Journaling Fest 2019 in Review

Journaling Festival 2019 went by in a flash!

We had a lot of fun and many new products were in store this time. There was definitely something for everyone.

If you missed it, here’s a quick recap;

1. Bullet Journaling
   • Getting Started with Bullet Journal by Stephanie
   • How to set up mood trackers and weekly layouts by Zoey
2. Make beautiful handwritten font  
   • Brush Lettering with Stephanie
   • Kids calligraphy with Joanne
3. Learning all about inks and fountain pens with Jolyn
4. Drawing and Journaling-
   • TN Sketching/Urban Jamming
   • Line Art with Mimi
   • Food Journaling with watercolour by Szetoo Weiwen
   • Travel Journaling with Szetoo Weiwen
   • Junk Journaling with Sharon
5. Virtually attend the MT Factory and TN Factory tours
6. Washi Wonders with Sylvain Yong

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Bullet Journaling

Heard so much about it here and there but no clear idea of what it is?

There were Getting Started with Bullet Journal workshops by @StephTcreates which answered these questions in great detail. Our participants learnt about future logs, monthly logs, daily logs and so much more! It was more than just a class, as Stephanie made it a very memorable experience for many of the participants. Since our festival was over two weeks, there was one class each weekend!

Participants trying to create their introductory page

Pilot Pen Singapore x @zoetryandletters

In collaboration with Pilot Singapore, Zoey from @zoetryandletters was giving lunch time free bite-sized bullet journal mini-workshops which broke down the various parts of the bullet journal especially trackers – such as habit trackers and mood trackers.

Zoey teaching bullet journaling

Learning Calligraphy and Brush Lettering for all ages!

Stephanie (@StephTcreates) taught us the basics of Brush Lettering through her class! Participants also went home with a brush lettering guide and practice book.

Group Photo after Brush Lettering Workshop

Learning those basic brush strokes!

Meanwhile, Joanne (@theletterJsupply) took the little kids on a journey to gorgeous handwritten font, showing that it is never too young to start on your calligraphy journey!

In this workshop, our younger participants got a chance to use the LAMY abc Beginner’s Fountain Pen. It was so nice to see growth in confidence as the instructor went along!

The INK section –

Jolyn (@missmuffat) came down on to educate us on the world of ink. She taught us how to do ink swatches in a double layered way which lets you test the density of the ink. Jolyn also introduced us to the world of fountain pens, what a beautiful complex world it is!

Speaking of inks, in conjunction with The Straits Times Pocket Money Fund, proceeds from the sales of Kaweco DIY Pens goes to the unprivileged schooling children! There were also special pen colours exclusive to the festival – Concrete Grey and Granite Grey.

We had to share the fun and so Pilot and LAMY came down too!

LAMY brought down their new launch to the festival too! This included new LAMY Safari pastel collection, with Powder Rose, Blue Macaron and Mint Glaze. They also introduced the LAMY Crystal inks for the very first time in Singapore.

LAMY Safari Pastel Collection

LAMY Crystal Ink

There were also Conklin limited edition pens like the Duraflex Chrome limited edition, Duraflex 120^th anniversary edition with Omniflex nibs, and also the NOZAC. There were also special deals on ACME Studio, and Monteverde pens.

Last but definitely not the least, there were the TWSBI Eco-T pens available too!

Drawing and Journaling–

Mimi from @thetinyblot brought her expertise to teach us how to draw a real-life looking flower with only a micron 0.1 pen. She had to be really good because by the end of the class everyone’s notebook sported lovely daisies! Mimi taught us to draw circles on the outer section then fill the petals in and complete with shading! The shading definitely brought the drawings to life.

Mimi (@thetinyblot) teaching us how to draw a watercolour galaxy with Karin Brushmarkers

How to draw a daisy (courtesy of @mylenemolo)

Szetoo Weiwen (@stickerrific) flew in from KL to showcase her beautiful art journaling skills in food and travel journaling workshops. She taught us simple methods to draw sushi and cereal bowls!

washi tapes everyone put together their own work of art.

Stamps

There were exclusive festival stamps and even a stamping station where many brought their own personal journals to stamp in! A lot of you guys came down just to have fun the stamping away your journals!

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In conjunction with Singapore Bicentennial, we created a Stamford Raffles stamp too! For those who are Marvel Avengers fans (you know who you are), there was a Endgame inspired stamp.

Some stamps from our Journaling Fest special collection

If you so love your washi, you could stamp it too! There were washi stamps, fountain pen stamps, notebook stamps!

Isn’t this washi tape stamp so cute? 😀

Note forgetting the TN stamps – all the train tickets that were so prettily designed!

We also featured Plain Stationery Stamps – where good things come in small sizes!

Largest washi tape and sticker market in Singapore

The trademark giant washi tape market was back in town – with literally just rows and rows of tape. You could literally spend hours just choosing from thousands of assorted designs, including special limited designs from Japan.

There was of course MT Tape – updated to the latest 2019 Spring Summer Collection.

There were also BGM, Classiky, Dailylike, Roundtop and Shinzi Katoh tapes!

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  mt
  Tapes on discount!

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  Shinzi Katoh Tapes

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Some exclusive tapes were also flown in for the event from Japan and oh boy, those flew off the shelves as quickly as they’d been put up.

Speaking of Japan, while some participants lamented that they could not go to Japan, JAPAN came to them! The MT Factory Tour experience came to you guys – complete with exclusive factory tour washi tape samples and tickets from the tour!

As usual, we believe in spreading the love (and the love for hoarding tape) – so we opened an mt Tape trial station where you could literally take samples home or simply, get a feel of what washi tape was.

For those who didn’t know how to use tape, Sylvain’s demonstration table attracted many as the washi tape artist showed off her stunning artworks done with only tape! Kids were pretty much glued, (or taped, haha) to the table!

Sylvain explaining to people how to use mt tape to make art

the kids won’t leave the table!

Sylvain also hosted a workshop where participants created an artwork with only washi tapes. She taught basic shapes and used diagrams to explain slowly how to create a frame-able piece of art! We see you guys did so good and look at all the satisfied faces here!

House Artwork done with mt tape

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Stickers

Safe to say, you guys were spoilt for choice!

MU Crafts’ Stickers 

Bought them because they looked so pretty but don’t fully know how to use them? Watch this space for an upcoming blogpost on how to use these stickers to achieve all the stunning effects you see on Instagram, otherwise, there is a guide at the back to help you print the stickers on to almost any flat surface!

Suatelier – one of our fan favourites!

Bande – for those who want their stickers packaged like a washi roll

With the variety of stickers on display you can be sure you would find something to fit any style – whether cute or vintage or minimalist or just, you!

Stationery Organization

 — Penco, Hightide and Shibui

Just bought a brand new notebook and afraid to dirty it? Shibui has genuine leather covers that age so beautifully. They come in different sizes so you could put your Leuchtturm (A5) Journals or your TNs or Midori journals. Leather covers don’t just protect your books from the elements but also lets you carry them everywhere. They also have matching pen cases for your fountain pens and other collectibles.

Desperate to tidy up your huge collection of stationery but just don’t actually know where to start? Penco and Hightide provided everything one ever needs for basic desk organization – there were files and folders, pen holders, clipboards for all those receipts and scraps of paper…

Notebooks –

Traveler’s Company –

A highlight of the event was the sharing by our company founders Wing and Kelly about their recent visit to the Traveler’s Company Nagareyama Factory in Japan. The first Traveler’s Notebook Global Gathering was held there and they took many photos and memories back to share with our local TN community. It was a chance to grab prizes and memorabilia that was otherwise unavailable here! The sharing session attracted a large group of new and ‘seasoned’ TN enthusiasts!

Besides that, there was also a whole booth dedicated to Traveler’s Company products, and other DesignPhil lines like the Midori MD Paper notebooks and covers!  

If you grabbed a TN at the event, there was free on-the-spot embossing!

In the Leuchtturm1917 section we featured the new Bauhaus notebooks! It was back to basics, and this collection with its geometric aesthetic and primary colours, featured notebooks that had matching covers and dots.

Customers who bought Leuchtturm notebooks this year once again got a chance to emboss their books – and all eyes were on the 2019 new colour shades in Pacific Green and Port Red, which, if you missed out, you can grab it here on our website!

Other stationery

There was a wide range of art journaling items available too – with a selection from Tombow including the brush markers and black calligraphy pens. Pilot pens were mostly available besides the Juice pens, there were also the Explorer fountain pens on 50% offer! It was also the first time Pilot Iroshizuku and Pilot Capless Pens and Preras were presented in the festival. Sakura brush markers were a favourite too, as well as the Koi watercolour palettes in 12, 24 and 48 shades!

Finally, if you were unable to come down to the festival and missed out on the Manual Factory bears and keychains, they are up in very limited stock on our website!