You are here: Home / Archives for Notebooks / One Dollar Notebooks

One Dollar Notebooks – Travel Themed Blank Journal

January 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

When we walk into Target we always go through the $1 section. Sometimes we find pens, pencils or markers for the kids. Sometimes we find games. And, sometimes we find little notebooks like this one. Usually though, the one dollar notebooks are all spiral bound and wide ruled with about 40 to 60 pages and with some sort of kids cover on it. This one is attempting a “traveling” theme on the cover with the compass and faux passport stamps. The paper inside is blank…and very thin. I’m not sure exactly how thin but it’s thinner than my cheap Staples multipurpose paper that I use in my printer and that’s 20lb. (75gsm) It’s also not pocket sized at 7″ by 5″. (17.8cm x 12.6cm) But with only 60 thin pages, it’s  3/16″ (.5cm) “thick”!

You could try to use this as a traveling notebook but it’s larger than pocket size and the paper cover will protect nothing. Plus, you’ll only be able to use one side of each page because everything bleeds through. Right there you’re down to 30 pages of writing space. In fact, the echoing is so bad on the paper that you can see the writing through another page. (see below) It’s actually so thin, it could be used for tracing.

Writing Samples

Back of page and bleedthrough

Writing samples seen through previous page.

I think that this would be better as a sketching pad. It could be something that you whip out quick on the spot when you want to do a fast sketch of something. Even though the Niji 500 HB with the 0.5mm lead still echoes through the page, a lighter pencil like a 3H to 5H could work.

Basically, for a dollar you get a cheap scratch/sketch pad. And if you want to use all of the pages, use a 5H pencil and you’ll do fine. You could always transfer your weekend jaunt’s memories to a more permanent location and then dump this in the recycling bin.

One Dollar Notebooks – Canson Pop Sketch

October 19, 2010 By 1 Comment

While picking up more material at Joann’s I walked passed the bargain bin section and saw these sketch notebooks by Canson. I’d never heard of that brand, since I’m not an artist, so after picking up several of them (at 97 cents a pop – ha ha) I did some research.

From their main site I found out that Canson has been producing fine quality art paper for more than 500 years. Who knew?

“Today, Canson is the only supplier of fine art materials to manufacture them, ensuring consistency and quality artists continue to reply on. From student grade papers for developing technique to professional papers, Canon and Arches offer materials to enhance every creative expression.”

Their words. (including typos) Sounds good to me. Here’s what I got on the write up at Art Supplies Online about the specific sketchbooks that I purchased.

“The POP Sketch mini sketch books feature colorful, bold and eye-catching designs. Measuring 3-1/2″ x 5-1/2″, the sketch books contain 40 sheets of 70 lb. micro-perforated drawing paper and have glossy laminated covers with a unique match book style closure.”

Like I stated, I’m not an artist, but my son likes to draw on everything under the Sun so I got several of them for him. The paper is nice and thick (70#) and the micro-perforation helps the pages tear out cleanly. They are available with many different covers with art by Robert Nicol. At under a dollar each, I can’t complain.

One Dollar Notebooks Pt.1

October 6, 2010 By 1 Comment

I am trying to infect my son with the same addiction to pens and paper that my wife and I have. I have no idea how many pens and notebooks he has owned and he’s only 2. Of course, we get him small and cheap ones since he can’t really “write” anything. He makes a lot of happy faces and he asks us to draw a lot of happy faces for him as well. We’ll ask him to write letters but he hasn’t quite grasped how to write letters; he knows them all, he just can’t write them out. He keeps his pens and markers in a plastic pouch that I gave him. It was supposed to be for my Franklin Covey planner but I ordered the wrong size so I just had him start “organizing” his pens by keeping them all together. He has about 5 Bic ball-point pens and 3 or 4 highlighters that he uses as markers on a regular basis. There used to be a mechanical pencil in there but that broke pretty quick. (He also had a nice wood pencil in there until he bit the eraser off. Mommy took that away quick. We’ve got to get him some new ones with no erasers.)

On a recent trip to Target, he and I were shopping for a birthday gift and some padded envelopes. Target has this $1 section right when you walk in and we sometimes look around to see if anything looks mildly interesting. I saw these notebooks, showed them to him and he loved them. So, since Halloween is just around the corner, I figured why not, they’re only a dollar each.

My son's first Snoopy/Halloween themed notebooks.