm, and white, ivory, light blue and green which come in 80 gsm. 

I think it's nice to use different coloured pages to section your notebook, or to colour code different categories or collections in your bullet journal. 

I love the attention to detail and how well made this notebook is. I think it's an amazing notebook to have at school, or to use it to start creating your bullet journal in it. If you like spiral coil notebooks, then I would definitely recommend it. 

Make sure to visit the Mint Printcess Etsy shop to check out all the lovely designs she offers. Do you use a spiral coil notebook as your bullet journal? Let me know in the comments below.

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Tombow Dual Brush Pens: Review + Tips and Techniques

Today I'd like to talk about my latest obsession and that is the Tombow Dual Brush Pens. What can I say? I'm in love with them! They are so versatile and easy to use, adding colour to my every day life. In this post, I'll show you the colours I've got, I'll talk about their characteristics and then I'll show you some of the techniques I use, so that you get the most out of them.

The Tombow Dual Pens are water based, odourless and acid free. That means that they are easy to blend and that your designs will last for a long time. They come with two types of tips:

A flexible nylon brush tip

And a fine tip

The two tips give you lines with a wide range of thickness. With the flexible tip you can create fine, medium or bold strokes by a change in the brush pressure, or you can use the fine tip for more consistent lines.

As you can see in the image above, you can get lines with thickness from 1 cm to 1/2 mm. That makes them great for any project, including colouring, hand lettering, doodling, journaling and much more!

I'm using them constantly to practice my hand lettering.

I get my hand lettering practice sheets from the Brush Letter Practice Guide.

And I also use them every day in my bullet journal:

They don't bleed through the pages, they are easy to blend and they add colour to my pages 😊 They come in 96 amazing colours. Each marker has a number that indicates that colour.

I'm currently building my collection slowly-slowly, and I hope that very soon I'll have all 96 of them. 😉 I started with the basic colours, then bought the more light and pastel ones, and from there I add as I go along. The ones I've got so far are:

• 173 - Willow Green
• 245 - Sap Green
• 277 - Dark Green
• 346 - Gray Green
• 192 - Asparagus
• 243 - Mint

• 373 - Sea Blue
• 493 - Reflex Blue
• 553 - Mist Purple
• 476 - Cyan
• 528 - Navy Blue
• 565 - Deep Blue

• 636 - Imperial Purple
• 603 - Periwinkle
• 620 - Lilac
• 673 - Orchid
• 665 - Purple
• 703 - Pink Rose
• 723 - Pink

• 835 - Persimmon
• 847 - Crimson
• 925 - Scarlet
• 933 - Orange
• 025 - Light Orange
• 055 - Process Yellow
• 062 - Pale Yellow

• 990 - Light Sand
• N89 - Warm Gray 1
• N75 - Cool Grey 3
• N15 - Black

You can also get a colourless blender, that you can use with the colours to create a gradient effect and blend them. In the Tombow website

you can find and download the Dual Brush Pen Colour Selector, in order to see the swatches and choose the colours you want. You can also download the Dual Brush Pen Colour Tracker to swatch the colours you have like I did below:

You can get the whole set or you can buy them individually. They also come in convenient smaller sets.

You can use them as they are and have great results, or you can use any of the following techniques to make your drawings have more depth and dimension.

Tips & Techniques

The Tombow pens are water reactive and they will turn into water colours. All you have to do is use the Tombow blending palette, any plastic surface or a porcelain plate (like I did), some water and a brush. I used my Pentel brush, because I just love it, but you can use any brush you want.

Take some colour on your brush and then start colouring on your paper. The result will be a really nice gradient effect:

You can do the same with more than one colours:

You can also use the blender pen instead of a brush, even without water and have similar results.

One more way to use the plastic surface or plate like before, is to use two different colours. Place one colour on the plate and then use a lighter colour to pick some up like in the picture.

Then start colouring on a piece of paper and you'll see the transition from one colour to the next.

The more colour you pick up, the bigger the ombre effect you'll get. In the picture I only picked up a tiny bit and you can see the result. One good thing about these pens is that the tips self clean after blending, so you don't have to worry about ruining them. 😉

You can also touch the tips of two different Tombow pens and have a similar ombre effect too. I like to touch the two tips for about 7 seconds and then start drawing.

Using the above techniques you can colour any page you want and add more depth and dimension like I did in my colouring page below:

By the way, you can download this colouring page from the Resources Library  after you've subscribed to my Newsletter 😉.

I was thinking of creating Colouring Secrets: an e-course that will cover tips and techniques on how to colour using coloured pencils, markers and watercolours. If you'd be interested in a fun and affordable ($20) e-course on colouring, enter your info below and I'll notify you when it launches!

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Have you used the Tombow Dual Brush Pens before? What do you think about them? Any colours you'd suggest I buy next?

Review: William Hannah Notebook

In September I was lucky enough to be sent the William Hannah Notebook for review, and I have to tell you... it was love at first sight - literally! I love my bullet journal and I'm a big fan of the Leuchtturm1917 notebooks. However, since seeing Nicole's and Cristina's disc binding journals, I really wanted to give that type of notebook a try. So, when David from William Hannah approached me, I was over the moon!

I was able to choose any combination I wanted, so even though my favourite colour is blue, I went for the Bordeaux & Fuchsia Notebook.  The William Hannah is an A5 size notebook that comes in 15 amazing colour combinations. I have to say that all the notebooks look amazing and I had a difficult time deciding on which combination to go for. I must have spend at least an hour on their website deciding on the colours.

When the postman delivered the box, it felt like Christmas came early! The packaging was fantastic. It comes all wrapped up in a black box with the WH initials.

The notebook itself is absolutely amazing and of high quality. The cover is made of leather that is so incredibly soft (and smells so good!), and the inside lining is made of high quality Italian suede.

The William Hannah Notebook is available in 5 different beautiful coloured covers and you can choose from 9 different coloured suede linings.

I love the metal accents that give character to the notebook.

The attention to detail is exquisite!

The disc binding mechanism is made out of 303 gauge stainless steel that promises never to tarnish. I really like the stainless steel bar that they use to keep the discs in place inside the cover. That gives the notebook stability and security. That was one of my basic worries with the disc binding notebooks, but it seems that the WH Notebook won't have any problems like that.

You can easily remove the paper by pulling down from the top.

After choosing the colour of the leather and the suede lining, then you can choose the layout, quantity and line colour of your pages. The quality of the paper is amazing - extra thick 115gsm acid free luxury paper - which is so smooth that your pens literally glide on it.

In the above page is my Pen Test Pages for Leuchtturm1917 and the William Hannah notebooks respectively. The pens write so beautifully on the WH notebook - it's a dream!

And there is literally no ghosting in the WH one! ( In the above page it's the Leuchtturm1917 on the left and the William Hannah on the right).

The colour of the pages is slightly whiter than that of Leuchtturm1917 - something that I personally prefer. And the space between the dots is 5mm, the same like Leuchtturm1917.

You can choose from plain, dotted, lined and grid paper. They come in packets of 10 sheets, so that you can get a variety (like I did) to try them out. You can configure it in any combination of 60 sheets (or more if you wish). You can also choose a different ink colour of your pages - if you look more closely in the above picture, I chose pink and purple for some of my pages. They also have a To-Do list and a Year at a view calendar.

As you can understand I love this notebook!

PROS

• It has great product quality.
• Excellent paper quality and thickness.
• Flexibility - you can take the pages in and out and rearrange your notebook as you want.
• Gives you the choice of separation between all the categories that you might have in your bullet journal.
• You can use it over and over again - you just need to add pages.

On the other hand though, there are some disadvantages compared to the normal notebooks.

CONS

• Price - It retails at £95 (+ shipping) which is quite expensive, but then again you get to use the notebook over and over again.
• The separation of the pages could be a bit restricting for certain types of spreads that require the pages to be connected.
• You can add a specific number of pages at a time.

For me the pros definitely outweight the cons. I trully believe this is an amazing product that you can invest on and have for life. I can't wait to start drawing and making my bullet journal spreads in it! If you like the William Hannah Notebook, make sure you put it in your Xmas Wish List ;) Don't forget to visit their website for more information. 

The William Hannah Notebook was sent to me for consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.