JetPens Giveaway for your DIY Planner!!

I was really excited to receive a couple of cute items from JetPens that I could review and then in turn to offer to one of you as part of a giveaway, sponsored by the fabulous JetPens!

The items JetPens sent to me are  the multi-color Maurman Loose Leaf Mini Sheets and the cute post-it like Kuretake Echizen Washi Adhesive Memo Notes.

I had a lot of different ideas on how I wanted to use these loose leaf sheets and I want to share two different ideas.  

First, I took seven individual sheets and lightly glued each of them together, using the Kuretake Craft Glue Pen.  Then I glued just the very edge of the loose leaf sheets to the page in my planner.  

This picture shows a good representation of the color of each note.  They are a muted blue, pink and yellow without being too pastel. 

 

This design hinges having a quality paper, due to the fact that I have to be able to fold the pages back and any bleed through would mar each subsequent day. With that criteria in mind, I wasn't disappointed. 

 

I didn't experience any bleed through with using everything from sharpie pens, Marvy LePens, Pilot Juice Pens, some scrap-booking pens and Uni-Ball Signos.  Since this planner is built on a Moleskine base, it is easy to compare the paper performance.  The Moleskine paper isn't even a match for the loose leaf paper, since these pens routinely show/bleed through. You can see on these folded back pages, nothing has really shown through and definitely didn't bleed through.  I think that fountain pen users would be happy with these if it wasn't an extremely wet ink, but I didn't test it on this layout.

 

You can also see the Washi Memo Note in action here.  It is definitely a more textured paper and not as smooth or slick as the loose leaf paper.  The sticky part on back is sufficient as well, I just held it down with some washi tape because I have about 50 rolls and I need use it!  Ink performed well on these and the pencil theme is perfect for all of us office supply fanatics.

I also hole punched down the side of the page in a few spots, to make it look like it was held on by the ties rather than the glue.  The ties are just a bit of washi tape folded on itself and tied in a simple knot. The knots have held fine all week, no extra glue was required.

The second way I used the loose leaf paper was truly as a loose leaf sheet.  I had some pockets that I glued into this week's layout and they were the perfect size to hold a few sheets.  I think for next year's planner I will incorporate one or two of these pockets into the planner design so I always have a few extra sheets at my disposal.  I find that there are quite a few times where I need to make a quick note to give to someone else or put in my pocket, and this way I won't hae to rip any pages out of the back of my planner.

I am excited to give you a chance to win both of the items I reviewed directly from JetPens.  All you have to do is visit the official entry page.  Keep in mind you must be a subscriber to the JetPens newsletter and if you aren't, you will have a chance to subscribe on the bottom right of the entry page.  And why wouldn't you want to be a subscriber?  JetPens is awesome and you will find supplies on there that you will absolutely have to have! 

The contest will close at 11:59 PM on Tuesday, November 5th and I'll announce the winner shortly after and your itemswill be sent to you directly from JetPens. 

Don't forget to enter for your chance to win!

Giveaway Time! Morning Glory Notebooks

Finally, time for me to share my Chicago, H Mart finds.  Inside of H Mart is a store called Fancy Pencil Land.  There are no links to the little store, but there are some reviews on Yelp.  I picked up these six Morning Glory brand notebooks.  They all ranged in price from 3.99 to 5.99. 

The main difference between all the notebooks were the covers.  The green one below is hardback, one had a poly cover and a couple were regular notebook weight covers.  Some the pages had some margins and some didn't.  All were color coded, except for the one that is like a sketchbook (see below).

I did a quick pen test, just to illustrate paper quality.  I picked a ton of pens, so hopefully there is an example for everyone.  Overall, the paper does very well.  Some minor show through with the more bold felt tip pens, but no real bleed-through. (By the way, nearly every pen on this test was purchased from JetPens so if you see something you like, visit them!

This notebook is somewhat unique because it is unlined and more of a newsprint paper.  I think it is meant to be a sketchbook. 

 Now for the best part, a giveaway!  I think this notebook is meant for lefties, now I am not 100% sure of that--but it makes sense based on the spiral being removed from the side.  I am not a left handed and although this notebook is cool, I feel like I should give it a good home somewhere else.  Now that being said, you do not have to be a lefty to win.  All you have to do is leave a comment on the blog.  The contest will be open until 11:59pm on Sunday, September 29, 2013.  After that I will do a random number generator to pick a winner.  I'll ship it to you anywhere, so no need to be in the US to win. 

I'll announce the winner on Monday, September 30, 2013.  Then you have until Sunday, October 6th to email me at schoolsupplydance AT gmail, to give me your email address.  So be sure to check back if you comment. 

September Layouts

I wanted to share the last two week's worth of layouts.  I posted this first picture when it was just a blank page, but I wanted to share what it looked like when I was done with it.  I clearly need more to do, so that my weeks are more decorated!

 

There are several things I like about this week....first being the chevron washi tape.  I think it is adorable.  Second, I love the little post it note that is half graph paper half notebook paper.  I wish I had full size sheets in a notebook with that layout--it would make for a great DIY planner background.  I am also really having fun with this weekly layout.  I need to mess around with it a bit more to try and find a way to make the weekend larger and the weekdays smaller.  I rarely have stuff to do during the week except for work and I have a completely different work planner system.

Just as a side note, every pen I used on these layouts were from JetPens and are a mix of Sakura Gelly Rolls and Marvy LePens.

Stay tuned, as I will have a giveaway posted tomorrow and my post will cover all the cute stuff I bought in Chicago!   I also have one more giveaway waiting in the wings from one of my favorite retailers...so keep an eye out for that.

Mint green!!

For the past year or so I have been in love with all things mint green/seafoam. I've wanted to paint my bathroom this color, my pedicures are often this color and I'm constantly looking for mint green clothes.  

So it is no surprise that I have a bazillion mint green pens. The lamy is filled with Diamine Soft Mint Green ink, so don't let the lime green barrel fool you. 

Interestingly, the ranges of ink color are very broad. And some range from more of an emerald to light limeish, rather than a true mint. 

My favorites are the Pilot Juice and both sharpies. After I took this picture I found about six more pens that fit this color range. Clearly, I'm mint green crazy. 

The journal is from Urban Outfitters. It is a beautiful color and a very nice, soft leather.  The paper is heavier than moleskine for sure. I haven't done a pen test, but I don't anticipate too many problems.  I know some will love the pen/pencil loop. I won't utilize it, but it does add to the aesthetics of the journal.  I picked it up in a store, but it is still available on the website.  I kind of want to buy another one because I love this one so much. 

Layouts through August!

I am nearly caught up for the year!  These layouts should take us to almost current.  Then I will just try and post one update per week.

One additional note, I had a comment that the pictures are too small.  Since I am loading these from my phone, I can't seem to adjust them, but I am easily able to use ctrl+scroll on my mouse and make these more than large enough to see more details.  If anyone else is having problems, let me know.

On to the layouts....


I love this layout, there is so much space, but I just really don't have too much going on and I lack the time to properly doodle journal my activities. 

This layout is kind of unique.  I honestly can't remember where I found it.  But it does feature one of the mint green pens I have.  I am in love with mint green right now and would use nothing but mint green if it wouldn't be so boring.  Maybe I need to do one week where everything is in mint green and the various shades of that!

This layout comes from an excel sheet I made several years ago.  I made a friend a planner for Christmas with all different weekly layouts, so I just glued this in.  The yellow and white paper I taped in came from an old Kate Spade notepad I had hanging around.

Same with this layout, a glued in sheet from that same planner.

This week just features some tape and stickers!!

Another glued in sheet from that planner.  The strip of little designs around my to-do list are tiny hippos and not really tape a tape at all. It is the Plus Deco Rush Decoration Pen from jetpens.com. Sadly, it is no longer available. 

Overall, this next week is my favorite so far! The dotted paper is a page I tore out of my smash journal.  I know a ton of people love them, but I wasn't able to make it work for me, so I have been cannibalizing pages form it here and there.  So glued the page in and used two different washi tapes down the side to fill in the gap space and I bit more tape on the top and right side, just for something different.  I used stamps for the days of the week and a sticker for the word August.  Obviously, this is per-decoration, but I wanted to show the page in the empty form.  The currently reading sticker is on a label from some Martha Stewart labels I got at Staples on clearance.

In general, I feel like I almost have more fun designing and creating the layouts than I do decorating them each week.  I have been thinking about taking a blank book and just doing a whole self-made, undated, one of kind, DIY planner for 2014.  If I do that, I might try and sell it on etsy or somewhere like that.  There is no way the money would make up for the time and supplies I put into it, but I love the idea of someone using something I have made.

It would definitely be a giant project and very eclectic, so we will see.  Maybe it wouldn't take as long as I imagine it would.  I'm also worried that by the time I am done making it I wouldn't be able to part with it!  Has anyone else hand designed and sold a completely DIY planner?

DIY Planner Update!!

Well after briefly flirting with tumblr, we have officially called it quits.  I am not going to lie, I have no idea what the heck that thing is about.  Plus, I found a blogger app for my phone too, so it works just as well.

So without further preamble, how about some sample planner pages from the 2013 DIY planner!!  Here are a smattering of different layouts.  I'll try to keep the photos pretty big to show the details.

The circles are from my mini-Spirograph set.  I did them on a different sheet of paper and glued them in.  Dates are stamped in, from a set I purchased.  So this is a two page layout for the first week of January.

I have a giant collection of washi tape at this point, so I am trying to include that more and more.  I use it less for planning purposes and more for decoration.

The dates on this page are from a small DIY calendar section I found at Hobby Lobby, same with the "January" sticker.

More Washi Tape....

The calendar grid on this page was made with a clear/cling stamp, it was part of a "Calendar" set.

For this week I used two sheets of a Rhodia 5x5 dot pad and glued them in.

I tend to use the one week on a page format a lot because it is quick and easy to make.

Wow! I didn't realize I had so many different layouts. Sometimes it is small tweaks, like the dot grid paper and sometimes it seems like there are really big changes from week to week.

For the pens I used in this, it ranges from the giant triplus set, stabilo sets, some copic markers, a few sliccis, hi-tec-c, all types of the uni-signos, zebras and various sakura gelly-rolls.  I would say 99% of what I have used in my planner has been purchased from JetPens.

I have a lot more to post, but I didn't want to post too many pictures at one time and I wanted to make sure I wasn't boring you.  So unless tons of people tell me they are tired of these posts I have more planner pics coming!