The Cross-Over Notebook Review & Contest

I had the pleasure of receiving a box of various notebooks from Roaring Spring Paper Products in the last week and I was thrilled to be introduced to the Cross-Over Notebook.

This legal sized notebook has regular lines/pages on one side of the page as you can see (Image 1). If you look closely you can also see the writing on the back where I wrote horizontally with the lines on the back side of the page (Image 2).

Image 1

While there is a see-through quality, I would say that is necessary for the grid component of using both of the pages together to create graph paper.

Image 2

The unique wire-bound notebook that has college-ruled lines running the width of the page on one side, and the length of the page on the other side. This allows you to take notes three ways:

1. Wide for sketching or to illustrate diagrams
2. Standard legal pad size for writing
3. Use the backlight grid pattern the lines create for graphing

Image 3

The  lines in the image above (Image 3) appear darker than they are in the notebook, but don't let that stop you from trying this unique and versatile notebook!

If you'd like to win one of your own, just do one of the following and let me know with a comment in this blog post. Remember to leave your email (or to send that separately) so that I can contact you if you win! You can do one of each for 4 entries if you'd like. Good Luck!

1. Mention this contest on Facebook with a link
2. Mention this contest on Twitter with a link
3.. Like Roaring Spring Paper Products on Facebook
4. Mention this contest on your blog with a link to this page

Winner will be selected randomly on May 10, 2014.
 

Send Mail - Get Mail

You know the old adage, 'You need to send mail to get mail'? Well, I've decided to have some fun with these new stamps I just received from Errol M in CA who sells unused older stamps at face value.

Send me some mail and I will send you some mail. Maybe a postcard or a note card or a letter. Depends on my mood. I've got them all and could probably send one a day for a year and not have to buy any cards or postcards. (But you know I will!)

I asked for cartoons and a few famous people by name. You can see I received Alfred Hitchcock and Lucille Ball (no Greta Garbo).

I also requested ocean and underwater stamps, as well as Greetings from the US state stamps.

Who doesn't love this stamp of the Red Barron?

These cartoon stamps are perfect for a postcard - or a letter. Which will you receive? Send me a letter, postcard or note card and find out!

You can request the stamp you like that I will use on your return letter, note card or postcard. There are no guarantees that you'll get it, but I'll try my best. You may want to put a back-up selection in your request.

Send your mail to:

Jackie Flaherty

PO Box 120052

St. Paul, MN 55112

If you'd like to order your own stamps, contact Errol by emailing him at ELMurphy (at) cox (dot) net and tell him the amount you'd like to spend and the themes/assortment you would like. Then he will confirm your order and give you his mailing address where you can send a check. Once received, he will get your order off to you!

Letter & Journals Update

It's been awhile since I've had any update on the status of the Letters & Journals magazine. Currently, I'm working on creating a Kickstarter campaign to get the jump start on printing the first issue of L&J.

If you're familiar with Kickstarter, then you know that people can give various amounts of money for some type of reimbursement if the campaign is successful.

For example, if you give a one-time gift of $10, $20 or $30 (or more) then you would receive the gift associated with that level.

Here are some thoughts in no particular order:
Special L&J stamp
First issue of L&J print edition
Set of L&J postcards

What other thoughts and ideas would you suggest to encourage people to donate to a Letters & Journals Kickstarter Campaign?

I'd love to have a variety of levels and offerings that will be appreciated by the donors and also be reflective of what L&J is all about.

The Letter Tracker

In honor of the New Year, I've started a new way to track mail. I wanted something simple, colorful and handmade. Why keep track? For me it's because sometimes I forget (especially sent mail).  Plus, I find this motivates me to send more mail (who doesn't like that?!).

Meet my 2014 Correspondence Log. I expect to fill more than this page, so we'll see how the year goes.

 

Other methods I've tried in the past include:
 
Day Planner
In 2013 I found this Polestar Business Calendar because it had a column for Correspondence. It was easy to keep the planner on the current week and write down what I sent out, but I didn't track what came in and I didn't use the planner for anything else, which made it kind of a waste.

 

Index Cards
I had one for each correspondent and I would write who wrote what, when, what did I reply back. This was too much time and not convenient. Once you got behind it was hard to catch up.

Spreadsheets
Using an excel spreadsheet felt too mechanical and businesslike. Opening the program wasn't hard, but it was never convenient. I would so much rather write stuff down than track it in an impersonal program.

Some people keep track of their incoming/outgoing mail by documenting each piece in their blog. That is way too intensive for me, but I must admit I like to look at them.

The Missive Maven keeps a link to her blog post on how she tracks her mail: "How I Keep Track of My Mail". 

How about you? Do you track your correspondence? If so, how?

 

Ex Postal Facto Event February 2014

Mark your calendars and update your travel itineraries to visit lovely San Francisco to attend the Ex Postal Facto event celebrating correspondence art, faux philatelics and postal modernism Feb 14-16, 2014.

Organizer Jennie Hinchcliff from Red Letter Day created the event with the help of some of dedicated art and mail enthusiasts. You can follow the news, updates and events at the Ex Postal Facto blog.

The 3-day event includes a vendor expo, exhibits, lectures, passport stamping and so much more. We'll see if the planets align for this mail enthusiast to go!

Product Review & Contest

Winner Update August 28, 2013

The winner of the OfficeMax Giveaway is Jakki (the third commentator to this blog post)! Congratulations, Jakki! An email has been sent directly to you to get your mailing address. The fine folks at OfficeMax will mail your package directly to you.


Thanks to all who entered!
Maybe next time!
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OfficeMax generously sent an assortment of pens, pencils and highlighters for review and they were also kind enough to offer the same items to be given away to one lucky recipient! One winner will be chosen from the comments on this blog post. Winner will be selected on Sunday, August 25. Be sure to either leave your email in the comment OR email me your name after you leave a comment (Jackie (at) LettersAndJournals (dot) com.

You can see a sample of each item below, but the full assortment of product is in the following pictures. In the notebook photos I used each product to show how I sampled the different writing instraments.

This 10-pack of highlighters was a joy to use. I love the variety of colors and the heavy smooth flow of the highlighter ink. You can see in the pictures above how I used the highlighters to highlight and to color. (Yes, I had fun!)

The angled tip of the highlighter made it easy to draw, color or highlight. Your choice!

 And look how nicely they fit in this pencil holder.

These 0.7 point gel pens have a smooth rich flow, like most gel pens. I'm a fine point person and found these pens very easy to write with and had no skipping or bleed-through.

Lastly, we have the box of 12 mechanical pencils. The eraser colors are eye-catching and the matching grip makes the writing a little easier. I prefer mechanical pencils with a little more heft and weight, but other than that, these pencils work superbly.

Disclaimer: I received the writing products in this post from OfficeMax in order to facilitate my review. The items featured in this giveaway are also provided by OfficeMax and will be sent to the winner directly. Opinions expressed in this post are 100% my own. I have not been compensated for this post in any other way.

Letters & Journals Magazine Update

I didn't want you to think that I have forgotten the vision and plans for Letters & Journals! It has been a long road, but I haven't given up. Even though my current job keeps me working more hours than my previous job, it only means I can't blog as much as before, not that the dream has died.

I'm continually on the look out for potential articles, advertisers, features, images, web design, contests, etc. You would not believe the file I have! Not to mention the mailing list of almost 5,000 names. I am starting to research the possibility of running Kickstarter campaign to fund the initial launch. Oh, the possibilities!

It lights up my heart to see ads like these promoting the products and services that we are endeared to- don't you think? What are some advertisements that you think should be in Letters & Journals?

Thank you for your patience, support and helping to keep the dream alive!