Review: Caged Cranes Notebook Design + Giveaway

Finally! Got some pictures of the new notebook design I had printed on little notebooks. They are about 3.5x5 inches, so perfect for a pocket notebook or purse! It's paper is made from 100% recycled paper and is printed with soy-based ink. It has 32 blank pages for your creative use.

I created the design in Illustrator and had it printed professionally.

The idea was inspired by those situations where I have an idea and sometimes I would cage it up in my head later because I didn't have a way to preserve the idea. I decided to go with paper cranes flying out of the cage since they mean happiness, honor, loyalty, good luck, and peace. I thought those were good representations of ideas so I used that in place of real birds.

Close up shots of the notebook.

I left the front blank so people could DIY. As a creative person, I would give it a title and decorate it. I haven't decorated mine yet but I will post pictures when I do.

I had a person tell me it's perfect since they were left handed. I didn't even consider that but I'm glad that the person could feel more at ease using it.

The binding just uses staples but it lies pretty flat.

Not completely sure if it's fountain pen friendly, I think it handles ink fine but not wet inks with broad nibs. I haven't experimented with mine yet but if you're curious enough I could try it out in an extended review or update this review. :D

Like what you see? Great! Then enter below to win one! In honor of my birthday on Sunday (Oct 14) and since I've been delaying the release of these notebooks I decided to give one away to one of my wonderful readers!

If you don't or can't wait to win one you can buy one from my online store! I'm holding a FREE SHIPPING special for the premiere of these notebooks until November 1, 2012 (US only)! If you buy something from my store it increases your chances of winning in the giveaway! Don't forget to come back here to claim the extra points!

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Review: Artist Loft World Fashion Journal

This review is about an Artist Loft Journal I bought from my local Michael's and am using as a journal. Started it in Mid-January 2012 and finished in May. I saw the cover and couldn't resist getting it with a 40% or 50% off coupon. Actually I saw it earlier but resisted buying it because I didn't have a coupon and already have too many journals. Ha! See how that stops me! XD

Review: Piccadilly Wir-o Journal

I've been using the green and black Piccadilly Wir-o notebook for awhile. I mainly bought it to record my trip to Taiwan in 2010. It worked lovely there and took quite the beating in my opinion. The photos below are current, I didn't take any before because I hadn't planned on reviewing the book. I picked it up from a local Half Price Book Store for about $5. I chose this specific one because I loved the design. Green is my favorite color but I loved the intrinsically designed flowers.

The cover has some dents from being pressed against various items in my packed bag. Also the corners are a bit bent from the abuse but still holding up nicely. Also the wires got a little bent but I could easily bend them back into place. They are holding up well still! Not bad for 2 years worth of abuse. I'm almost done with this journal. For awhile after my trip I just left it thinking I was done but ended up using it as a catch all journal. I used less than 1/4 of the journal for the trip and didn't want to waste the rest.

Review: Spicebox 5x8 Duo Journal

 (Ignore the random marks on the cover, that was from ink accidentally smearing on the cover from my fingers as I was writing.)

The 5x8 inch Spicebox Journal came as a 2-pack with 176 pages each book (only pictured is my green journal). I started this journal in July 2011 and finished in Mid-January 2012. Tried several types of pens and realized ballpoints wrote the best. Even gel pens worked ok but you could still feel the tooth as you wrote. I guess it depends if you like having your pen drag when you write or if you like the effortless writing instead.

(Ball point on the left of the bookmark, Fountain pen on the right. I apologize for my horrible handwriting.)

Review: Michael's "L-Block" journal

(Note: This is an old post but still relevant. Had planned to write this in 2011 but haven't got to it until now. Going to do some reviews of tools I use for my creativity. :) Just for my personal progress and for fun. :D )

I wanted to start a journal this year (2011) but didn't realize the types of journals there were or even what made up a "good" journal. I had several journals already stored at home and ready for use but I never had the nerve to use them because I didn't know what to write in them. I'm still rather new to this so please be considerate about the comments to my posts. :)

Michael's "L-Block" journal
Ok, it was cheap, I liked the feel of the paper and the cover. It was sort of rubbery/leathery feeling with thick blank paper. I like smooth thick paper that didn't show any see-through on the writing. I used mainly ballpoints and gel pens which worked. It was also on sale for $1.50. It said it was a journal so I figured that I would start using it for my Morning Journal and it had lots of pages so I thought, "Why not?" Big mistake.

The Start of the Book Obsession

My current sketchbooks that I desperately want to finish but only about half way completed.

I figure some of you would like an introduction to why I started this blog. If not, feel free to skip it. XD With graduation behind me I began to wonder what I should do with my life. Since I love the manga story-telling style, I decided to try to work on my own webcomic which is why I established this blog. It was mainly to help me track my progress as slow as it might be to help motivate me and for the public to watch me grow.

As I learned more about the development of webcomics I learned the key component is to have a notebook/sketchbook wherever you go to help you brainstorm or remember ideas and jot them down before you forget. This was the start of my book paraphernalia obsession. I started to research the different types of sketchbooks/notebooks and just took off from there. I became entranced with the many possibilities you could fill a book with and fell in love with the diverse amount of designs covers and the textures of the paper.

Can Pen/Paper and Keyboard/Technology Coexist?

In my opinion, yes. There seems to be a slight divide of pen users who seem to prefer writing in longhand but there are others who just as prefer to type it all out on a computer. Perhaps it's the period in their lives when they learned to write or type which makes them prefer one over the other but I see the advantages in both.

In my elementary and middle school days almost everything was hand written. At the time I thought it was normal to have to write everything all out. My handwriting was legible but it got sloppy when I took notes. It wasn't the best but wasn't the worst. I also preferred pencil at the time because I made many mistakes and it looked neater than when I wrote in pen.

Between the end of middle school and high school, teachers began to require that we type up our essays or assignments instead of having them turned in handwritten. This transitioned into me learning to type since pretty much all the assignments had to be turned in typed and printed. Luckily I grew up using a computer in my home so I eventually learned to type fairly quick.

Current Books - 10/24/11

So if you read my blogs you would know that I'm a notebook/sketchbook addict. I realized this probably around the middle of this year and have since been collecting them (when they are on sale or I find one I REALLY like) and here is part of my collection. These notebooks/sketchbooks are ones that are currently in use. I'm actually running out of space on my bookshelves but whenever I bring home new books I always manage to make space. ;) Although now I have to be more cautious of what I buy and try to use the ones I have first before using a new book. Plan on doing reviews on them whenever I have some time so please look forward to that! :D

A doodle in my L block journal that I was going to finish but didn't because it started to fall apart.

My current tower of notebooks and sketchbooks. XD Break down of each to follow.