Diwali free printable planner stickers!!!

Hi guys! How are you all doing? I haven’t been posting much since I was busy with my Etsy shop 🙂 It is the festive season here in India and we cannot let Diwali go without some bright earthen lamps in our planner spreads, right 😉 So I decided to create a Diwali weekly printable kit.

I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed making this kit using a bold color palette which attempts to reflect the colors of India 🙂 In this kit, I have tried to capture the spirit of Diwali in a modern sense. I hope you guys enjoy using it! I have tried to keep most of the content in a way that can be easily cut using scissors or a paper trimmer, however, there are a few functional deco elements on the last page which are best suited to be cut by Silhouette or a gyro cutter.

The download links are towards the end of this article in case you prefer to jump right in! However, since I have made a few changes in the format I urge you to go through the post 🙂

Here is a preview of the kit. I too will be using them next week for Diwali, so will update this post with my planner spreads then.

The sizes of the full and half boxes are the same i.e. 1.875″ x 1.5″ and 1″ x 1.5″ respectively. Thus these stickers should fit perfectly in the Lipik Designs or EC planner.

What will you need?

• The .pdf file(s)
• Access to a color printer
• White sticker paper (Letter or A4) – 4 sheets (you can also use a plain paper and glue)
• A pair of scissors/ paper trimmer/ Silhouette

I have made a few changes in the layout and overall structuring of the printables considering Silhouette usage and therefore there are a few new points that I would like to mention before you proceed ahead with your stickers. I request you to go through them carefully.

Important points:

• There are total 4 pages in this set. I have structured the contents such that the first two pages contain the essentials and the last 2 pages have extra optional content that can be skipped in case you prefer a minimal layout.
• The pages are now in ‘Letter’ size and not in ‘A4 size’. However, that would not affect the printing of these pages on A4 paper.
• Remember to select ‘No Scaling’ option when printing these stickers. Any scaling will result in the boxes not fitting the planner.

Please Note:

• The files provided in the download links are for personal use only. They cannot be resold, modified or used commercially.
• Please do not use it as a listing for third-party commercial print and cut service [Etsy shops]. I do provide a printing and cutting and shipping service [international included] for my printables, in case you require that. Please get in touch with me for the same on indianplanneraddict[at]gmail[dot]com
• If you would like to share these printables or images with your readers or on social media please link directly to this page, not to the printable file itself and provide a full credit link.

Diwali Kit Page 1 – Full boxes

Diwali Kit Page 2 – Headers and Half Boxes

Diwali Kit Page 3 – Functional boxes and Date Covers

Diwali Kit Page 4 – Washi, Banners and Functional Deco.

I hope you enjoy using these stickers. Please don’t hesitate to share your comments and suggestions on these stickers. If you end up using the stickers, I urge you to share your spreads on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and tag me with @indianplanneraddict and #indianplanneraddict. Nothing would give me more joy than seeing all the awesome creative planner spreads that you guys make with these stickers. 😃

Happy planning and Happy Diwali guys!!!

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Pretty floral patterns free printable planner stickers

It’s freebie time! Since my last freebie was so well received I was encouraged to make another set of planner stickers for you guys 🙂 So here they are, in their full glory 😉 This time I have used a set of some pretty floral patterns in shades of pink. The seasons are so contrasting all over the world right now, like there’s summer in US and monsoons here in India! Hence, I thought these designs would go well with all kinds of seasons, no matter where you are in the world!

The download link is towards the end of this article in case you prefer to jump right in!

The sizes of the full and half boxes are the same i.e. 1.875″ x 1.5″ and 1″ x 1.5″ respectively. Thus these stickers should fit perfectly in the Lipik Designs or EC planner.

Description:

The download contains a single .pdf file which has 2 sheets of printable stickers. The file is in A4 size. However, you can also print these on a ‘US letter’ size paper without scaling. One key point that I would like to emphasize here is the ‘No scaling’ option while printing. Do not resize your page to fit on other size pages. It will most likely result in printing misfit stickers. The images have been included at 300 dpi, so there shouldn’t be any issues related to their sharpness.

What will you need?

• The .pdf file
• Access to a color printer
• A4 size of white sticker paper – 2 sheets (you can also use a plain paper and glue)
• A pair of scissors or a paper trimmer
• Planner 😉

Here’s are the printed stickers on the sticker paper.

And below is the finished spread.

Please Note:

• The files provided in the download link are for personal use only. They cannot be resold, modified or used commercially.
• If you would like to share these printables or images with your readers or on social media please link directly to this page, not to the printable file itself and provide a full credit link.

DOWNLOAD HERE

 

I hope you enjoy using these stickers. Please don’t hesitate to share your comments and suggestions on these stickers. If you end up using the stickers, do share your spreads on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and tag me with @indianplanneraddict and #indianplanneraddict 😃.

Happy planning!

Anupam Eko A5 notebook review

Hey guys, how are you? I have finally settled in a routine for now at my place!

So a couple of weeks ago, I went to do some stationery shopping for my journaling and doodling activities at Venus Stationery Stores and Crossword store in Pune. I grabbed a few notebooks and writing supplies from these places and one of the item that I found to be interesting was this range of A5 notebooks from Anupam Stationery. Anupam is a well known stationery brand in India, so when you see an Anupam product you know you can trust it.

Now, let us take a look at all the aspects of the book individually:

Name:

Eko Notebook

Company:

Anupam Stationery Ltd.

Price:

₹ 160.00 for one notebook.

Availability:

These notebooks are available are all major offline stationery stores across India. I purchased mine from Venus stationery store on FC road on Pune. However I haven’t come across this notebook on any major online retail site.

Packaging:

As you can see it comes in a plastic sealed bag of the same size which is good since it keeps the notebook protected from mishandling and dust as they are kept on display in stores like Venus or Crossword. And yes, the pen is not included in the notebook 😉

Number of pages:

140 (70 back to back)

Product:

This notebook kinda reminds me of a MUJI notebook. It has a soft cover made of thick and environment friendly (as claimed by the company) kraft paper. As far as I know kraft paper is always brown in colour. The cover is blank from front and black. I like it since it allows me to decorate it as per my taste or leave it blank for a minimal look if I wish to!

The elastic band for closure is available in many colours like blue, hot pink, yellow, orange, lime green, red and black. However I could not find red and hot pink bands for the blank notebook. They were only available for the ruled pages one at Venus. I picked up the one with yellow band as you can see from the pic below.

It has a stitched binding which seems durable to me as of now. The color of the binding is the same as the color of the elastic band which is nice as it adds a little character to your notebook. I liked their binding, particularly that matching color of the thread!

The inside pages are off-white in colour. They are not white. However the colour feels good and kinda goes well with the brown cover! There are 2 layouts available for these notebooks viz. blank and ruled. I chose the blank one since I wanted a notebook for doodling. However I wish that these notebooks become available in dot grid and graph layouts since those are the ones commonly used for journaling and doodling as well.

Now comes the most important aspect of any book. How does it fare in writing test? Don’t worry I have got you covered 😉

In the below pic you can see the writing tests carried out using 8 pens (7 pens and 1 marker). As you can see, since the paper is of average thickness (seems ~70gsm, not mentioned in the packaging), most of the pens bleed and ghost on this paper. Zoom in on the image for details.

In the image below I have placed the pens in the order mentioned from left to right corresponding to the test from top to bottom.

What is this bleeding?

Bleeding is nothing but spreading of your ink from the content to the nearby area on the medium. Since paper is fibrous, some bleeding is bound to occur especially while using a gel or ink pen. However it can be taken care by manufacturers and is therefore less bleeding a mark of good paper. Good paper means more processed paper. Check the images above for the last pen test. It was done using a permanent marker and you can clearly see the ink spreading to the nearby fibers.

Then what is ghosting?

When your writing on one side of the paper is visible on its reverse side, it is called ghosting of ink. It can also occur while printing or for that matter any medium which involves ink! Don’t we all hate when ghosting occurs?

Check out how much each pen ghosts in the image below. As a general rule, ball pens do not ghost. Good gel pens ghost less, but that is the characteristic of the pen and not the book itself. All gel pens below ₹20 ghost on this paper 😦

Again you can see that the permanent marker has ghosted the most, which can be expected.

Sadly this notebook is not averse to either. As a doodler or journaler this is something that turned me off for this notebook. Although when I felt the paper while buying the book, I kinda of expected this to happen, but that is no excuse, right? As a matter of fact, those simple school notebooks ghost less than this! In my opinion, notebooks in this price range should not carry a paper that is less than 100gsm.

I am satisfied with the number of pages provided though. It is a perfect balance between keeping the notebook light and still having sufficient pages to write. I wouldn’t mind a further loss of a few pages if they upgrade their paper!

Also, the size A5 is perfect to write as well as carry around. Since I wanted this book for doodling, I needed sufficient space to practice my doodle for a day. So this works well for me. In fact, A5 is the standard size for journals across countries, so no issues there!

This notebook is actually comparable to Letternote Kraft notebooks and Crossword notebooks (called Yello.. I think?). However they fare better in terms of price and overall look and feel. The only aspect that I cannot comment right now is the paper. Will check and update for it.

I don’t know how long the elastic band will last. However I am enjoying it as of right now!

Final thoughts:

This notebook is good for casual purposes like note taking and simple doodling. However, it isn’t the best option when it comes to journaling or long term projects. Also, as of right now, I think this is the best option in this category of notebooks as compared to other brands especially when it comes to price! The overall looks and finish are as good as any other high end brands. You can always trust Anupam for the quality and value for money. I would like this notebook to have thicker paper and be available in dot grid or graph layouts. That will open the notebook to a wider array of activities for paper lovers like us!

Planner addict’s rating:

3.5/5

So have you tried any other notebooks? Do you have any more questions regarding this notebook? Do let me know in the comments 🙂

Cheers!

Tropical fruit patterns free printable planner stickers

Hello everyone! First sorry for not posting of late. In fact, I haven’t been active on any social media for nearly a month since I was busy with relocation. So I moved from Bengaluru to Pune last month and I haven’t had time to do any planner related activities. I could not even decorate my planner spreads 😦 and all those weeks are practically a mess in my planner since there was too much planning, rescheduling, cancelling and more planning!

This week I am slowly getting back to my regular activities. And since May is the last month of summer I didn’t want to miss out on sharing these bright and fruity planner stickers that I made last month for summer. I too got the chance to use them just this week. This week I have shared my planner spread here before Instagram since I couldnt resist from using these stickers in my planner :). I will share these on Instagram on the coming Monday.

So without further ado,  let us take a look at the stickers!

 

The sizes of the full and half boxes are the same i.e. 1.875″ x 1.5″ and 1″ x 1.5″ respectively. Thus these stickers should fit perfectly in the Lipik Designs or EC planner. The full boxes would be slightly short for the Happy Planner.

Description:

The download contains a single .pdf file which has 2 sheets of printable stickers. The file is in A4 size. However, you can also print these on a ‘US letter’ size paper without scaling. One key point that I would like to emphasize here is the ‘No scaling’ option while printing. Do not resize your page to fit on other size pages. It will most likely result in printing misfit stickers. The images have been included at 300 dpi, however this time there is a slight issue in the sharpness of a few images in the full boxes. Don’t worry these issues are from my side (to explain them I will have to write another blog post :P).

What will you need?

• The .pdf file
• Access to a color printer
• A4 size of white sticker paper – 2 sheets (you can also use a plain paper and glue)
• A pair of scissors or a paper trimmer
• Planner 😛

Now that I am back home, I got new catridges for my printer. So I printed these on my home printer. It is an inkjet printer called HP Deskjet 2010. It is a very old model so probably discontinued in the market by now.

Here’s are the printed stickers on the sticker paper. Not super happy with the print quality. But will do for now.

Below is the finished spread using these stickers in my Lipik Designs planner! As you can see I was too excited and couldn’t wait to decorate the next week using these bright stickers 😉

Please Note:

• The files provided in the download link are for personal use only. They cannot be resold, modified or used commercially.
• If you would like to share these printables or images with your readers or on social media please link directly to this page, not to the printable file itself and provide a full credit link.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Although it is almost the end of summer, I would still recommend you to try these and would love to see your beautiful planner spreads using them! If you end up using the stickers, do share your spreads on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and tag me with @indianplanneraddict and #indianplanneraddict. Please don’t hesitate to share your comments and suggestions on these stickers.

Happy planning!

Vintage spring patterns free printable planner stickers

Hey guys! I am back with another freebie!

Winter is over and spring is currently helping us transition to summer. Hence I thought that this would be a perfect time to have the weekly theme in spring colours, right? This week’s stickers are a perfect mix of vintage and spring patterns! If you would prefer to jump right into it then scroll over to the bottom of this post for the download link.

The sizes of the full and half boxes are the same i.e. 1.875″ x 1.5″ and 1″ x 1.5″ respectively. Thus these stickers should fit perfectly in the Lipik Designs or EC planner. The full boxes would be slightly short for the Happy Planner though.

Description:

The download contains a single .pdf file which has 2 sheets of printable stickers. The file is in A4 size. However, you can also print these on a ‘US letter’ size paper without scaling. One key point that I would like to emphasise here is the ‘No scaling’ option while printing. Do not resize your page to fit on other size pages. It will most likely result in printing misfit stickers. The images have been included at 300 dpi, so there shouldn’t be any issues related to their sharpness.

What will you need?

• The .pdf file
• Access to a color printer
• A4 size of white sticker paper – 2 sheets (you can also use a plain paper and glue)
• A pair of scissors or a paper trimmer
• Planner 😉

I got mine printed at  Printfield here in Bengaluru and it cost me a whopping ₹40/- for 2 sheets (₹30/- for printing on an A3 sticker paper and ₹10/- for the actual paper.

Here’s are the printed stickers on the sticker paper.

Finished spread..

Please excuse the blueish tinge in the pictures. The lighting wasn’t so great that day 😦

Please Note:

• The files provided in the download link are for personal use only. They cannot be resold, modified or used commercially.
• If you would like to share these printables or images with your readers or on social media please link directly to this page, not to the printable file itself and provide a full credit link.

DOWNLOAD HERE

 

I hope you enjoy using these stickers. Please don’t hesitate to share your comments and suggestions on these stickers. If you end up using the stickers, do share your spreads on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and tag me with @indianplanneraddict and #indianplanneraddict .

Happy planning!

MUJI Clear Ballpoint Gel Pens review

Hey guys, first and foremost, a ver happy new year to everyone!  I know that it’s quite late, but since I was super busy this year for my new planner launch (yoohoo!) I only got free after the planner rush season was over!

So, today I will be reviewing the pens from one of the well-known Japanese brand, MUJI. This is a brand whose core philosophy is ‘NO BRAND QUALITY GOODS’. According to MUJI, their products have a natural and simplistic design. They had recently launched their 2nd store in India, in a Bengaluru mall. I had been to the store once when they had launched, but could not pick up anything during my first visit. However,  in December we planner addicts in Bengaluru had a meetup where we decided to raid the MUJI India and Itsy Bitsy stores for stocking up on our goodies and it was then I found these lovely pens at the MUJI store.

They actually have quite a variety of options available for pens, but I ended up choosing the 0.5mm gel pen primarily because it had the colours that I wanted and also because I prefer pens with point size less than 0.5mm. I bought a couple of these pens in different colours and have used them in my planner for a while now and here are my thoughts on it..

Name:

Smooth Writing Gel Pen (generic name)

Company:

MUJI India (originally from Japan)

Price:

₹ 90.00 for one pen.

Refillable:

Yes, however, I haven’t enquired about their refills.

Availability:

Available in MUJI India (physical) stores which are currently in Mumbai and Bengaluru only. Currently not available with major online retailers.

Packaging:

There is literally no packaging of the pens. It goes with their philosophy that – ‘When packaging products, MUJI seeks not to adorn them but rather to highlight their natural colours and shapes’. Therefore, the pens are simply placed in a section, neatly arranged by type and colour. I find it oddly satisfying to look at their product arrangements, especially the pens section! You can search for ‘muji store pens’ and get a lot of images of the MUJI way of organising their stationery supplies. Personally, I love it since we discard the packaging for pens anyway. There are also very few details of the product on the product itself since ‘minimalism’ is one of the core concepts underlying the MUJI products.

Product:

The pen is plastic but has a sturdy finish. Its length is standard size (~15 cm). Just like the Pilot FriXion pens, I do not fancy the width of these pens too, which is nearly 1 cm. They are a bit fat for my liking. It has a frosty silicone grip, which works fine for me. The point size is 0.5 mm, which was something that made me buy these pens apart from the pretty colours. The pen is retractable, thus it has no cap. The point has a tiny silicone cap which is commonly seen these days in many pens, to prevent the ink from drying before purchase. I just wish it had a less generic body though, but it is not a dealbreaker for me of course!

Since the pen has a transparent body, one can easily identify the colour of the ink. Also, the pocket clip is the colour of the ink. I would say that the best part is that the colour of the plastic clip matches perfectly with the ink colour! That is something I was pleasantly surprised about since many of the pens I have seen almost always have a slight shade difference in the pen ink and body.

I have purchased 2 colour varieties of these pens viz. yellow and green. Although officially MUJI calls it a green pen, the colour of the ink (green one) is actually Asagi i.e. pale-green blue. I must say that I am in love with this colour. In fact, I would not have spent 90 rupees for this pen had it not been available in this colour!

About the writing, I must say that I am not a big fan of how this pen writes. The reason being it does not write smoothly as one would expect. Now I know that smoothness can be perceptive, but still, I felt that this pen cannot glide on its own, it needs effort. I think that can be improved. I know that this is not an issue with a single piece as I own a couple of them and I also tested out a few other colours in this variety in the store. It writes evenly, though. The ink release is consistent since it is a gel pen. The colours are bold and correct for the description (clip colour). The dry time of the ink is quick. So it will work for our left-handed friends too 🙂

Writing Sample:

Shall we take a look at the writing samples of the pen on normal paper and sticker paper? I know how we planner addicts end up writing more on stickers than normal paper 😛

Below are the writing samples for the pen on normal paper (top) and sticker paper (bottom).

Normal paper

Sticker paper

Normal paper close up

 

Final thoughts:

For me, the USP of these pens were the two colours that I picked up. I do not fancy paying so much for these pens for the other colours that are widely available at a much cheaper price. Also, since I cannot use these pens for writing long texts, the utility of these pens is restricted to planning and bullet journaling. Hence, I may not buy more of these.However since I haven’t come across a smooth 0.5mm gel pen (I remember my old Add gel pen as I am typing this!), I might still keep a watch on these pens for more unique colours. I would recommend getting these pens only for planning if you must. Otherwise, there is no loss in skipping them.

Planner addict’s rating:

3.5/5

So guys, would you give the MUJI pens a try? Do let me know in the comments!

Also, do let me know if there is any other pen that you would recommend for a planner addict.

Cheers!

Geometric patterns free printable planner stickers

Hey guys, since many of you liked my previous set of planner stickers I thought about giving it another try. A while ago I had come across some pretty geometric pattern vectors. I had really forgotten about them till a couple of weeks back when I was scouring for themed graphics for creating a new sticker set. And now, here they are in the form of stickers! Find the download link at the end of this post, if you would like to skip the details.

My last printable had full sized boxes of the height 2″.  So, it turns out that the EC vertical weekly box height is 1.875″. So I adjusted the height of the boxes in this sticker set. Please let me know if there are any discrepancies. Also, in case you end up using it on other planners, do let me know the sizes of your boxes, so that I can try to create separate sets for different planners.

Description:

The download contains a single .pdf file which has 2 sheets of printable stickers. The file is in A4 size. However, you can also print these on a ‘US letter’ size paper without scaling. The images have been included at 300 dpi, so there shouldn’t be any issues related to their sharpness.

What will you need?

• The .pdf file
• Access to a color printer
• A4 size of white sticker paper – 2 sheets (you can also use a plain paper and glue)
• A pair of scissors
• Planner (duh!)

I printed these in a nearby printing shop and it cost me ₹20/- for 2 sheets (₹10/- per page, single side only). However, the sticker paper was provided by me. The printer was EPSON 1280 printer.

Here’s are the printed stickers on my A4 sticker paper.

And the finished spread..

Please Note:

• The files provided in the download link are for personal use only. They cannot be resold, modified or used commercially.
• If you would like to share these printables or images with your readers or on social media please link directly to this page, not to the printable file itself and provide a full credit link.

DOWNLOAD HERE

I hope you like the stickers. Please don’t hesitate to share your comments and suggestions on these stickers. If you end up using the stickers, do share your spreads on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and tag me with @indianplanneraddict and #indianplanneraddict 😃.

Happy planning!