I’ve been a huge fan of Mike Rohde‘s Sketchnote project and his Sketchnote Handbook and Sketchnote Workshops for a long time. I’ve also reviewed his Sketchnote Ideabook in the past.
Today I’m excited to offer one to you that I received from backing the Kickstarter project (my copy was a review copy, I backed the project separately and yours is the shrink-wrapped one I received later!), along with an Autoquill Fine Liner set of 10 fine point pens ranging from 0.05mm to 2.0 mm!
TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell us when you first knew you loved stationery and pens! Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting, okay? One entry per person.
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FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Friday, March 6, 2020. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 7 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.
I knew i loved stationary and notebooks when I was about 3 yrs. old and my nana would keep a shirt boxes in a closest upstairs and one downstairs full of paper notebooks, pencils, crayons and the odd pen. This was how she stopped me from drawing on the walls.
My earliest memories are from shopping for school supplies and loving every minute of picking pens, pencils, folders, notebooks and binders.
When I first got to choose my own pens – and a colour, le gasped, note taking became something I looked forward to.
And wow, did I form attachments to certain pens. Losing a fave was a disaster of epic proportions.
I used to hoard pencils in a shoebox under my bed as a kid. My sisters knew of my hoard and would BEG me for a pencil when they needed one, but I would not, could not let go of even one precious pencil. Such is the selfishness of children (and addicts)!
Good morning! This is my first giveaway drawing. What a fun way to share with digital friends!! I am very new to fountain pen/paper obsession having made the leap only this year. My husband has slowly ramped up his addiction over the last six months and then pressured me to join him in spending all of our child’s college fund on ink, pens and paper. Let’s hope Elizabeth Warren gets elected so college will be free!!
I knew I had a problem in elementary school when I started hoarding pens and could never make up my kind which notebook I wanted to use! Trapper Keeper anyone?
It was around 10th grade – when they started letting us use pens instead of pencils in school. Since I’m left-handed, finding a pen that wouldn’t leave ink on my hand and wouldn’t smudge as I write became a major obsession. Then once I found one, discovering that the recycled looseleaf paper that I like bled something fierce with those pens, I had to dive into finding better paper. Later I kicked things up a notch when I discovered the 43 Folders blog and started using Moleskine notebooks.
I have a friend at work who also loves pens and paper so now we “support and encourage” each other cause ya’ll know it’s a sickness!
I was quite young, and that’s going back 50 years now! While my mother grocery shopped I would hang out in the stationery aisle, obsessing over Bic multicolor pens, flair pens, mini notebooks, any fresh, new notebook, foil stars back when you still had to lick them (I still remember that smell!)
When I was just a wee young thing!
0.05mm? Whoa, would love to try that!
I’ve been stationery-obsessed from a pretty young age–maybe 7 or so. My dad worked in the office products industry, and I remember him bringing home catalogs that I’d look through for hours, circling the pens and markers I thought were the coolest. I was the beneficiary of many of the free samples he got to bring home from the office, which was awesome.
I loved new pens and paper since I was a kid shopping for school supplies, but I was also fascinated by the interesting different kinds of pens and inks in my Dad’s drafting toolbox from when he was in college. He showed me how to be careful with some of the more delicate things, and would let me “get a little messy” with some larger pieces of sketch paper. I adored that!
I knew I loved stationery when I was three years old. I have been hooked ever since. At 63, I have a home stationery store of sorts. I choose not to have a TV or computer. Low tech hobbies are way better.
Age 4, when I stood in the stationary aisle at the local drug store, demanding both a new Scripto mechanical pencil AND a Shaffer school fountain pen. I don’t remember if I left with both…
My love of pens began with the hunt for finer tips but smooth writing. Then I realized I also needed color. That led me to fineliners, which has now led to fountain pens.
I think about the time Crayola retired 8 colours and I cried because I wouldn’t be able to get my favourite colour crayon anymore.
I always liked trying out different types of pens when I was younger and never found anything satisfying. Until my dad bought me a Retro 51. That was a gateway to fountain pens. And now I can’t imagine writing with anything else.
My first job in the city – at age 19! – meant an hour’s bus and subway commute each way. I started keeping a little pocket notebook that was part journal, part to-do list, and part first drafts of the many letters that I mailed to friends who were off at university. This was before email, so it was quite a while ago!
Oops! I meant to reply to the thread at large.
After a medical issue in 2001. Love my Lamy and 1917 notebooks. Still trying to improve my cursive. Lefty overhanded, converting to underhanded.
Love the sketchnote concept.
My dad was a really big fan of the Zebra F-301 ballpoints. Something about the idea of a favorite pen was really appealing, and I’d pilfer one or two of those.
I had some odd mechanical pencils in the late 70s, that I think I got fro my Dad (state trooper). In High School and college, I would always seek out green ballpoint pens to take notes with. Just something different than everyone else. I also used graph paper for quite a while in college for notes, rather than normal notepaper. Mid 90s I used a ‘Hipster PDA’ for several years, i.e. a stack of index cards for notes, held together by binder clip.
I knew I loved pens and notebooks when I first laid my eyes on a blank book. This was many years ago and seemed a new idea to me. I have loved them ever since. Pens were a slower evolving obsession.
In my home growing up, if you wanted a pen, you had to scrounge around for one, and paper would have been the same. I have been overcompensating ever since. Lol.
As a kid, I would wander the “Office Supplies” section of the little shop on Main Street that sold the Sunday newspaper my father would buy. Just the smell of all the papers, pencils, etc. made me happy!
I would have to have been in elementary school. I loved playing ‘teacher’, because I loved new spiral notebooks, binders, crayons and pens. Now I’m 62 and I’ll still take a gift card to an office supply store over Tiffany’s any day! However, it must be genetic as my youngest daughter (26) and granddaughter (6) feel the same way.
I came by my love of stationary. I still remember the first letter to a penpal I wrote at 8. I also vividly remember my first journal/Diary it was one with rainbow pastel sheets. I was so excited when i got to blue.
I have been journaling on and off for years. This year I got into fountain pens and normally expanded to writing something with them.
I’ve been into stationery and stuff for more than half a century. Which sounds more dramatic than 50 years, amirite? I may have been involved with some petty theft from first grade classroom school supplies. Apparently I liked the stuff enough to steal the pencils and a few eraser caps. That spanking was not fun…
I would say elementary for the start of stationery. However, not until college did I really started to love it. Thank you!!
It’s been a lifelong affinity that later bloomed into a full-blown obsession… I used to steal Pilot Precise V5s off my second-grade teacher’s desk when she wasn’t looking, which was admittedly terrible but speaks to my level of affection, since in all other ways I was a model student. I don’t think she ever suspected me…
It must be hereditary as my love of all things stationery related began before I remember. I would write my name (or scribbles before I could write) on every book and most other surfaces I came across. My strange pre-school hieroglyphics grace the end papers of many books in my parent’s collection, the bottoms of tables and desks, drawers, lamps and all manner of other tchotchkes throughout their house. I was very quickly encouraged to stop ruining all the nice things with my graffiti. Dad began to bring home the gigantic sheets of leftover plotting paper and discarded drafting plans along with all manners of pencils, pens, and markers for me to use on parental approved surfaces, of course. Why would I do with the Sketchnote giveway: ALL THE THINGS!!!
I have loved paper and pens since at least 6th grade (and that was many, many years ago). I loved lime green, pink, turquoise and purple – and now there are so many variations on those basic Crayon colors! I loved it when florescent colors started coming out!
I visited Quebec City many years ago, and in a bookshop, they had Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens for sale. I had never written with a fountain pen, so I bought one, and I was hooked for life!
My love of pens and paper started in the newsroom of the newspaper where my mom was a reporter. I often went to work with her on weekends and she would set me up at an empty desk with a bunch of newsprint and a typewriter and pencils. I would write stories and make little books while she worked. I wish I could recreate the smell of a 70s Era newsroom!
I first started using fountain pens (again – used them in elementary school in some previous century), when I was practicing cursive to address a tremor in my right hand. At one point I could not write more than a word or two. Now I can do pages in my journal – slowly, but it is legible. And I am the proud owner of probably too many fountain pens, bottles of ink and notebooks yet to be written in.
When I was 6, I would trace all my illustrated books. That made me aware of stationery.
I’ve always love doodling and drawing, but never in a dedicated place. Then, about 10 years ago, I started trying to wrangle my “to do” lists for a job that had a lot going on and tried a pen-and-paper system with a Moleskine. I wasn’t sold on the Moleskine, but was sold on notebooks. I’ve loved being a part of this community that has most certainly been growing.
An online order came with a printed receipt. I used the back as scrap paper and was shocked by its smoothness. I contacted the company (a knitting and tea shop) and learned about different weights of paper. Boom!! I became obsessed with trying all types of paper and writing/drawing instruments purely for the sensory experience!!
I’ve loved pens most of my adult life. I have always drawn, but I don’t think I used pens for drawing until I was older.I did use colored pencils and marking pens though. In the last few years, I have gotten seriously into collecting pens and paper and have a nice collection. I had to give up many of my collections when I downsized, so pens and paper take up less room and have become more appealing.
I’ve been squirreling away stationery products for as long as I can remember.
I always loved crayons and then pencils…waiting for the time I was old enough to have an actual ballpoint pen. I would watch my dad fill his fountain pen from an ink bottle and was intrigued by the lever used to fill it. (Hence my love of fountain pens ever since I could finally get my hands on one in high school.) But my deep love of pens, inks, and paper began when I started journaling and writing to a pen pal in Italy when I was nine. I wished I had actual stationery. Instead I used spiral notebooks for journaling and for letters used regular school filler paper which I decorated with the few rubber stamps one could find back then using the guaranteed-to-bleed red, blue, or black ink pads from the office supply store or glued on pictures from magazines that moved me or drew & decorated them myself. Yes, I became a full-blown addict by age nine.
Self expression, stream of consciousness…I searched for thin lined paper (which they quit making so I had to settle for college ruled) so I could get more on a page. I still have one of my two t-ball jotters from high school (lent the other one and never got it back–lesson learned). Although with the brilliant invention of gel pens–ball points were in my rear view mirror. Better quality paper, reasonably priced fountain pens, and being able to buy ink samples…well, I live down a rabbit hole. My name is Rita and I am a 68 year old writing addict. 🙂
When did I first know? When I first realized Back To School shopping, despite meaning I had to go back, meant a new pack of Bic Banana pens. Yes, I am that old.
The first whiff of crayons in nursery school had me hooked. I have always loved paper, stickers, markers, hilighters, journals and the list goes on. How wonderful to know there is a whole group of people who understand my obsessions!
I have loved all things stationery for as long as I can remember. From the days when I had cheap notebooks and pencil and pens to now with my love of fine quality fountain pen friendly paper and my beloved fountain pens. The only difference seems to be the price. I am also so glad that I passed this love onto my two daughters.
When I was little my favorite souvenirs were always writing related: erasers with layers of different colored rubber, 1 inch thick pencils with a tassel attached to the end, big fat pens with a dozen colored inks. None very practical but that’s what I always went for.
There were special office supplies when I was much younger — I remember a souvenir pen shaped like a candy-cane with peppermint scented ink — but my first clear memory of being interested in choosing office supplies was when I got a Trapper Keeper in middle school.
As a kid I looked forward to back to school because it meant I could go shopping for new notebooks and writing utensils. However, in adulthood I switched to fountain pens, and since the moment, not only has my interest grown, but it’s outpaced my space and my wallet!
I’m so old that I grew up with writing as the first line of communication. Long-distance calls were expensive and everyone was sensitive to the disruption that even a local call could cause. (Also, the dinosaurs didn’t like the noise.) Fortunately, my mom and grandmother were both stationery enthusiasts, so I always had fun or beautiful or ’60s hippie paper and lots of colourful pens to use. Asking when I realized I loved pens and paper is like asking when I knew I enjoyed breathing.
After shopping for back-to-school clothes, my favorite stop was the store with the notebooks, pens, 3-ring binders and filler paper, book covers, folders, and crayons. The best store in my world was part stationery shop, part bookstore. This was in the 60’s, when stationery suddenly got bright and funky.
My first love of stationery was the discovery of the brand new Japanese company, Sanrio, coupled with my best friend going to a different intermediate school. Perfect excuse to have great stationery!!
My love for pens started at the same time, but really took off when I found my Pop’s college notes. The notes were in PURPLE INK! Back then, colored ink wasn’t common. My Pops also encouraged me using fountain pens. Been in love with both for a long time.
I can’t even remember when I did. I would guess around the first grade.
I first knew I loved stationery and pens when I was about 6 or 7 years old. It blossomed because of my grandmother’s letters to my mother. It was a big event to get a letter from grandma for the whole family. The paper used with fountain pen was special and I started writing letters too. All because I saw how special it was for my family.
I first realized that I loved good pens when I got a set of Zebra F-series pens back in high school. I had no idea that pens could be cool and write well! Then, a number of years later, I found out that wooden pencils could be just as cool too – and since that point, Staedtler has been my go to for wood-cased pencils (well, Caran d’Ache also, but I can’t afford as many of those!). Of course, as such things go, I then had to gravitate to mechanical pencils, where I’ve found Rotring to scratch the itch. Doesn’t this hobby ever end?!
On another note, I – too – have found Mike Rhode’s sketchnoting work to be extremely helpful, and I’ve put it into practice at several conferences I’ve attended.
When I was a teenager and I went to a Japanese stationary store for the first time, it was incredible how many beautiful pens and pencils and things they had that I had never seen before! I bought many things and began to regularly carry them around with me, I found I loved to take notes and make lists, it’s a wonderful habit!
I have always been a big stationary lover. Even when I was really little I had to have to nice crayons and notebooks in school.
When did I first fall in love with stationery and pens? I’ve always hated the standard “spit wad” Bic, and always tried to get nicer pens for my office (Uni-ball, etc.). I started listening to Mac Power Users and somewhere along the line MacSparky mentioned The Pen Addict. I found out that fountain pens still existed (insert childhood story here), and now I have 3 Kaweco pens, one Platinum 3776, a couple of pens from Kickstarter (Stilform stands out) and a bunch of cheap ones. So as you can see, ITS ALL BRAD’S FAULT!
I knew when I started to learn about different hand writing styles, and how both the paper and the pen can help make the difference in them (like copperplate letters)
I love reading everyone’s stories! What I most remember about my stationery obsession goes back to the 6th grade when I would make my own version of what today would be Traveler’s Notebook inserts. I would make several out of plain paper, using the stapler to bind them. I hoarded so many that the teacher eventually told me that I should “leave some supplies for the rest of the students.” Like she’d never seen a notebook hoarder before. Unless she was one……..
I knew I loved stationery when I began a pen pal club in 5th grade. I always wanted to write on pretty paper.
The day I borrowed a pen from my high school Bio teacher that turned out to be a Pilot Precise V5, it was my gateway pen and I’ve become obsessed with pens of all types ever since.
I can recall my father bringing home what I think was an early permanent marker. I was four so around 1956. It was an aluminum tube with a very thick white wick inside and horrible smelling black ink. We watched as the ink filled the wick and it wrote blacker than anything I had ever seen. It was mysterious and more wonderful even than my engineer father’s boxes of pencils, stamped in gold with the markings “2H” and “4H.”
Ooo, first loved paper as a kid in the 1960’s through my mom’s airmail letters, those single folded sheets with gummed flaps, and all the types of onion skin and air letter paper going back and forth between her and her family in the Philippines. Pens had to be basic ballpoints, but sometimes airletters were typewritten 🙂 Pens, any pens, were a very welcome change from pencils for this lefty. I adored the ink that was blue but had the magenta sheen, the way Organic’s Nitrogen ink is now. Happy memories.
Once upon a time a gracious and caring teacher attempted to engage my addelpated brain and teach me to write, and think while writing. She succeeded, but never knew of her success, I had moved (and the time period between lesson and success was measured not in days or weeks, but in decades. Alas, she never knew, but probably she had deliberately erased me from her memories, we tend to forget bad memories. But today this old man loves stationary and good pens. Thanks for the game
Bob
Robert E. Hooper
24450 Red Oak Road
Waynesville, MO 65583-3046 hoopbsc@centurylink.net 573 774 5425
Beautiful penmanship was encouraged when I was in school, and it seemed like all of my friends shared that passion for a new writing tool. I still have it to this day.
I’ve always loved to draw, and I’ve loved stationery products and art supplies for as long as I can remember. I still enjoy trying out new pens, always searching for the perfect one. Thank you!
When I was back to school shopping for second grade.
I’ve loved pens and stationery for as long as I can remember! I used to play “school” with my two sisters and I had special pens and notebooks that I would only use when I was the “teacher” because they were special. I still do that today as an actual teacher!
Hey Ana, thanks for sharing The Sketchnote Ideabook and those beautiful Autoquills from Airship. I hope whomever wins the package really enjoys them!
I knew I first loved pens and paper in middle school. Our church had family dinner and a light service on Wednesdays. When school let out, I was dropped off at church and often worked on homework until my parents arrived for dinner. I found myself a few times sneaking across the street to the Walgreens to look at the pen aisle and spend some of my allowance on new items I discovered. This is where I bought my first Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pen and I thought I was the coolest person in the world at school.
I honestly couldn’t tell you because I ALWAYS have loved them! Even when I was little, I had an “office”-a huge, old desk with a bookshelf on top. The center drawer always had my stationery supplies perfectly organized (unlike the rest of my bedroom!). When my mother or grandmothers took me to work, I “worked” on paperwork all the time. I guess I was destined to work in an office!
Today, my favorite writing instrument remain Paper Mate Flair. First one that I recall was during 8th grade. My go-to color is blue!
My other favorite pen from high school & college days was simple BIC Clic. Filled countless notebooks from 9th grade through graduate school.
I Love stationery since i wad little. And now, on my 30s i am banking to sketch with frequency and i am seeing my drawings getting better. I am doing what i wish i had done by early ages. But, it is Always time to do what you Love.
I was in first grade and my teacher said she loved my drawing of David. She then showed me how a find point marker around the edges would make the sketch pop. It was like magic. Hooked ever since and must have two or more size pens/markers with me at all times.
I knew I loved pens the first time I tried the Uniball Signo DX. Since then, it’s downhill…notebooks, fountain pens, and woodcase pencils!
In elementary school, I began writing to Major League team ticket offices. I realized that several clubs used STATIONERY to reply to me. A kid! This was paper I could pet. Stationery didn’t have to be pink and flowery. Then, I began asking my mom for her best pen . That improved my penmanship and the baseball team responses. A good pen should make one feel like they’re painting.
I love of stationary and writing utensils stated as a 17 yr. Old high school student. I started writing weekly letters to my girlfriend (now wife of 21 years) who lived 5 states away. I enjoyed going to local stores in search of just the right paper. We still have all of those letter we wrote each other.
I don’t really remember a time not loving stationery. I remember as a child accompanying one parent or the other to the stationery store, and desperately wanting to own all the lovely boxed stationery for letters, with the ribbons and matching envelopes and everything. I eventually could choose to spend my babysitting money on things like paper by the pound, and Niji Stylists. [sigh]
I’ve been using sketchbooks for years, but only recently have I investigated fine markers and the art of sketchnoting. Been using it a TON in my 4th grade classroom! It’s led me to employ ever-cooler stationary, colors , and funky markers
My love affair with notebooks and stationery has been going on ever since I discovered Sketchnoting and Doodling is a think. I had been doing it all my life, but did not know it was a ‘thing’. I can’t live without my journal and pens anymore.
Since childhood I have been interested in all things paper, pencils, erasers, and pens. I would go to F.W. Woolworth to gaze at all. A fond memory. Never knew there are many like-minded people.
Goodness…I can’t remember! I just have always loved stationery and pens! all the pretty pens! To this day I have more notebooks, pens, cards, ink than I really need but I love the act of choosing for the intention. Your posts (and Brad’s & Pen Addict pods) make me kinda jealous! Thanks Ana!
The best thing is the feel of a fountain pen over smooth paper. Like painting.
always. when collecting us from a department store, brother was in toys like a normal kid while I was in office supplies.
My first experience with loving pens was when I discovered Sharpie’s fine point pens when I was a kid. I didn’t realize the depth of my new obsession though, until my grandpa gave me a hand-made fountain pen for my birthday when I was around 19.
The love of pens began in my early childhood years, as my uncle, who was a trained graphic designer in the late 1940s, had an abundance of fabulous pens and markers. I was only allowed to use the ones that were older pens/markers as they were his bread and butter in life. The flow of a brush pen made me all warm inside. As time went on, I began to collect pens throughout elementary school and continue to accumulate special pens that I prefer not to let others use. As a parent, I had to make sure that my children always had a set of pens/markers, as I am not one who likes to share my pens often. As for stationery, my close family members, friends, and significant other will not go with me when I shop for a planner, notebooks, and/or paper, as I will wander around for hours feeling the paper and wondering how it will feel as the pen glides across the paper. I have an extensive collection of pens/markers/colored pencils/ pencils, which I display in various containers per their use. (Also, so it gives off the vibe do not touch ). As a trained educator/trainer, I find you never have enough tools to dig deep into creativity. I have watched numerous videos done with sketchnoting. However, I came across Rodhes and D. Neill’s tools, and now I feel that I can be combined my love for learning and creativity as one on a beautiful sheet of paper and done with a smooth flowing pen/marker in Sketchnoting.
Lisa Frank and her psychedelic unicorn notebooks got me hooked on stationery!
I think I’ve known I loved stationery since kindergarten. I mean, I really cared about that special box of crayons and the point on my jumbo pencil even then.
Grade school, when buying school supplies was the best time of the year