Notable Notebooks Part 3 of 5 - My Newest Arrivals... (and what's the plural of TARDIS?)

Dear Scribblers

Welcome to today's instalment of 'Notable Notebooks' (Three of Five):

A five day series:

1: My Ultimate Quality Favourites 

2: The Organiser

3: My Newest Arrivals

4: When a Notebook isn't a Notebook

5: Used, Loved, Never to be Thrown away

Please read the important note at the bottom of the page. 

We've covered Smythson and Filofax on the previous two days, please go back and read those if you've just found yourself on my blog today. Now it's time for some of my other notebooks to take a turn in the spotlight. If you are anything like me, as a writer or crafter, you love notebooks and find it difficult to walk pass that siren singing to you from their shop shelf, so I bet you have quite a collection, and many more than are shown here... I know I do! These are just my favourites, either new starlet on the block or much loved celebrity. Here's my latest ones:

If you don't know it yet, you probably will do, as my long term sci-fi and fantasy nerdness often seeps into posts. Yes, I was one of those going to Star Trek conventions in the mid 1990s, before geek was chic. Along with Star Trek and Buffy and Angel and Hercules/Zena and Supernatural and The X-Files and The Walking Dead and The Game of Thrones and The Originals and Agents of Shield and  Supernatural* and... I'd better stop, there's many, many more to add and don't get me started on books and films! Where was I? Oh, yes, along with all of these, my love of the weird began this strange little girl (me!) and an instant fascination of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and... Doctor Who! Of course! So I had to have a T.A.R.D.I.S notebook, didn't I? It's an official BBC product and it's lined with a little T.A.R.D.I.S on the bottom outside corner of each page. I like that it's spiral bound, so you can fold back the cover and write without restrictions. (I like T.A.R.D.I.S's... T.A.R.D.I.Ss... T.A.R.D.I.S'sss... what is the plural? I know it isn't T.A.R.D.I as that would just be Time and Relative Dimension In! Anyway, I like 'em and this book is part of my notebook collection and my slowly budding T.A.R.D.I.S collection - I have 5.)

The dotty book, at the back of the picture, was part of a birthday gift from a lovely friend. It's from Debenhams - the Frost French Floozie range, they make knickers! It reminds me of the size and feel of an old school exercise book. I also like the title on the front, "I keep my secrets hidden."

The last book in the photo is very interesting. I picked it up in an amazing local gift shop, well worth a visit, if you are in the area - https://m.facebook.com/Studio4Gifts I thought it was an old book in the wrong place, but it was me who was wrong! Bound in cloth and gold stamped, it's called 'Wainwright Notebook' and contains endpapers illustrations by Alfred Wainwright (1907 - 1991) who devoted his spare time drawing and writing about his beloved Lake District, and a biography page about his work. The rest of the book is classic cream lined paper, complete with marker ribbon. It feels like a book to journal in, or for writing your own travel memoir. As it looks like a well-loved novel from a vintage bookshop, like an original print of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Wuthering Heights or The Picture of Dorian Gray. I'm going to use it for a first draft of my own making. If nothing comes from it, at least my writing will appear in one hardback volume. 

Please return again tomorrow to read part four of 'Notable Notebooks' - When a Notebook isn't a Notebook. 

Happy Scribing!

*Yes, I did mean to mention Supernatural twice, and even that isn't enough! ;-)

Important Notes

1. Please note that I am not connected to any company mentioned in this post. I do not receive any products, funding or gifting from these businesses. All products shown have been bought by me, or gifts from family or friends. I mention the items because I like them or have my own private opinion about them. It's just little old me talking about ma stuff! ;-)

2. If you are a glutton for punishment and would like to see the rest of my notebook collection, or anything else in this series, please write a comment below, or 'like' and leave a comment by my Notable Notebooks Instagram photo, letting me know what you would like me to post photos and write about. (I'll even show you my T.A.R.D.I.S'ssss, if you want?)

3. If you like what you read, don't forget to bookmark this site, and please share it with your friends. 

4. You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram - @TheCraftyScribe which I update regularly with all things crafty, scribbling, beauty, fashion, the cats, sci-fi, fantasy, and the ephemera of 42*................... *42 = Life, The Universe and Everything!

Lessons Learnt - 14 - A bouquet for Shimelle Laine and LSNED, such a variety and so fragrant!

Dear Scribblers

The wonderful thing about Shimelle and her LSNED course, is that she gives you daily prompts and ideas for your own pages, but you aren't restricted by her recommendations. In fact, she encourages you to do your own thing, be it mini-books, with photos, no photos, add-the-photos-later photos, old stash, bought especially stash, art journalling, diary writing, drawing, digital or good-old-straight-forward-honest-to -goodness scrapbooking!

I think this day, was probably one where I went off on my own tangent.

Whenever I go to a department store, I make a beeline to the fragrance department, just like the old yellow and black striped garbed bumble to the flower. I flit from bottle to bottle, taking the cards and using the testers, trying out new concoctions and old favourites. 

I miss Sephora for their rows a-plenty of scent after scent. Alas, they no longer have stores in the UK. Please come back, Sephora. We miss you! On a positive note, Debenhams is especially good for this, with their open shelves, plenty of testers and cards, with helpful assistants there when you need them, not on your shoulder forcing their opinion onto you. Don't you hate that? However, I love perfumes! I'm not alone in the quest, as my husband adores the aftershaves. So between us, we gather a number of the tester cards.

I wonder if you have noticed, how fantastic these cards are. The plain old thin 'science litmus paper' style cards still exist, but they are being taken over by these quirky designs and logos emblazon the different shapes. Of course, any I especially like find a home in my crafty stash. 

Go take a look in your local department store, you'll be amazed at the variety - from heart, circle and apple shapes. To flowers, bows, bottles and Agent Provocateur legs! I've even found tester ribbons in shiny satin and bright yellow grosgrain. 

I think it's time, I took another amble through the aromatic glass vessels once more.

The title of the page reads, "When it comes to SCENTS, I lose all SENSIBILITY!" I printed this out using my Brother P-Touch 65 digital tape printer. (The PT90 is probably the nearest available one to my PT65.)

As you can probably guess, this was a very cheap layout to make. The whole background is made up of perfume tester cards, including some magazine advertisement tester labels.

I found the very funny cartoon comic strip called Arctic Circle by Alex Hallatt distributed by King Features Syndicate on-line, and printed it out for use on this layout only. I took a comic-style font to change the characters name to Paula. So once they've walked around the store and tried on all the fragrances, the penguin says, "You have got to learn to say 'No', Paula!" How apt!

Project of the Day: Here's a revived project of the day for you. Take a trip to your local perfume counters and see the variety of cards available, maybe collect a few and see if you can use them in a layout. It need not be about perfumes. Incorporate them as an extra layer. See how creative you can be. 

Is there anything else ephemera wise you collect? I'd love to hear about your unusual stash and how you've used it.

Happy Scribing!