Review: Daycraft's Envelope Folder

Daycraft, a Hong Kong-based stationery and paper company, has been sending me notebook and diary samples to review for some time now. I have reviewed their Signature, Flower Wow, and Juicy notebooks, and though they are not meant for full fountain pen use, I still liked them very much. Daycraft's products are elegant, fun, and very contemporary. Shortly after the company was formed, their product selection expanded to include diaries, sketchbooks, and accessories.

Daycraft has three collections, namely: Signature, Fun and Funky, and Fresh and Collectible. I like the Signature collection the most because of its matching diaries and notebooks, and the newly-released range of accessories, including the Signature Envelope Folder.

I received the two-toned red A4 Envelope Folder and I have to say that it is beautiful. Available in five colors, it is made from Italian polyurethane or PU, a synthetic material that has the combined elasticity of rubber and toughness of metal. The material is smooth to the touch, but thick and strong enough to hold the documents inside the pocket.

Daycraft's logo is neatly pressed at the back part of the Envelope Folder. 

The inner flap is cross-stitched for strength and durability, and the black thread is a beautiful accent to the flap.

The Envelope Folder's flap can hold 20 sheets of regular 70gsm bond. Here, I tried including a thin notebook and everything stayed neatly in place. This Envelope Folder is perfect for my presentation papers, case abstracts, and other documents.

Daycraft is now offering more products beyond their notebooks. Their accessories collection has a wide variety of color coordinated products including folding trays, iPhone pockets, iPad pockets, moneywraps, card pockets, desk calendars, and the Handy Pick Holder, a distant cousin of my beloved Midori Traveler's Notebook. If you're looking for tools to keep organized, visit Daycraft's website at http://www.daycraft.com.hk/.

The A4 Envelope Folder used in this review is courtesy of Daycraft, through their Retail and Marketing Manager, Mr. Foreal Lee.

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Notebook Review: Write-Now by Poppin

I received this red medium Poppin Write-Now notebook when the brand has just been launched. That's a shameful two years ago. I read about a notebook giveaway and I signed up to receive a sample to review here. Meredith Zenkel, Poppin's Director of Public Relations, sent the notebook to my friend in the US who then sent it to me here in the Philippines.

As a fountain pen user, there are two types of notebooks (or should I say paper?) for me: fountain pen friendly notebooks, and the not-so-fountain-pen-friendly ones. When I received the Write-Now notebook, I fell in love with its red soft cover, but cringed when I saw that ink bled profusely to the next page when I wrote. But I still kept it and made plans to write a review but I never wrote one. Shame on me.

Last month, while I was sick at home, I re-organized my notebooks and came upon the Poppin beauty still wrapped in its original plastic. I took it out and tried some of my inked pens on a page. I felt bad that again, there were the same nasty bleed and ugly feathering I saw before. But... When I tried my Parker 45 inked with Pelikan Blue Black, I was dumbfounded. I noticed that it did not feather on Poppin's paper. And... it did not bleed!!! Hurray! I can now use my Poppin notebook!

Apart from the not-so-fountain-pen-friendly Poppin paper, there's a lot to love with this medium Write-Now notebook. It measures 5 x 8.25 inches, and has a lovely, bright, happy red cover with Poppin's logo etched in the lower right corner.

The gray elastic closure is a happy contrast to the brightness of the cover. It's not too tight to cramp the notebook with its soft cover, but fits just right to hold the pages together. The gray elastic closure of Poppin's red notebooks has been changed to red now.

The Write-Now notebooks are thread-bound for flexibility and durability. Thread-binding ensures that the pages will not simply fall off. Below photo shows the signatures of this notebook bound together, and its gray ribbon bookmark.

One more feature to love with the Write-Now notebook is its round corners. Generally, I prefer notebooks with round corners because they are easier to handle. No sharp corner pokes or scratches, and no page corner curls. I understand that not all notebooks are created equal with round corners, so I bought a round corner cutter for notebooks with sharp, pointed corners.

Like most of my bound notebooks, the Write-Now has a back pocket to hold receipts, notes, cards, etc. But I have never used notebook back pockets for such purposes because once I fill the pocket with bits of paper, it starts to bulge, and the uncomfortable bump gets in the way of my writing. This is a useful feature, I just don't like using it.

Because of its binding method, this notebook lies flat when it is open. It has 192 pages of ruled acid and lignin free ivory-colored paper. But unlike most ruled notebooks, the inside pages of Write-Now are printed with boxes on the upper part of the page, and vertical lines in either outer left and right sides. These features make the Write-Now a very useful tool in record keeping.

As mentioned earlier in this review, I ran an initial pen and ink test on this notebook when I received it, but perhaps due to its thin paper, almost all of the ink I tested feathered...

...and bled. Two ink types did not feather then, but the rest bled heavily. I understand that this notebook wasn't even made for fountain pens, and that there are people who use rollerballs, ballpoints, or pencils and  find it perfect. But I use fountain pens for everyday writing, so when a notebook comes to me for review, my tests are done using my ink tanks.

BUT...

There is a way I could use Poppin's notebooks! I need only to find the right pen and ink combination as I did when I tested my Pelikan BB-filled Parker 45. I know I can also use the old iron gall Lamy Blue Black on this notebook but I try to avoid that ink because of its corrosive properties.

Pelikan Blue Black behaved well in Poppin paper, with only a tiny bit of almost unnoticeable feathering. The ink also dried fast on this notebook's paper and that's good to know because ink dry time affects my writing speed. I know I wouldn't need to wait for an entire page to dry before I could proceed.

Pelikan BB did not feather on this notebook's paper and did not bleed, too. There is show-through, and the tiny dots visible on this side of the paper are due to my heavy handwriting. But whatever, this is happy enough for me because I know that there exists a pen/nib-ink combination that is nearly perfect for this notebook, and perhaps for my other not-so-fountain-pen-friendly notebooks as well.

As I said, there's a lot to love with this notebook. It has a lovely, bright, happy red cover; round corners; thread-bound; nice elastic closure; and an almost fountain pen-friendly paper. I'm happier with my Poppin notebook now! Thanks Meredith! (And sorry for the late review.)

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Poppin is a great company with an amazing tagline: work happy. They offer personalized school and office products (notebooks and iPad sleeves), lots of items for organization (storage boxes, folios, binders, inboxes, trays), furniture (chairs, desks, cabinets), and tons of pen and paper combinations! They also promote shopping by color for a heavenly color fix, and offers a design-a-desk contest, a fun play to dress up your own desk. They say they are a small company with big dreams, and they're here to give us products that will make work happy. Amen to that.

We can like Poppin in Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/poppin), follow in Twitter (https://twitter.com/poppin) and check their weekly pins at Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/poppin/).

The Write-Now notebook used in this review is through the kindness of Poppin. The red Parker 45 and all the inks used to test the notebook are from my personal collection.

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Ink Review: Scarlet Red by Camel

This should have been a Valentine post, but I am uncomfortable with that idea, so I postponed it for the day after V Day. And so here is my red ink for this season: a very red Scarlet Red by Camel of India.*

Camel Scarlet Red fountain pen ink has been on my collection for almost a year now. A friend of a friend from India came to visit the country for business, and kindly brought us this bottle of ink, along with a Hero 329, Hero 360 and boxes of tea. :)

Scarlet Red and other Camel fountain pen inks are made by the same manufacturers of Camlin fountain pens in India. Production of the Camel fountain pen ink began as early as 1931 in Bombay, as an alternative to the Western ink brands available in India at that time. Camel fountain pen inks are dye-based inks and contains Camli-Sol 100, which Camel claims to clean the pen as the ink flows through it. Available in black, royal blue, green, violet and red, Camel fountain pen inks also claim to write consistently and to have good storage life, which is true because for a couple of months, my bottle of Scarlet Red was on my study table which was near a big window, but the heat and light coming through it did not alter the ink's consistency, color and brightness. The only downside to this product is the ink bottle's cap. It would have been better if the cap was made of plastic rather than metal, which is what's on it now.

Camel Scarlet Red reminds me so much of the cherry and strawberry-flavored red snow cones that we used to have in my grandmother's house during summer vacations. Back then, we called them 'snow-balls', and they were served on Lola's peanut butter and jelly glasses. :) My cousins and I would run to the big mirror in the grand room and look at each other's pouting red lips. :)

Camel Scarlet Red's color is also similar to Kool-Aid's cherry and strawberry flavors, and to the unforgettable red Kool-Aid man. Who could forget him and his red, happy face? On the non-food scale, Camel's Scarlet Red is very, very similar to Pilot G2's red gel ink (see my comparison of the two ink colors in the photos below).

This side of the box has the Hindi translation of the English text written on the other side.

In the previous photos, the color of the ink inside the bottle is hard to tell - it looks black! So I placed the bottle directly in front of a lamp and here it is looking every bit red. :) The bright light also revealed the words etched on the bottom of the bottle, which says, "60ml Camel".

Here is another exposure with the bottle tilted down to reveal the redness of the ink inside.

Oh, I feel so red. :) Here is the bottle of Camel Scarlet Red ink on top of my red Scribe notebook together with my fine-nibbed Pelikano Junior. I'm so red. :)

Camel Scarlet Red is an excellent ink from Camlin. It has great flow, and made the previously dry writing Pelikano Junior a wet writer. The color is also great, perhaps not the perfect red, but an excellent red that is perfect to use for highlighting and writing short notes. Shading is not very clear in these photos, but Camel Scarlet Red has minor shading especially when used on wide italic nibs.

Camel Scarlet Red stands out as a bright red on the white Rhodia paper. There is no feathering and bleed on this paper. (My apologies for the wrong spelling of the word 'quotation' in this photo and on the next one.)

On Scribe's ivory-colored paper, the red looked a little subdued and not as bright as how it appeared on white paper. There is also feathering and bleed on this notebook.

Here is the back page of Scribe paper showing minor bleed when I used the fine-nibbed Pelikano Junior.

Camel Scarlet Red is the first ink that got me thinking, if not worried, about its drying time. I wouldn't want to smear whatever I've written using red ink, and thankfully, it dries faster than most of my wet inks at less than 15 seconds.

Camel Scarlet Red ink is not yet available in the US, from what I have heard and read, but it's not available here in the Philippines, either. The Camlin website says the inks are available in 500ml and 60ml bottles, for 56INR and 12INR, respectively.

Now for the *: I looked hard enough for appropriate quotes to go with this ink review, but my efforts failed. *Sigh*. No red, Valentine, or even love quote seemed appropriate, so I am publishing this review without a quote.

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