My New Pen and Ink Journal

Tags

arc notebooks, de atramentis, delta journal, ink journal, pen journal, pilot plumix, waterman

I was running out of space in my last Ink Journal so I decided to create a new one. And this time it is housed in a binder instead of an ARC Journal. Lots of room to expand!I chose a plain white binder with a clear pocket on the front. I put in some spare scrapbooking paper. I really like how it turned out.

I used the scrapbook paper as dividers inside the binder as well.

My pen list. I add to it as new pens come in, obviously, and make note when I give a pen away.

And I do the same with the ink list. I generally use my Pilot Plumix to write the lists.

A colourful index. I decided to combined the pens and inks in this section, and simply go alphabetical. So Delta pens and De Atramentis ink will be in the same section: D.

I used puffy alphabet stickers to mark each division. The index goes up to 31 so not sure what I will use the extra sections for yet.

I have quite a few empty page protectors so I’ve filled them with pen and ink “stuff”. Here are the paper booklet, serial number and sleeve from my Delta Journal.

And here I’ve put in some flattened Waterman boxes. Alot easier to store this way and I like seeing the colourful boxes.

So that’s a quick tour of my new pen and ink journal. Saying goodbye to the ARC notebook was sad but I’ve simply outgrown it. I will have to find another use for it because it is one of my favorite in the ARC range. Let me know in the comments how you keep track of your pens and inks.

Crafty Monday

Tags

arc notebooks, fauxdori, midori, midori-style, my life all in one place, ray blake, raydori

I was fooling around with my ARC hole punch today and made a custom notebook for a game I’m playing at the moment. It involves the care and feeding of dragons and there is a lot of information to remember. I didn’t want to use one of my many empty journals as I don’t know how long I will be interested in this game and I would hate to “waste” a journal on my notes for a game I no longer play. My ARC rings, some scrapbooking paper and my ARC hole punch solved that problem.

Here’s a close up of the cover. I found the old dragon map online and the egg sticker I already had in my collection.

It is an unusual size; it was dictated by the size of scrapbooking paper I wanted to use. I put purple lined paper and blank, brown craft paper in it, cut to size.

I also used different scrapbooking paper for the dividers, with tabs at the top.

The rings are probably too big but they are the smallest ones I have.

When I finished this notebook I started putting together Ray Blake’s Monthly PlanPack. Ray Blake is a wonderful artist who has many, many free printables on his website, My Life All in One Place. He also makes Midori-style notebooks for sale. I bought one and wrote about it in this post in October of last year. This PlanPack was super easy to print and trim.

Here is the cover I created for the insert. I didn’t cut the edges properly so some of them stick out, but it doesn’t bother me. And it’s brand new so it doesn’t lay flat yet.

The printable produces two booklets. It starts with a blank month.

Followed by 6 blank weekly layouts.

And then the rest of the booklet is devoted to lists for whatever you choose.

I am not planning to jump into this format right away; I’m happy with my Flex Planner. But I have a lot of fun putting these type of things together and it might come in useful if I move into a smaller purse (which I dream about but never actually happens). Check out Ray’s selection; he makes truly professional-looking and incredibly useful printables for your Midori or Midori-style notebook covers, in a variety of sizes.

 

Card File for Correspondence

Tags

arc notebooks, card file, incowrimo, letter writers alliance, letters

So I’ve been keeping my correspondence log in this ARC notebook, which started out as a Letter Writers Alliance log and turned into an InCoWriMo log, as I got a much better response from that endeavour than the pen pals that were sent to me from LWA. But as the number of letters sent grew larger (I’m in the 60s now since February 1) and my stack of replies seems to stay at a constant dozen, I needed something more organized. I wanted to keep track of the person’s name and address but also a log of our correspondence and some idea of what I’ve already said to the person. Don’t want to be a boring correspondent. So I came up with a card file. I had a 40% off coupon at Michael’s and I used it. Please know that I am not a crafter; I have never attempted decoupage before so this is my first project. Please indulge the rookie mistakes. 🙂

I wanted something more interesting than a recipe box but not as big as a conventional card file (one that might fit a shoe box – I don’t have that many correspondents). I saw this rough wooden box in Michael’s and thought it was perfect. I bought a bottle of Mod Podge and some foam brushes and went to town decoupaging the box. It’s not finished yet; I will do another post when it’s done. I intend to cover the entire thing (or as much of it as I’m capable of) with interesting paper I have collected over the years. In the picture above the paper on the front right is a page from my Bo Bunny Miscellaneous Me collection of notepaper. I cut it into an interesting shape, laid it on the box, and covered it with the gooey Mod Podge. The paper on the front left is gift wrap given to me years ago. You may recognize it from this post in which I use it as a divider in my planner. The sticker is one I picked up at Michael’s a while ago. I’ve been waiting for the right project to use them on and this is definitely it. The finished project will probably have more of those stickers.

I thought it would be interesting to have the paper cover the edges of the box. I used an exacto knife to cut the box open again after the paper was dry.

The image on the top of the box is a napkin, believe it or not. I removed the two layers of absorbent sheet on the napkin and was left with a very thin sheet with the image on it. It was tricky to decoupage as it becomes like wet tissue as soon as the Mod Podge hits it. But I’m very happy with the end result.

The other side of the napkin had a similar but slightly different design so I put that one on the inside of the box lid. You can see where the napkin started to tear on the left. I’m learning!

For the card file I needed dividers. Michael’s didn’t have any so I went to Staples and they only had the brightly colored modern ones; I was hoping for the vintage looking black and tan ones. No luck. So I made the dividers myself using brown tags.

The two-toned brown tags match my colour scheme, such as it is. I used an alphabet stamp set to make the letters.

Each correspondent will have their own set of three types of cards: Name and Address on the first, Log on the second, and Letters on the third and subsequent cards.

The first card is simply their name and address, and perhaps any extra info about them, like their username on FPGeeks or Youtube for example. The second card, the Log, will be a record of when each letter was sent from me and when I received their reply. The third card, the Letters, will be the details of what I said to them in each letter. I don’t want to repeat funny stories about the cats or my husband or something at work. And each set of cards will be fastened together with an interesting paper clip (finally a use for all those funky paper clips I own!). Each paper-clipped set will be filed under the person’s first name, as that is how I will think of them for sure. So when I sit down to write a response, I will have their last letter in front of me to answer, but I will also have all of their information from the card file. I’ve been using this system for about a week now and it’s working great!

As I said I still have work to do on the box. And after it’s all covered in paper I’m told I should do a final Mod Podge coat, to seal it all in. I will do another post when I’m done. Hope you enjoyed this – I’m certainly having fun playing with paper and glue!

My Arc Planner

Tags

arc notebooks, planners

Yes I believe this is the third planner I’ve drafted into use this year, but who’s counting? 😉

You’ll recognize this beauty from my Woven Fabric Arc Notebook post of Aug 25, purchased for and sent to me by the lovely Amanda from arcit.blogspot.ca. You’ll also recognize the book elastic from the Papaya Book of Days post of May 5. I like the pink with the brown and it works perfectly to keep the book closed. I need something because there is no clasp or attached elastic.

I’ve moved into 1.5″ discs. It came with 1″ discs but once I loaded it up the pages were no longer able to move with ease. So it was into the bigger discs. The discs look a little big but they hold so much more.

I keep an Arc pocket divider at the very front, to hold bills I need to pay that day or post I need to send. And since the Arc comes with one pen loop I added a Leuchtturm Pen Loop to an Arc index divider which works really well; I can move the index divider if I want, even to a different book. Not that I’m planning any more planner moves this year!

I keep a blue Pilot G-TEC C4 pen in the loop currently. I plan on moving to a Coleto or Slicci multi-pen as I like having different coloured inks to write with.

I made the small paper pocket on the left and I keep my Hello Kitty stickers in there. I don’t have much Hello Kitty stuff and was never really into it until my friend gave me Hello Kitty bookmarks for Christmas last year. In this photo you can also see an inspiration page with my favorite things on it, including quotes.

My cats!

Halley, William and Gracie. We lost William last year. 😦

I use an Arc zippered pouch for more stickers that I use in the planner. On the right you can see a Day-Timer Yearly Planning Calendar that I liberated from an old planner.

I love this paper and made it into a divider.

Here’s where we start to get into the actual planner pages (finally!). I created this page and the following weekly pages based on a design on limetreefruits.com.

The weekly blocks are laid out along the top of the page. This is the beginning of the week where you can organize the meals for the week, or record what you eat day by day.

Each day is cut, above the to do line, and above the schedule line. So you can flip through each day without losing sight of the week at the top. It really is a nifty system. Limetreefruits.com has free printables of this in a hand-painted, water colour themed design which are incredibly beautiful, just not my thing. I changed the schedule to suit me and also added water and walk tracking icons.

More dividers: to buy, health, bookclub, travel, home and notes. I like to keep note of online retailers who sell certain items and what their shipping terms are. In the home section I keep my menu planning pages and finance pages.

The tea section. I keep track of my daily tea drinking here, for eventual transcription into my silver filigree Paperblanks journal.

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In the back I keep post-its and flags, as well as another Arc pocket divider.

In this pen loop I keep a Post-it pen I found at Target. It has flags in the highlighter cap and the other end is a ballpoint pen.

So that’s it for my planner. I carry it with me everywhere and I’m using it faithfully every day. Fingers crossed it will last into 2014. 😉

Woven Fabric Arc Notebook

Tags

arc notebooks, notebooks, planners

It’s no secret I love Arc notebooks: in my post on July 28 I talked about the blue leather junior notebook and all the accessories; and in my post on Aug 18 I talked about my travel journal which I made using a green poly Arc notebook. And now I’m going to talk about my new brown woven notebook, size A5, from the wonderful Amanda from http://arcit.blogspot.ca/. She posted how she is always looking for items that are not available in the UK; she is willing to buy items if we are willing to send them to her, and vice versa. She didn’t want the green poly notebook at the time I sent the email, but she was willing to buy and post the woven fabric notebook for me. Plus she had a coupon! And so after a few emails and paypal payments it arrived in my mailbox!

Amanda included a very nice note with the notebook.

The bubble wrap came off to reveal another plastic bag. Good for shipping.

I tore the plastic bag off and could finally feel the notebook. The woven fabric on the front and back is kind of shimmery gold and feels coarse to the touch – but in a good way! The A5 cover is exactly the same size as the covers we can get here in Canada. But the paper is slightly larger – our paper (in the junior size) is 5.5 inches wide, while the paper for the A5 size is about 5.75 inches wide.

I really like the white stitching detail. I plan on making this my daily planner. I got the idea from Amanda, who also uses this style for her daily planner.

This style notebook has the single pen loop, just like the versions available here. I have yet to see an Arc notebook with two pen loops; that would be very handy.

Below is the back cover of the notebook, with the M embossed in brown leather. Nice touch.

I’m absolutely thrilled with this notebook. I will do another post about how I’m using it as my daily planner.

Along with Amanda’s package this envelope arrived from Creative Crafting Corner, with some goodies from Smash: the pen holder, page tabs and elastic bands. My local Michael’s never seems to have these items.

You can check out the woven fabric Arc at the Staples uk page here.

Arc Notebook

Tags

arc notebooks, notebooks, staples

So I was in Staples the other day and found a huge display of Arc customizable notebooks. Check out the US webpage; they have a much better web ad than the Canadian Staples site.

I was intrigued by the colors and quality of the notebooks. And I was blown away by the price: the most expensive is $21.99 Cdn, an 8.5 x 11″ leather notebook. The system works on a disc system, much like Circa by Levenger, but at a lower price point.

I chose a blue leather notebook, sized 5.5 x 8.5, known as the “Junior” size.

Each notebook comes with 60 sheets of ruled paper. The Junior size notebooks are $14.99.

I think the Canadian stock must be from the same source as the US because the insert advertises Calendar, To Do and Project Planning pages which are not available in Canada. At least not yet. And the UK page is a real treat; they have a lot of different items from the US stock. Check out this brown woven fabric notebook; I love it! I guess I have to find a UK friend who is willing to purchase it for me; I spoke to Staples Canada customer service and there is no way I can order from the UK site to a Canadian address. 😦

Here we have the back of the notebook with a pen loop. The loop is leather not elastic.

The back of the notebook.

All the supplies I bought with my notebook. This is the really great thing about this system – all the accessories are inexpensive. I think everything in the picture cost less than $30 (and the notebook was half of that so there you go). See the complete Canadian range here.

Starting from the top left I bought a package of poly zip pockets. There are two per package. Great ziploc kind of pouch for carrying stuff in your notebook. Next on the top right is a package of poly tab dividers. There are 5 in each package, in bright colours. You can also buy these in all black. And finally a package of poly pocket dividers, which also come in a pack of two. The super neat thing about these pocket dividers is they have pockets on both sides, so you get two pockets for each divider. First time I have seen a pocket insert like this.

This is a set of expansion discs or rings, in the 1.5 inch size (the notebook came with 1 inch discs). I thought this would be perfect to hold my extra supplies, and it works perfectly. These are just under $2 each so you can make your own notebooks/journals very easily.

On the left is a package of ruled graph paper, and narrow ruled lined paper on the right.

The tasks pads (shown above on the left) are neat in that they lie flat against your page but also have a lip at the top so you can easily flip to them when you open the notebook. I use them for To Do lists. And the page flags are great when you need a flag at your fingertips.

But this clever machine makes the Arc system so fun and interesting to work with. This is a Desktop Punch, with an 8 sheet capacity, for making your own inserts for the Arc notebooks. The silver guides on the bottom allow you to choose the size of notebook you are punching for, and you simply slide your sheet in and press the handle down, much like any other hole punch. There is a drawer in the bottom that catches all the punched material. It is very easy to remove and empty.

I had an interesting experience with the punch. I didn’t buy it the same day as I bought all the other stuff pictured above, simply because I didn’t like the price in the store: $39.99. I thought that was too much for the ability to make my own inserts. But then I went home and looked at the range online. And the punch was advertised for $25. I phoned Staples customer service and they confirmed the price. So I ordered it online. I mentioned the discrepancy between the store and the online price, and the mistake was fixed a couple of weeks later. I am so happy with the punch, and even more so that I got it for such a great price!

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I couldn’t resist showing you the stickers I bought at Michael’s (right next door to Staples) during the same shopping trip. I love anything by K&Company.

I also love anything to do with tea and I struck gold this trip with tea items. Obviously Mary Engelbreit loves tea as much as I do!

But back to the Arc notebooks. If you are looking for an inexpensive notebook that is super customizable and usable look no further. And you can always drool on the Levenger site and purchase items that will fit your Arc discs.

The best blog I have found so far for all things Arc is http://arcit.blogspot.co.uk/. I found Amanda’s tips, tricks and round up of youtube videos invaluable to me as I was setting up my own
Arc. And her printouts are fantastic, especially for those inserts that are not available in Canada.

Now prepare to drool: http://www.levenger.com/ Wonderful site for notebooks but also any kind of leather good you can think of. I’m currently loving the Tahoe Circa Jacket which was also recently featured on arcit.blogspot.co.uk.

I will share photos of my Arc once it is put together. I thought this post was log enough already!