Journal Gift ideas for the writer in your life, or maybe its for you?

Welcome Back

Do you love to write, and want to get back to pen and paper rather than all those screens? Maybe you want to start a diary, journal, or are looking for a beautiful note books for your ideas or poetry, that novel you always wanted to write. Perhaps u need gift ideas for those in your life who write. Today I’ll share some supplies I love and where to buy them.

Journals

Stationary Island

Stationary Island notebooks in A5.

Well, don’t even ask how many journals I have coz I ain’t gonna tell ya 🙄 but I love silky smooth paper and the sort that won’t bleed ink through to the next page. For that reason, my journal of choice is made by a company called Stationary Island. There is a choice of colours, they have dot grid, lined and plain journals, though availbility and colours offered varies. I use this for dot grid type journalling and the plain one for stories and poems.

Stationary Island are sold on Amazon but they also have their own website. https://stationeryisland.com/

Filofax

Filofax Joy

I am also a fan of Filofax organizers for their versitility. There are many sizes, colours and materials, so you are sure to find something you will like. There are lots of different inserts to choose from to customise it, and you can buy punches so you can create your own pages, so if you want to use your own favorite papers in there you can. This is the UK site but they sell around the world. https://uk.filofax.com/

Here is my previous post about them. https://billiescraftroom.wordpress.com/2019/07/15/journal-joy/

As a total planner girl, (I have dyslexia so unless I write it down, I will forget it) so my Filofax collection means I can dedicate different ones to different parts of my life and know all the info I need is in that one place. I love the versatility that I can make these planners into litterally anything I need them to be, and that can be changed as and when needed.

Papuro Milano

Papuro Milano Journals

Another favorite I buy from Amazon and is called Papuro Milano. You can buy paper blocks in plain, lined or address book, if you already have a wrap around cover from them, or want to create your own covers. You can buy them with the leather covers attatched and you can buy them with wrap around covers which the paper blocks slip into, allowing you to change the inside and still have the outer journal looking the same.

I adore the paper in these, not quite as silky as Stationary Island but they are even thicker paper, so no bleed through for pens and a joy to write on. There is a choice of colours and sizes and for these journals. Also available from The Online Pen Company (but I haven’t bought from them myself, no reason, just I didn’t know about them, till I reasearched other stockists for this post.

I use paper blocks from these to write a ‘dear diary’ kind of journal, using an old wrap around cover that is firmer and was from WHSmith from YEARS ago. To brain dump at bedtime and I also have another with the Papuro Milano Italian Leather cover, in the most amazing deep purple, that is in the picture, which is where I write my finished poems.

PaperBlanks

Paperblanks ‘Old Leather’ foiled Ultra wrap journal in red

Paperblanks https://www.paperblanks.com/en/ and also Peter Pauper Press also have wonderful journals in a variety of sizes all have been exceptional quality and a joy to write in. Like the others in my lists they are available in many different colours and designs and a variety of sizes and formats. I like the ones with the magnetic closures and they are a real treat to write in, the one in the pictures is sewn binding making them last well, so no risk of pages droping out over time as they might with a glued type of binding style.

I am currently using these as grief journals. They are so beautiful and so well made, they are a place of refuge. I adore the Pauro ones I mention earlier but Paperblanks have hardcovers making them easier if you are using them on your lap not just at a table. Available in bookshops as well as their own website as listed.

Moleskein

PIC coming soon, it got too dark to photography! Winter eh!

You might be wondering why this top brand is right down here at the bottom of the list. I do love the silky smoothness of the paper in molies but I need a higher GSM than the classic offers at 70GSM, which is thinner than regular printer paper which is 80gsm (paper weight Grams per Square meter, in USA u work in Lbs for paper weights) but still I have a pet peeve re bleed throughs on molies, so I tend to use them just with pencil.

Where to buy

Finally a shameless list of places I love to go online to look at beautiful stationary.

• Cult Pens, https://www.cultpens.com/ journals pens, pencils Ohh a stationary junkie’s paradise.
• All Things Analogue https://allthingsanalogue.co.uk/ (I’m very tempted by the sand timers on there, but being clumsy by nature, haven’t gone for one yet.
• If you enjoy calligraphy (sadly my hands aren’t up for this anymore) but Scribblers Calligraphy https://scribblers.co.uk/ has some wonderful supplies.
• Hey Little Magpie https://www.heylittlemagpie.com/ has journals of many kinds, plus pens, washi tape n craft supplies
• The Online Pen Company https://www.theonlinepencompany.com/ new to me but they also stock the Papuro Journals. (update and so much more, this is a site I need a cup of tea to have a good look around, journals pens and more nice!)
• Just did a search for Moleskein https://gb.moleskine.com/ if you want an alternative stockist to the high street or Amazon.

Poetry Corner

Well thats it for me, I’m off to try to find a Moleskine for some poetry.

Does anyone know of any poetry forums that aren’t on FB etc? I adore Writers Digest and would be interested in a comunity space in the new year. But wild horses won’t get me on FB and its pals, so something independant in ye olde forum format would be grand.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, would love to hear what journals you love to use and how you use yours.

Stay safe and be kind to each other. I’ll be in the back of the cave hermiting with card decks, crystals n books. Will write again when I can.

Billie x

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Journal Joy

Welcome Back

Are you new to journalling, want to give bujo a go? Here are my fave places to shop for supplies. I have been getting into journalling this year. As ever when I get a new hobby, I want to find suppliers n then share them all with you, so we don’t all have to spend forever searching for suppliers. Hope to create a new page for this topic, but a quick post today to share my fave sites. Here too are my most used Filofaxes of 2019.

Filofax Joy

Hey Little Magpie

LOVE this shop, it has journals of different kinds, so if you are into Travellers Journals or prfer binder styles there is plenty of choice, lots of stamps to hep you decorate and create planner pages. See link below.

Cult Pens

Ohh as a stationary junkie, I love this place, so many pens, pencils, refills, journals and so much choice. I could loose days to this place. Do pop over for a look, bring a cuppa, you might be there a while. They too have bullet journals. I’m in love with the Pentel #touch pens they have for lettering.

Kuretake

Ohh how I love my Zig Art & Graphic pens by Kuretake. If anyone sees a full set available in the UK, please can you give me the heads up. The link below is makers site not a shop. But some are available from Amazon, Jacksons Art supplies (see my art supplies tab) and also at Cult pens listed in this post.

Filofax

Oh boy do I love these planners, I was no Yuppie in the 80s but you can keep your smart tech, I’m sticking to filofax, it doesn’t need charging, the only updated needed are new diary inserts and there are loads of ways to make your own if you are handy with tech and printing or have a look on Etsy.

Dear Filofax have even started offereing dotted paper for commited Bujo fans 🙂 what’s not to love? SO many options for siz, colour design, some also include pockets for tablets or smart phones if you are committed to your tech as well 😉

My faves Malden (lovely supple leather in beautiful colours) Finsbury is my fave for firmer covers, and for non leather I have a Domino soft in Pale blue for on the desk day to day bjujo stuff which I just got n its so pretty. (don’t judge me, its a planner thing, either you are a stationary junky n are nodding away, or this ain’t for you) 😉

I love Filofax because of the quality of the products, they are well made and if you take care of them last a long time, I love them as planners as I can swap things around and take pages out that don’t work for me. Their own branded paper is also lush and takes a variety of mediums well, I just used Zig Art & Graphic pens on them and when used gently didn’t bleed through! They have different diary styles for the various sizes of planner too so there is so much choice n customisation. (Frequently on offer at WH Smith) and if you sign up to Filofax newsletter you will get heads up on offers too.

I also like ringbinder format of Filofax as it means if I want to decorate a page, I can remove it from the binder to be able to stamp or decorate right up to the edges using my Tim Holtz stamping platform as my hands aren’t up to blocks much these days.

Create and Craft

They have an excluse range of journalling stamps by a brand called Jotters Point. Great if you are looking at A5, A6 Journal suitable stamps, the stamp sheets so far were at A6 size (quarter of A4 sheet) which are great as card wise that’s my fave size but means they will work on Travellers size journals if you like those as well as the larger formats. Clear stamps but they stamped well and unlike some were actually easy to remove from the carrier sheets. 🙂 Handy when your hands aren’t up to much.

Washi Tape

Ohhh I so get it now! For years I’ve gone ‘pah’ to washi tape, thinking you were all nuts but then I recived some as part of a kit and wow, its kinda like scotch tape but so much softer n nicer with its patterns, great for holding notes with more secuirty than just post it note sticky but so pretty. I get it now. 😉

Links

• Hey Little Magpie
• Cult Pens
• Kuretake
• Filofax This is the UK site but there are links from here to world wide options

Right, I’m off to hunt down those Zig Art n Graphics. Hope you enjoy these links, n if you like planners and stationary too, please link me up with your blog or your fave supplies shops with your comments.

Thanks for reading

 

Billie 🙂

 

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Bullet Journalling

Welcome Back

So I’ve been under a rock, at the back of the cave n have totally missed the whole Bullet journalling craze, but if you will still have me, I’m IN! As a stationary junkie it doesn’t just call to me it positively screams. Pens, pencils, planners mmmmm nom nom nom.

Being Present

Winter is hell on wheels for my anxiety and depression and I’m trying to approach this season with a little more TLC, and some stash to keep me company under the purple fleece blanket fort. What better than a mug of tea, a mug of pencils, a mug of pens and a journal? 1st November also starts PAD (Poem a Day) challenge over on Writers Digest blog. So my moleskine will be there for that too.

It still is all about the stash, isn’t it. Oops!

I’ve been tracking what I eat and activity in the day to try to manage anxiety and depression, seeing what foods make it worse or what helps. I have a bit of a mixed view on mindfulness BUT I’ve just been investing in Lou Collins pens and last night some of Kelly Creates pens and stamps and some other planner stamps. Amazon UK currently have a book called How to bullet Plan: Everything you need to know about journalling with bullet points by Rachel Wilkerson Miller I got the Kindle version for 99p last, its good but not easy to see the illustrations, I’ll try looking at it on the laptop reader n see if they show up better.I think I’ll be getting this book in paperback too. I treated myself to a Morsler Bullet journal stencil set from Amazon too. I have a collection of fine liners and a stash of various brush pens to play with once I get the hang of it.

Planners?????

Hmm, I can see the appeal of the dots, for precision lining up, and lickable smooth paper (soz I don’t really lick paper but there are pen and paper combos which are like Galaxy chocolate n make me want to) That said my dyslexia would have a melt down with all those dots! With a line of text my eyes already do pinball rally between words, anything patterned or like these dots repeated and my eyes would be all over the place! No don’t think dots will be where I’ll start. I have a lush, truly LUSH Filofax in A5, Malden in the Teal LOVE it, its so smooth and because the leather is soft it lays flat. So while I learn how all this works me thinks, some printer paper and Malden to see how I go, I’m not going out so I don’t have to haul it anywhere and if a page goes awful it will be easier to remove it. I can imagine makeing lettering pages in different sections with quotes on them, like in the Peace planner of Kelly’s. I love that so much but didn’t go for it only because I struggle with dexterity to open ringbinders, at least Filofax has a release mechanism. It also means I can add in various types of papers. Turns out dear Filofax might have noticed their planners being used this way and for those tempted, they also sell dotted paper for the binders. Here is a link to the A5 Filofax dot paper.

Do you have any planner favorites? I’m thinking A5 and smooth paper that won’t bleed through with water based fine liners and brush lettering. Has anyone got a Webster’s Pages colour crush binder in A5? I’m in love with the soft lilac {swoons} Does it lay flat on the desk? I have limited dexterity and don’t want to be fighting with it. Told you I was a stationary junkie.

Blogs n You Tube channels

A change for me, usually I share them this time I’m asking for any of your favorite Bullet Journal You Tube channels and blogs. Please leave details in the comments.

I’m in stationary heaven, I don’t want rescuing but a food parcel would be welcome, I just found the website for Webster’s Pages. Woahhhhhhh! I want to live there.

Thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

 

 

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Filofax Personal Tempate: Cutting & Punching Tutorial

Welcome Back

If you like making your own pages for Filofax, these templates will help you punch your pages just right every time. I discovered that the Filofax website has lists for all the pages sizes used in their various planners. I’ll add a link at the end of the article. From here I cut 180 gsm cardstock to the sizes needed for my planners.

To make your Filofax Personal template, you will need

• Cardstock
• 80gsm paper
• Hole punch, either a dedicated one to your planner size or an adjustable one such as Rapesco 66-P
• Pencil & pen
• Paper trimmer or ruler & craft knife or if you have to scissors

Filofax Personal Cutting and punching template

 

Method

• Cut your cardstock and paper to the same size as your planner pages. Personal: 171 x95 mm
• Fold your paper in half short sides towards each other to find the centre of the paper.
• Draw a line on your paper to mark the centre point, draw it across the whole sheet
• Copy this centre line onto your cardstock and draw a thin line in pen across your card as shown in the picture.
• Move the punching parts to the spacing correct to your page size; if you are using Rapesco 66-P for personal; move the punches apart to create the widest gap in the centre.
• Insert your cardstock into the punch lining the drawn line with the centre line of the punch, and punch.

You can save this cardstock template to use with any further pages you want to punch. Just lay your template on top of the page you want to punch and its easy to see where to line up to. Store it in the back of your planner so you don’t have to go on a major hunt of the house to find it.

Links

• Filofax UK page and binder size chart

Hope this makes it easy for you to get your own pages to line up to the commercial ones in your planners. Let me know how you get on.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie 🙂

 

 

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Filofax Mini Template Tutorial for Mini pages

Welcome Back

If you like making your own pages for Filofax, these templates will help you punch your pages just right every time. I discovered that the Filofax website has lists for all the pages sizes used in their various planners. I’ll add a link at the end of the article. From here I cut 180 gsm cardstock to the sizes needed for my planners.

To make your Filofax Mini template, you will need

• Cardstock cut to Mini planner size; 105 x 67 mm
• An adjustable one such as Rapesco 66-P
• Pencil & pen
• Paper trimmer or ruler & craft knife or if you have to scissors

Filofax Mini: Cutting and punching template

Method

• Cut your cardstock and paper to the same size as your planner pages. for the mini that’s 105 x 67 mm
• Draw a line on your card 43 mm up from the bottom of the page and the full width of the page as shown on the picture
• Using Rapesco 66-P move the punching parts to the spacing correct to your page size;  that’s all towards the middle together, with no gap between the punches, for Mini pages.
• Insert your cardstock into the punch lining the drawn line with the centre line of the punch, and punch.

You can save this cardstock template to use with any further pages you want to punch. Just lay your template on top of the page you want to punch and its easy to see where to line up to. Store it in the back of your planner so you don’t have to go on a major hunt of the house to find it.

Links

• Filofax UK Size chart for binders and pages

Hope this makes it easy for you to get your own pages to line up to the commercial ones in your planners. Let me know how you get on.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie 🙂

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Filofax Swift & Matching Pen

Welcome Back

Remember the lovely Filofax Swift I was lucky enough to purchase just before they were discontinued? Well I discovered that Parker make one of their Jotter pens in just the same shade of green, so I quickly bought one.

Filofax Swift with colour matching Parker Jotter Pen.

Aren’t they perfect together? I found the pen on Ebay and was so pleased the colours went so well together when it arrived. Parker don’t seem to do green ink refills for the ball pen but Monteverdie do, so that will be the refill I’ll go for when the blue one runs out. Not for being OCD about matching, but because of my Irlens Dyslexia means for me its easier to read green ink colour on a white back ground 😉 Quirky aren’t I.

Links

• The Ebay UK seller I bought the pen from is Jiyalinks

Are you mad about stationary too? Is it pens, books or all of it for you? I’m a colour magpie and forgetful so I always make lots of notes so having them in a book or planner means I don’t loose endless pieces of paper.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie 🙂

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Pocket Filofax Diary Page designs

Welcome Back

Here are some new designs I created for my pocket Filofax, mostly diary pages but also a notes page too.

Filofax Pocket Diary Page; Washi tape style

Pocket Filofax Diary pages, with wide ‘washi tape’ style edging.

Pocket Filofax Diary with Narrow boarder

Pocket Filofax Diary Page design. Narrow frame design

Filofax Pocket Notes Page

Pocket Filofax Notes Page. Narrow boarder

Serif Craft Artist

I created these using Serif Craft Artist software. Having designed the layout framework I saved it as a layout and it meant I could then make it in Pocket size with only a few tweaks. Future pages can have colours, fonts and background page edges changed easily. Its a great way to personalise your Filofax the way you like it.

Pocket Filofax Naked Diary page layout

Pocket Filofax Diary; Naked page design before decoration.

Using the software I can also save my own layouts and elements as digikits which helps with future designs. Check out the links below for more information about this brilliant, versatile software. It makes great cards, scrapbook pages and gift bags but with imagination you can do so much more with it too.

Links

• Daisy Trail This is where you can buy Craft Artist software and lots of digikits to help you find papers, colourways and embellishments to create your own stunning layouts.
• Philofaxy this is a great site that has printable layouts if you aren’t yet ready to design from scratch.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie 🙂

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