You like:

Quality paper, a reliable notebook with a simple design.

Choose:

Leuchtturm & Rhodia

Both Leuchtturm and Rhodia notebooks are fountain-pen friendly and super-stylish. Leuchtturm, as you may well know from reading this blog, is new on the scene here in the UK, and is proving incredibly popular with notebook-lovers around the country. As well as the traditional black, you can buy your Leuchtturm in an array of different colours and paper styles, so if you’re after great paper in a colourful cover, then Leuchtturm is the one for you.

Rhodia is instantly recognisable with its orange and black covers. Designed and created in France, the Rhodia range of notebooks are a good choice if you’re looking for a notebook with quality paper. Many of the Rhodia notebooks also have an inside pocket to store receipts, scrap paper and anything else you fancy in them.

You like:

Spiral bound notebooks

Choose:

Rhodia, Notes for my Daily Life, Whitelines or the Idea Log

Sometimes spiral bound notebooks are particularly useful, especially when it comes to list making or for me, using a notebook in the office. I have to have a spiral bound notebook in order to flick through the pages of work notes and lists more easily.

Marks Inc., from Japan, have designed a range of quirky and highly functional notebooks. In a variety of colours, the ‘Notes from my Daily Life’ notebooks contain 300 pages with a space at the top of each page to note the date and title.

Rhodia have a great range of spiral bound pads and notebooks in the classic orange and black colours. The collection also includes spiral bound notebooks with the spiral at the top. Again, perfectly functional and stylish.

Whitelines are probably the most “revolutionary” notebooks we stock, due to the amazing white lines (ha!). Designed by a Swedish designer (of course! Who else?!) , Whitelines notebooks have basically turned all the dark lines and squares in what would be a standard notebook, and turned them white, making writing, drawing and diagrams just pop out of the page. I do love them, and a Whitelines notebook is next on my wish list.

The Idea Log is a nifty notebook for all your ideas, with pages to jot down inspirations and the sources of those inspirations.  Then move on to the brainstorm pages.  And finally, the project pages, where your good ideas take shape.

You like:

Pretty, flowery notebooks

Choose:

Orla Kiely, Rosehip, Jill Bliss or Cavallini Butterfly Notebooks

Orla Kiely’s iconic and instantly recognisable designs have long been loved by the fashion world, and not long ago she launched her stationery line to include notebooks, magazine racks and storage boxes. The colours she uses are just lovely, and if you’re after a pretty looking notebook then I’m sure Orla will do it for you

The Rosehip notebooks are all made from recycled paper, and are all very pretty – they are soft backed and could fit in your handbag quite easily.

Jill Bliss is an Oregon-based illustrator and designer and her drawings are pretty, whimsical and really individual. The Succulent Eco Journal is also printed on 100% recycled paper with soy-based ink, so not only is it pretty, but eco-friendly too!

The Cavallini designs are collages taken from the Cavallini archive – they make lovely covers for the notebooks and this one in particular is perfect for flora and fauna enthusiats out there.

You like:

Animal designs on notebooks

Choose:

Woodland Bunny, Clear Skies Eco Journal, Matte Stephens Summer City & L’apres-midi Notebooks

All 4 of these notebooks feature animal themes, and there are many more on our site. Most of them are quite new in, and are great as everyday notebooks as well as for writing and doodling. The ones shown above are all lined, except for the Woodland Bunny journal which has decorated, plain pages.

Susie Ghahremani, the designer of the Clear Skies Eco Journal, is a US-based illustrator and her designs have been incredibly popular. It must be the cute squirrels and owls that she illustrates! Look out for a feature on Susie in the near future

Matte Stephens is another US-based designer, and his illustrations and designs often feature cityscapes and animals – especially cats!

You like:

Pocket notebooks

Choose:

Bamboo Pocket, Cavallini Typewriter, Orla Kiely and teNeues

Most of our main notebook ranges come in pocket sizes (think Leuchtturm, Moleskine, Whitelines, and Rhodia etc.) but here are some others just to get you going

The Bamboo Pocket Notebooks are a set of 4 soft back notebooks with plain paper – perfect for carrying around for those impromptu moments of inspiration!

The teNeues collection of notebooks are unique in that they have both plain and lined pages – doodles on one side, lists on the other!

If you’re still struggling with what to go with, the notebook section on our site is divided into sections for ‘ruled notebooks’, ‘blank notebooks’, ‘pocket notebooks’ and many more subcategories.

I hope you’ve found this post useful and it helps in some way to get the right notebook for you!

I’ve already bought the Italia one for my friend who loves anything to do with Italy and put it in a clip frame for her. I’m also thinking of buying a couple to stick behind some shelves at home to make them a bit more interesting, and my partner also really wants either the world map one or the England one to hang in a frame (map-themed room, anyone?!).

Also, the new ABC Gift Wrap would be perfect for a child’s room or nursery, as would any of the maps.

Which one do you like best? I’m finding it really hard to choose…

ABC Decorative Wrap

Vintage Ephemera

Plan of London

Italia

British Isles

Paris Ephemera

Fleur Ephemera

Bird Ephemera

Art in the Landscape in Finland

• Do you like cats? Do you like Instagram? Then this is definitely the site for you!

• In case you missed our Twitter update, Cavallini & Co have some new magnets, which are now on our site.

• If you’re in Bristol, head to the Colston Hall for the Made in Bristol event, which is free

• Inspiring film about how bicycles can peoples lives.

• Love this vintage Penguin & Pelican books collection on Flickr.

• Love this Plan of London map that we’ve just had in.

And now to end here’s a couple of really cool videos:

This must have taken ages!

And finally check out this amazing paper cut video from the talented Wye Oak:

Wye Oak – Fish from Merge Records on Vimeo.

Have a great weekend everyone!  And good luck to those running the London Marathon on Sunday

The new colouring books below are bound to be a hit with girls and boys, and make a cute gift. The Fuzzy Friends stamp kit is also new – kids can now not only cover their colouring books with amazing coloured pencils and felt tip pens, but cute little stamps too! (Why am I not a kid now?!). They are washable and safe to use, so there’s no need to worry about your little ones staining their hands (or anything else for that matter).

Rachel Ellen Colouring Books, Stabilo Pencils and Stamp Kit

Adorable pictures! I would have loved these as a child!

Such lovely colours!

I couldn’t resist featuring those Stabilo pencils in this post. The colours are great, so vibrant! And of course they’d be perfect to buy as a gift with the colouring books. Look out for lots more Stabilo products coming to Papernation in the near future!

I thought I’d share with you my second ever Postcrossing postcard, which is from Finland. I have written on my profile that I would quite like hearing about traditional  recipes or customs, and my Finnish postcrossing buddy has sent me a recipe postcard from none other than the Moomins! With the help of Google Translate, and a couple of Twitter friends, I’ve translated the recipe to share with you.

Small My’s Blueberry (Oven) Pancake

4 eggs

1 litre milk

500 g wheat flour

100 g sugar

1 tsp salt

400 g blueberries (or bilberries, if you can find them)

50 g butter

You can sprinkle a bit of sugar to taste

Whisk the eggs.  Add about half of the milk, and all the flour, sugar and salt. Whisk all the ingredients together until smooth then add the remaining milk.  Let it stand for about 15 minutes.  Line a baking tray/oven tray with greaseproof paper.  Preheat the oven to 225 degrees Celsius. Brown the baking sheet briefly (note: not sure why you have to do this!?) then pour the batter into it and sprinkle the blueberries (or bilberries) on top with a little bit of sugar.  Bake for 30 mins.

I’ve found this picture on the Internet of what it might look like: mustikka pannari but it’s not a very attractive picture.

In short, I think it should almost be like a sweet Yorkshire pudding, with tasty fruit sprinkled on top!

Thank you to Postcrossing, and to my Finnish postcrosser Enjoy!

It’s been an exciting week for us here as we’ve announced that we’ll be moving to bigger, better premises in order to bring you even more Papernation loveliness! Yay for us! As a new feature for alternate Fridays, I thought we could start sharing some of the amazing things that we find every week on the Internet.

If you have any suggestions for us in the future of things you want to see featured such as interesting art, paper art, cool videos, interesting articles, just Facebook or Tweet us @papernation

Enjoy!

Beautiful yet strange paintings by Jen Mann

• See London in 80 Gigapixels (that’s not a typo!) in the largest 360 degree panorama in the world! (tip: zoom into the London Eye!)

• Truly Amazing tiny pencil sculptures.  WITHOUT a magnifying glass!

• 60 Completely unusable Stock photos…obviously!

• Are you right or left brained? Very odd! (I see it clockwise)

• Basset Hounds running…trust me, you want to click on this one…

• Strangely mesmerising diptychs by Mark Laita

• This one’s for the Bristolians – Bristol is getting a new independent market on the Harbouside in May.

• The Bicycle City is an inspiring film about how bicycles have helped communities in Nicaragua.

And that’s it!  Have a great weekend folks.

Of course, you don’t have to be bothered about the Royal Wedding at all. If not, enjoy the pretty pictures!

You may not be able to tell in the photo, but that Union Flag is also glittery.  Who says you can’t add a touch of sparkle to your party?!

Obviously the Royal Wedding decorative wrap that we’ve used has got Elizabeth II and Philip on there, but if you want you could cut out and carefully stick William and Kate’s pictures on there.  Or you could just leave it.

The New Rubber Stamps now available online

The set of 3 pocket Notebooks are also available.  These very pretty, and beautifully designed notebooks (featuring one lined, one plain and one with squared paper) are great to carry around with you (even if you have a tiny handbag!).  Or, if you like the pictures too much to use them (as happens with me a lot!) then just leave them on your desk or office space to look at…It’s still a notebook if you just want to look at it, right?!

We think the London one might take off in a big way, but the Paris, New York, Maps and Flora & Fauna designs are just as eye-catching.

The front of one of the London notebooks, and the sleeves of some of the others.  See, even the sleeves are pretty!

The Paris, London and World Map Set of 3 Notebooks

My favourite though has to be the Flora and Fauna range – I love the animal and flower stamps that you get in the Rubber Stamps as they are amazingly detailed.  The notebooks are also very pretty, and are obviously a perfect match for the rubber stamps.  If you’re less a fan of the bold, graphic images that come with the city notebooks then these are perfect for you.  The muted colours, soft lines and drawings certainly give them a whimsical element, but that is what makes them so unique.

The Set of 3 Flora & Fauna Notebooks, and the Rubber Stamps

Some ideas on how to use the Cavallini & Co Rubber Stamps and the MT Tape.  I used here the Flora & Fauna, Alphabet, Greetings and Numbers & Symbols stamps.  The MT Tape used was this pack of Pink & Grey dots.

Some gift ideas: 1. Cavallini & Co Flora & Fauna Rubber Stamps 2. Florentine Writing Set 3. Orla Kiely Abacus Flowers Notecards 4. Cavallini & Co World Map Book Plate 5. Set of Three Blue Birds Notebooks 6. Three Year Allotment Notebook 7. Orla Kiely Address Book 8. Recipe File

Finally, we’ve got some lovely gift wrap and all the trimmings also available on our site, if you want to make you gift look extra special.  Again, Cavallini & Co do some stunning gift wrap that, in my opinion, could be used just as well as something to put on your wall.  So if you do buy some to wrap up mum’s present with, make sure you wrap it up carefully and using something like masking tape, so that it doesn’t stick to the paper.  You then instantly have 2 gifts in one!

From left to right – Map of England Gift Wrap, Botanica Gift Wrap, Bird & Cage Gift Wrap and Eiffel Tower Gift Wrap.  All by Cavallini & Co and available on the website.

Lastly, we’ve got a discount code running until Friday 18th March on all our Rubber Stamps.  You can receive 10% off them by entering CAVSTAMPS at the checkout.  Happy crafting!

x

Cat reading letters

Letter-loving Cat

Cat & Pen

Cat & Moleskine

Working is Prohibited

Cat does Maths

Cat on Notebook

Cat on Post-it Notes

Cat on Paper Bed

Office Assistant

Letter Approval