Puppy drawings for Inktober

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Yes! thanks to my friend Smita’s suggestion, I’ve discovered the fun project of Inktober! What a great opportunity to pick up my fountain pen and start using up all those bottles of inks (Remind me again why I brought over 4 bottles of ink to the States…)

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(Inktober day 9)

Inktober is definitely a great practice to draw something each day. The short time period of the month of October is also fun and stress-free. I decided on a theme, which is to draw all the cute puppies I’ve been following on various service dog organisation in the States, such as Warrior Canine Connection, Service Dog Project, and ECAD, Educated Canine assisting with Disabilities. (You can observe the cute puppies 24/7 here!)

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DIY portable watercolor palette

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七月去了東京與網友一起有了小小的文具聚，收穫除了認識更多文具品牌而且充分shopping之外，也向她學了一些彩繪方面的文具DIY! 這次最喜歡的就是她教我自製輕巧便利的攜帶式水彩盤!

In my Japanese stationery expedition in July, I visited my artistic friend Esther in Tokyo! We went shopping, stationery hunting, and sketching all over the city. She also showed me a few tips on how to make your own DIY portable palette! I thought I’d share it here with you guys~

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不久前介紹了自己使用的溫沙牛頓攜帶式水彩盤，搭配水筆就能夠很輕鬆的沾取並隨地作畫，尤其是我的Hobonichi裡充滿了一些隨性的手繪，攜帶型水彩盤勢我的文具必備之一！(歡迎到我的IG觀賞: @penguinscreative)

Before I made my own palette, I always used Winsor and Newton’s pocket palette as my go-to water-colour pan. If you use it with a water brush, it is easy to mix color and use when you take it on an outing! I use it excessively in my Hobonichi as my daily entries include random doodles and watercoloring! (Instagram: @penguinscreative)

今天要不藏私的和大家介紹自製水彩盤的方式，相信一定會捲起一陣大創或金興發掃購風…

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My To-Go Stationery Setup

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I tend to hoard stationery items. I love to see new things that comes out, and try to collect them all. As a result, I have with me a whole stack of wonderful pens and writing tools. However, today a friend asked me to show her my to-go stationery set up, and I realise that I ended up always going minimalist when taking my writing tools on the goal. In this post I will be sharing the items that I bring with me whenever I go out. It’s almost embarrassing to examine how simple the combination is, but here goes:

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(From Left to right: A portable watercolor palette, Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook, Tabiya leather pen case, and finally a Hobonichi Weeks (spring start) )

As you can probably guess, they are all super light and easy to carry. I want to eliminate the hassle of ruffling through my bag whenever I want to find something. Also, as an urban sketcher, it’s important to always have a small booklet that you can whip out and draw at the moment (hence the Weeks and the Moleskine)

Upon closer inspections are the contents inside the pen case and inside the pocket folder in my Weeks:

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2015 Hobonichi Review and 2016 Hobo Haul

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The contemplating Salary Man sitting on the bulk of my Hobonichi 2015

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I can’t believe that year 2015 is almost three quarters over! Looking at the picture of my Hobonichi Chunk, I can barely see the sliver of pages that are blank and waiting to be filled up. I would like to thank the Hobonichi User community on Facebook that had inspired me to start writing in a Hobonichi journal again, and what a wonderful journey.

I started out humbly in my English planner with diary entries, and gradually had courage to paint in water-colour, draw sketches and lots of doodling, and finally incorporating washi tape and stickers to create the style that is @Penguinscreative today.

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I started writing since November in 2014, and vigorously continued throughout this year. Continue reading →

Summer Tokyo Trip MTN flip through

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Many of you might have seen from previous posts that I had a super fun trip to Tokyo where I went on an amazing stationery shopping craze. Other than the “take my money” moments, I do have a lot of fun visiting different sights and meeting up with fellow stationery lovers in Tokyo.

Here’s a simple flip through video of how I use my stationery tools to make my travel diary so much more colourful and memorable! Enjoy~!

Stationery Haul from Japan Summer Trip

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This summer, I planned a special trip to Tokyo as a goodbye tour to Asia as I prepare to move to the US for the next two years (Goodbye, stationery heaven!). My friend Esther is nice enough to offer me a place to crash in Yokohama, so I had the opportunity to explore many places between the Kanagawa prefecture and Tokyo city!

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I compiled a detailed list of stationery stores I have to visit from reading various stationery related magazines in bookstores. Of course, with some help from google translation, I also found many local unique stationery stores that have interesting items. The random finds on this trip are also an intriguing experience, and you bet I definitely stock up on a lot of stationery items!

I’ll be sharing in this post my haul from my Tokyo trip. I like to get things that are practical for my journaling hobbies, pen pal exchange tools, and paints for my drawings and water-colour doodles. Another fashionable trend among stationery addicts are small toys they call Table Top Things (such as figurines from gashapon dispensers and paper weights), and I cannot resist getting some cute ones to put on my future reading desk.

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Mini Stationery Haul – Fountain pen and Inserts

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On April 25th, a few of us planner addicts got together to a Planner Meet-up, where we share our planner usages and materials we use to decorate daily pages. After the event, a few of us decide to continue the stationery-high we were in, and check out a famous fountain-pen boutique in Taipei: 小品雅集, and a cozy stationery store tucked inside a discreet alley: Vision Stationery.

小品雅集 ‘s owner is a fountain-pen lover and collector. He imported a variety of inks and fountain pens from all over the world, and sell them at very fair prices in his boutique. The collection of fountain pen range from beginner brands (Pilot Kakunos, Sailor Candy) to more costly and high-end products (Montblanc, limited edition Graf Von Faber-Castell).

As a fountain pen beginner, my objective was Pilot’s Penmanship Fountain pen. It is a introductory fountain pen with Continue reading →

Stationery in Taipei – Vision Stationery

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Taipei is a pretty small city, and yet so many interesting stores are crammed in its limited space! What I love about weekends is that I’m able to hop into a bus and go on an adventure of exploring new cafe and stores. A friend’s recommendation brought me to Vision Stationery 明進文房具.

Vision Stationery is tucked in a small alley near MRT Liuzhangli Station 捷運六張犛站. The brassy sign is next to the brightly lit glass wall of the shop itself. The warm yellow light is very inviting to stationery addicts like us.

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The owner, Mr. Chen, is a stationery addict himself. He is very selective about his products, and he took the effort to try out all the items he sells before putting it on the shelf. He is very particular about paper items and notebooks, because he believe that good quality paper and system can help people achieve great things. Behind the small cashier is a small stack of recent notebooks that he is test writing before he starts selling them.

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Taipei Stationery Hotspots

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Stationery addiction’s a national trend. Not only are illustrators designing new products and producing washi tape from their artworks, we can see new stationery boutiques popping up all over the place. Some are nestled within local cafes, some are sold in wholesale stores, and some are hidden in such secretive places that only the stationery addicts know where to go. For the stationery lovers out there that would like to check out the stationery scene in Taipei, I will make a brief guide to the kinds of stationery stores that you can find here!

Large Stationery Stores

  • Jieu Da Stationery 久大文具行
  • Guang Nan 光南
  • Stepping Stone 墊腳石
  • Kingstone 金石堂
  • San ming bookstore 三民書局
  • Eslite 誠品書局
  • Kinokuniya 紀伊國書店
  • Tokyu Hands 台隆手創館
  • JSF Mall 金興發

Entering these large stationery stores is like going into candy land for stationery fanatics. The selection is large and varied. From pens to folders and from washi to art supplies, there are too much to choose from, and at very cheap prices too. Jieu Da Stationery & Guang Nan are stationery stores that are the favourites among students, because of their relatively affordable prices of all kinds of pen and paper tools for student use and normal office supplies. Jieu Da offers membership cards and you can buy things at up to 20% off normal market prices. Guang Nan offers similar selection of stationery at already discounted prices. Stepping Stone & Kingstone bookstores have a whole floor dedicated to stationery supplies, and they have more authentic Taiwanese designer stationery in stock. The best location to browse through all four of these stores are at Taipei Main Station.

Another three Bookstore/Stationery Stores are San Ming, Eslite, and Kinokuniya. San Ming Bookstore carries more stationery items that are from Taiwanese wholesale stationery companies, including designer’s washi such as Kikisui and Chuyo. Eslite goes for a more modern look and features imported stationery items at higher prices. Its bookstore are beautifully designed and is great place to while away the day. Kinokuniya offers more Japanese oriented stationery items such as Midori Traveler’s Notebook items and fabric pouches. If you are visiting the Kinokuniya at Breeze Center, make sure to check out Tokyu Hands just a few floors above to see more Japanese stationery items!
If you are visiting the famous Shilin Nightmarket in Taiwan, then there is another stationery store that you must not miss. JSF Mall (pronounced Jin Shin Fa) is right next to the night market. It has the most selection of diary stickers and at super valuable prices. Many of their notebook and stationery items are Korean-inspired but made in China. You can also find many Taiwanese brand stationery in this store as well~
Unique Stationery Boutiques

  • Tools to Liveby 禮拜文房具
  • Vision Stationery 明進文房具 (review here)
  • 1 over 1 Workshop 一分之一工作室
  • Plain Stationery 直物文房具
  • Hsiao Pin Ya Ji 小品雅集
  • Pinmo Liang Han Paper Lab 品墨良行 巷內店

These boutique stationery stores offers more selected items, and their owners are all stationery addicts as well. The items that they chose from Japan, Europe, or even locally designed are very tasteful and beautiful. The environment is very quiet and homey, and all the stationery items are laid out like pieces of art. Tools to Liveby is a local favourite because they designed many stationery items themselves. Their most favoured items are the beautiful scissors and gold and silver midori clips. Vision Stationery has a very friendly owner who lives to provide quality paper that are fit for fountain pen. He offers a variety of Midori Traveler’s Notebook items as well (usually at the most valued price in Taipei). 1 over 1 Workshop is easy to overlook if you don’t follow the address, because it is within a neighbourhood apartment and you actually have to be buzzed up through the door bell to enter. A unique feature of this workshop is that they have a table dedicated for you to test out their planners and journals and many pens you can use to test-write. Hsiao Pin Ya Ji is the place to go if you are a fountain pen lover, where they offer a variety of selection from beginner’s to more expensive brands. It’s actually the friendly customers there that would often pat you on the shoulder and give you recommendation on what to buy. I’ve yet to visit Plain Stationery but it’s also on my bucket list~ Pinmo Liang Han Paper Lab is also an interesting stationery boutique to visit. Their feature products are handmade notebooks and paper products!

Stationery Cafes

  • Treellage Life Cafe 樹樂集
  • 61 Note Shop & Tea
  • Mogu Cafe 蘑菇
  • Ryou Cafe 日楞咖啡
  • Meet Bear 覓熊咖啡店

Online Venues

  • Masking-tape.tw 小徑文化
  • books.com.tw 博客來

DIY Sticker Flakes for my Hobonichi

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I would like to make a confession, I’m a sticker hoarder.

I’ve been addicted to stationery since I was  little girl, always eager to grab the coolest pencil cases, milky color rollerball pens, and food-shaped erasers. However, my greatest addiction are stickers, lots and lots of stickers.

I had a plastic sticker book where I store my collection of Hello Kitty sticker flakes, Dragon Ball manga characters, and even action figures such as Power Ranger and Superman. As the stationery market become more developed in Taiwan,  I grow to be a sophisticated planner user, and stickers are necessary decorations to my daily diaries. There are daily diary stickers (the cute and expressive ones are from South Korea), sticker flakes designed by Taiwanese illustrators, and endless selection of envelope seal stickers from giant Japan stationery manufactures. I hoard stickers like there’s no tomorrow, and I’m reluctant to use them because they are too pretty!

IMG_4472(showing off my latest conquests: Cosplay Ojisan, Bruce Lee Cat, and Veggie birds)

It’s no wonder that I soon wanted to create my own stickers. Using label sticker papers from wholesale office supplies, I started to design my own round stickers featuring my penguins. I have a few pieces of these sticker papers lying around, and I thought, why not make customised sticker flakes for my Hobonichi Journal entry?

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