Paperchase Wonderland (and Fountain Pen) from Target

 Some cute (well, until I draw really up close) stationery spotted at Target - Paperchase Wonderland sharpener and fordable bag

 Multipen (that look shabbier than the 1-RMB I used in China, back in elementary school) and a fountain pen ($4.99) that takes international cartridges. I am curious how it write (maybe it will get some kids to try out fountain pen) but I prefer spending the money on a budge pen by Pilot or a Platinum Preppy instead.

 Highlighter (which looks interesting with the brown and purple)

 Gel pens.

Binders that looks pretty cool from a distance.

 I used to rave about these mini Green Inspired journals for their price and portability (even though the paper are not fountain pen friendly) and guess what, they have raised the price by a dollar. Time to say good bye.

Mead also jumped into the bandwagon of cuteness (but they still hasn't found the way to appeal to both adult and children)

Target Sighting - New Notebooks from Paper Chase, Hello Kitty and Green Inspired

Since Target has a pretty big (or wide) clearance a while back (I managed to stocked up a few items 50% - 80% off!) It's natural that now the empty spaces are now filled with new products! I didn't see any interesting pens but there are some really cute notebooks around!

First there are some Paperchase (the label says the brand is from UK) pens, pouches, bag and notebook with spring-like prints.

Binder, paper pad and box (there are also binder/box at the bottom)

New Green Inspired Composition Book with simple Eiffel Tower print (if they are like the Green Inspired notebook I have tried, the paper is probably not fountain pen friendly). 

 

Chronicle Books journals -  Forgot the price in Target but they are around 13 in Amazon

 
Listography-list making notebook (sounds like my kind of thing) Gotta like the hand-drawn illustration!

Hello Kitty Journal (they are pink and with some print inside. It's cute but a little juvenile. 

The stitching and quilt pattern look well-done though.

Golden polka dot notebook from Greenroom - From my experience, most of these
"environmental" are not fountain pen friendly (which is kind of ironic since the only take disposable pens?）

More Binders - I think I prefer the navy-gold combo, since it reminds me of night sky.  Anyway, since the sun is finally back (and my cold is gone...kind of) , I can finally get back into the glamour-shot and reviewing (You know, Sony camera don't work unless there is a full blast of natural light...When there is, the result is pretty glorious).

Green Inspired Cityscape Pocket Notebook

With an unassuming price tag of 3 dollars and a stylish design, it didn't take long for the Green Inspired Cityscape Notebook Set to catch my eyes while I was doing my window shopping at Target. Instead of hauling it right on the spot, I decided to go home and searched for some reviews instead (proud dumb-phone user here).

 
Anyway, I managed to find one review on Target's site and luckily for me (so I thought), the customer mentioned that the paper quality is nice and totally fountain pen compatible. According to him/her, it only shows skipping on very broad nib. After I read the review, I did a mini victory dance and bought the set a few days later. "They are cute, affordable and comes with nice paper...This must be my lucky week" I thought as I picked it up.

The notebooks came wrapped with clear plastic. The one with Big Ben is on the top so it was subjected to some scratches due to handling (all of the stock are like this). It's a shame since I like this deep navy cover the best. On a completely unrelated note: If I were to assign the color theme, I would give London a gray cover, Paris would be dusty purple taupe (like Rue de Paris; Temps de pluie) and New York would be deep navy. (Bright red would be Moscow and lime green would be Miami.)

The notebook are sewn bind (28 pages per notebook) and made of environmental-friendly (recycled and printed with soy-ink, which made it smell funky) paper. As you can see, the thread has a tendency to come of (in at least one of the three) and all of the blue ones (that I checked) have shown some tear. I am not sure what is going on there...

The material of the cover is really nice- Like a cardboard-plastic hybrid (with a leathery pores) - The interior is a lighter shade of blue (or maybe turquoise) depicting...I am assuming this is the map of the London underground? All three are like this which is an interesting touch. Now to the amazing, smooth and fountain-pen compatible paper. Wait a minute...

What are those blue dots? Bleed-through! My guess is that there must be some discrepancy between my and the Target guest reviewer's definition of compatibility because the paper was positively difficult for my fountain pens to write on (Pilot extra fine + Noodlers, Sailor Medium + J. Herbin, Pilot Broad with Lamy...none worked). The paper, as smooth as it feels, seems to have an ivory-toned waxy coating on it that water-based inks simply wouldn't go on...Well, it does write but you can see the half of the writing is made up of microscopic skipping. When I press a little harder than usual for the ink to go on, I get a good deal of bleed through...

Beside fountain pens, Marvy LePen also looks (the first chunk was written with the one in teal) funny/ much fainter on the paper. On the other hand, all of my gel pens worked fine on the paper so...I guess the "fountain-pen friendly" paper is just hydrophobic?

Overall: Nice design, great price and very handy for jotting down small ideas you have. Beside the the misunderstanding about the fountain pen part, I still like them and would recommend them to gel-pen users. (On a side note, many "green" recycled paper are like this...I find it a little ironic how the environmental-friendly paper only works with disposable pens).

P.S. The writing sample is the lyrics of a J-pop song, click here to see the video. (Now excuse me while I squee like a pre-teen Belieber >_< )