Transcript
Hello all my buddies, this is Carmen, and I’m back with another flip thru of a pocket notebook. On my channel, I also have a flip thru of my Cloth and Paper planner, but before I was gifted a planner, I usually use these little pocket notebooks for a bullet journal of sorts. Now, I use these for a kind of memory keeping notebook, and I try to experiment with these a little bit more than with my planner.
This video, I’m doing a flip thru of the Hobonichi Memo Pad, this is the A6 size. I wanted to get this pocket notebook, because I wanted to try the paper that’s so popular! This paper is supposed to be the Tomoe River 52gsm paper. Previously, I’ve used the 68gsm one (I believe that was the paper in the Elemental Paper Proton Notebook), and I really like that one, but many people tend to prefer this 52gsm one, so I wanted to see what the big deal was. Here’s the front and the back. The kitty mermaid sticker came the cat purse that I bought, and it looks like the artist is Pergamo @ Paper Goods. Her collage art is so cute! The back just has a white sticker with the dates that are inside, I figured I should start dating the notebooks at least!
So, to start, let’s go to the back of the notebook, where I have my pen test page. Here is the front, and here’s the back. As you can see, even the Crayola marker doesn’t bleed through this thin, fountain pen friendly paper. The only one that did was the Uni MicroPerm 0.3, which is like a Sharpie and is an oil-based ink. This is why a lot of people tend to really love this paper, as it tends to soak up a lot of moisture, while still being an extremely thin paper. I really like this paper, but I don’t think I would be super picky between the 52gsm and the 68gsm one. The last thing I’ll say about this paper is the squares are so cute and little! They work for me because I can write small, but if it might be an issue for you if you don’t like to write small.
Let’s flip back to the front of the book; here is my little index. The Post-It on the side was me trying to plan the layout out before putting it down in pen; on the bottom, there’s a rough, little diagram of how many squares are on the page to get a better sense of creating the layout. Finally, there’s my index on the right; I don’t normally need to come back and refer to the index, but I like it as kind of a cover page to the notebook. For the washi tape, these will either be from Michaels or most likely Daiso.
Let’s go to the first week and I’ll show you the general layouts for the notebook. This is July 12-18. Here is the overview and cover page. On the left, kind of a daily blurb. I am focusing on learning French using Duolingo, so for this journal, I wrote out one thing I did, and then translated it to French. I used a Crayola Marker to highlight the dates on the left. On the right page, I have a beautiful picture from a naturalist magazine as the background, then I have a little quote written on a memo sheet, and then I have pasted cutouts from magazines, used washi tape, or added stickers. This week, the quote reads “Perhaps the future belongs to magic, and it’s we women who control magic”. It’s from a book by J.G. Ballard, called Rushing to Paradise. Never read the book, but the quote is quite nice!
On the next spread, you can see a sample of my weekly. These are Monday through Thursday, and the next spread will look the same, except be Friday through Sunday, with a “My Recencies” summary section. The thin washi tape will always be from Daiso. This week’s is more gold in person but the scan makes it look more copper. The washi tape used for the dates or for decoration will mostly be some sample washi tape from from friend Sowmya, and I probably will not know where they’re from, unfortunately! The stickers will differ from page to page, but the white, monoline stickers are from me, I just printed them out on some leftover sticker paper I had. For this week, the dates are on cloud washi tape from Sowmya. And the little red and grey stickers are from Mochi Things, I think. They were long strips and I cut them, that’s why they’re not all the same size! If we turn the page, you can see the same thing here. For this week’s My Recencies Section, I added a sticker from a Recollections Sticker book from Michaels.
The next week, July 19-25. This week’s quote is from Ben Okri: “The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.” I just now realized how badly the phrase above it, cut out from a magazine, fits the quote, but it’s cute, so, it’s fine. The next spreads are the weekly; the washi tape headers are cute drink and food themed. The next page is similar. The thin washi here is more silvery in person, but the scan makes it look grey.
The next week, July 26-August 1, this quote is from Carroll O’Connor, “Even a true artist does not always produce art,” which is a nice reminder that not everything we do has to be perfect! The leaves on the left page are some of my favorite cutouts that I collected over the years. I love the half-tone look! The next spreads are the weekly; the washi tape here are these cute emoticon clouds; they don’t necessarily reflect the emotion of the day, they’re just cute! The second spread, I ran out of the cloud emoticons so I substituted a different washi tape from Sowmya, and a cutout from a magazine.
The next week, August 2-8. The quote this week is from the book Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, “The world is a possibility if only you’ll discover it.” This is a book I said I was going to read in high school and never got through it. Did anyone else have to read this book? I also had a cutout of the name of the month, and it coincidentally matched the aesthetic of the page, so it all worked out! The next page, a weekly spread. The thin washi tape is actually neon green, but apparently scans don’t capture neon that well. I’ll take a picture next time I use it, because the neon looks really nice! The washi tape is of some Japanese oni I believe, so I paired it with some Monsters Inc stickers that Sowmya gifted me from Daiso. The star stickers were gifted me from someone a long time ago, and they remind me of the stars I got when I was in elementary school! The heart and exclamation stickers are also a gift from Sowmya. The next page is similar, with an extra food and drink washi tape from a couple weeks ago.
The next week, August 9-15. The quote this week is from Scott Adams, “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” It’s another nice reminder that nothing you do will always be perfect. The next spread, Monster’s Inc washi tape this time, and I have some Lion King stickers gifted from Sowmya as well. They remind me of elementary school! So nostalgic! The next spread is pretty similar.
The next week. August 16-22. The quote this week is from Stephen Sondheim, “Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.” My cursive needs work, but it doesn’t look that bad! The next spread, the weekly spread. This thin washi tape is actually neon yellow, so weird that it washes out all the color! This week I combined the Monsters Inc washi tape with the sticker flakes. The next spread is similar.
The last week, August 23-29. The quote this week is from Horace: “The pen is the tongue of the mind.” The weekly spread now, just using up all my Monsters Inc sticker flakes, and for the washi tape for the dates, it’s more tape from Sowmya. The thin washi here is supposed to be neon orange, it kinda just makes it look more pastel. Oh well! The next spread is similar; I used up the rest of that drink and food washi tape from a couple spreads back.
The next spread is just an empty-ish spread; a kind of separator from the weekly spreads and the lists at the end. Next is the back again, I didn’t talk about the page on the right earlier, because I was focusing on the bleed through of the pens. I usually just have a running list of things I should be doing at the end of each month. Thankfully, my soon-to-be-husband helps me with the cleaning each month, but the stuff at the top I’m in charge of, so it’s harder for me to get motivated to clean my makeup brushes (even though I totally should and I will do that this weekend).
And that’s it! Please let me know what you thought of my spreads, and which was your favorite quote? Do you have any motivational quotes that you like to put in your spreads? I didn’t want to just make it aspirations, and I wanted to include some sarcasm too, but I didn’t think it fit the vibe of the spreads.
Thanks for watching everyone!