We are currently hosting a little de-stash sale over on the Shop. There are some lightly used fountain pens from our collection and some of the inks I’ve been trying to pare down my collection. All priced to move!
Don’t let these great deals pass you by! And thanks for checking out our sale!
This month for my June Planner & Journal set-up, I created a video that walks through my steps of picking out colors, ephemera and inks to match my theme.
My actual page-a-day set-up has not changed much throughout the year, just the themes so if you want to check out previous posts and videos:
DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Some items were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.
I am 100% embracing strawberries as my icon, favorite fruit and vibe for June. If you are a Parton, you’ve already seen our strawberry-themed printable for June. My planner set-up video for June will post tomorrow and its also all strawberry vibes. Strawberries are happy for me.– a symbol of the first fruits of the year and give me such joy. We all need some joy right now. What’s your vibe for June, your favorite fruit or something you’re looking forward to in June?
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I had a birthday a few weeks back, and a bestie who is into pens with me sent me a fun gift, a Sailor x Mizutama Profit Junior Limited Edition Fountain Pen. I had never heard of this pen before, but I’m always game for a Sailor!
This particular limited edition collaboration is between Sailor and the Japanese illustrator Mizutama, whose drawings are whimsical and fun! The collaboration features three resin bodied pens (in Orange, Aqua and Cream) along with a matching converter, and a 10mL bottle of ink.
The Profit Junior pen (also called a Compass and a Junior 1911 in other places I’ve found) is a smaller model of the Sailor 1911, with a cigar shape. The pens feature steel nibs (a MF in my Aqua version), metal trim and a cute illustration. The Aqua features a girl reading a book with a plane flying overhead. The other interesting thing is that the feed mechanism is clear. I wish I had shot a photo of it before I loaded the ink because now it just looks blue!
The pen writes pretty smoothly. It definitely doesn’t have the feel of my favorite Sailor Pro Gear Slim, but it is nice and firm. The smaller size might be meant more for students, but it fits my hand really well and I know this is a pen I can use without hand fatigue. The nib, while an MF, is actually quite fine for me and the ink is the perfect blue to match it.
I think it might be a good color for me eh?
DISCLAIMER: I received the Sailor x Mizutama from a friend for my birthday. Some of the other items in this review may have been provided to me free of charge for the purposes of review. Please see the About page for more details.
While I was in Houston, I grabbed the Little Craft Fest exclusive ink colors from Dominant Industry. The irony was that the first day of the show, they did not have swatches of the colors to show so I went back the second day and someone had swatched them. One of the bottles in clearly labelled on the box and the bottle as A Day in Arpril (yes, there’s a typo). I will refer to it by the misspelled name since that is what is printed on the bottle and the box. It may be listed elsewhere with the spelling corrected to A Day in April if you are searching for more information, FYI.
From a quick glance the inks: A Day in Arpril (sic) and A Field of Bluebonnets are remarkably similar. Bluebonnets appears to be the same color ink with shimmer and Arpril (sic) is just a shading blue lavender ink.
Both bottles are 25ml. Arpril (sic) is $17 per bottle and Bluebonnets in $20. To be honest, the bottle of Bluebonnets I got did not have much shimmer particles in it making the upcharge not worth it particularly. Also, buying both bottles seems unnecessary as the base ink color is the same.
When compared with other inks in my stash, I discovered I have a lot of inks in this family of mid-tone blue lavender shading inks. Clearly, its a color that appeals to me.
Pen BBS inks are hard to find these days and Bungbox/Bungubox inks are much more expensive so the Dominant Industry inks are a good alternative if you’ve been looking for a dupe for these other inks.
All these ink colors have a little multichromatic effect that causes the colors to range between the bluer violet tones to the more pinky colors depending on paper, saturation and nib size. If you own any of these other colors, it might not be necessary to purchase the LCF 2025 edition inks. But if you don’t have any inks in this family, the price is right for the Dominant Industry versions.
Despite the typo on the bottle, I would recommend the A Day in Arpril from this limited edition release. There is just not enough sparkle in the Bluebonnets to make it worthwhile (YMMV).
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This week, let’s all wish Kelly of Mountain of Ink Happy Anniversary on 8 years and over 2700 ink reviews! her dedication and consistency is unrivaled in the pen community and a true treasure for us all. Thank you for all you do, Kelly! You are the inky queen!
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A few weeks ago I was super excited to order Inkdependence’s newest collaborative inks. Mike teamed up with Diamine to create Never Trust a Bivalve and Trust a Bivalve ($8-14 for 30mL) featuring wonderful label art from Tom of Sugarturtle Studio. These two new inks are lots of fun, but I was a good girl and just got myself a single bottle.
Trust a Bivalve is available with and without Shimmering Kelp. I do love a good shimmer, so I got that one. It’s a beautiful shading brown ink, with a shimmery blue affect if you so choose! I’ve been collecting brown inks quite a bit recently and I was shocked when I went through for the comparison shot that I really don’t have anything quite like it!
It’s sort of a dark taupe that almost has a purple or wine colored tinge to it. I thought at first it was purple, but next to a more purple gray ink like PenBBS June Pearl it doesn’t look anything alive. And then I wondered if it would be more akin to Vinta Isabella and the tones are completely different (though I guess this is also a brown shimmering ink so I see why I might have thought that…)
I digress. The ink is lovely and shades well, but there’s also that fun touch of blue shimmer. I don’t see it so much in writing – more in the heavier applications, but I love it just the same.
I do love that Diamine makes a really reasonably priced ink. I’ll let you know that the markup on shimmer at this point really is almost twice what the regular ink costs, hence Mike’s prices, but even at that, it’s a great price for a fun bottle of ink.
Honestly, my only conundrum is that generally I don’t trust a bivalve, but that wasn’t the ink that screamed take me home! But, no matter which side of the argument you come down on, you’re in for a great ink.
DISCLAIMER: The Trust a Bivalve ink was purchased with my own funds. Some of the other items in this review may have been provided to me free of charge for the purposes of review. Please see the About page for more details.
