National Stationery Week with Artline - Writing matters

Hello!  Today marks the start of National Stationery Week so you can expect lots of stationery related fun and content from me over the next seven days!

#writingmatters

One of the main ideas behind NSW is to promote the use of pen and paper, to highlight the fact that writing still matters and to encourage more people to get writing.  Cards, notes and letters are so much more personal when they are hand written.  It’s not often I get excited by an email or message online but when someone takes the time to send me a letter or card through the post, that makes me feel very special!

I write for lots of different reasons including communication, planning, pleasure and work.  I send letters to my friends, I plan my life and I really enjoy spending some of my spare time lettering and practising calligraphy.  I can do all of these things electronically on my iPad but it just isn't the same as selecting a pen and getting to work in a notebook or on a nice sheet of paper! 

With that in mind I thought I would talk to you about the different types of pens I use regularly and why writing matters to me.

Every day pens

For general notes, reminders, work and planning I want to use a pen that is comfortable to hold and that writes smoothly.  A pen that skips is one of my pet hates!  Artline’s Ergoline range has an ergonomic grip designed for greater comfort and increased control while writing meaning I can scribble away for longer using these pens! 

Calligraphy pens

I love how calligraphy writing looks, all the fancy swirls and little flourishes make even the most mundane words look amazing on the page!  I have been practising calligraphy, on and off, for years now, it is something I always come back to and enjoy doing.  

Artline's calligraphy pens are great for learning with because you don't have to keep stopping to dip your nib in or worry about knocking over a bottle of ink.  You can just take them out of your pencil case and get started!  The pens come in a range of colours and nib sizes too so you can create all kinds of different looks without having to flush your nibs out or buy a huge collection of inks in different colours.

Brush pens and fineliners

Hand lettering is something else I like to do in my spare time,  I do a lot of it in my bullet journal and like combining different styles and fonts together.  Pairing Supreme brush markers with Artline 200 fineliners always looks fun because of the difference in thickness between them.  The fineliners lend themselves towards little details and patterns whereas the brush markers are great for swirling and swooping around the page.

Writing is a pretty big part of my life, I know I type my blog posts up on a laptop but they nearly always begin in a notebook or inside my planner!  I have written love letters and received them, I have kept cards from special birthdays and occasions over the years and now I can look back at them whenever I feel the need too.  Snail mail and pen pals brighten my days and I hope my letters are received in the same spirit.  Writing connects us all and gives us something physical to hold onto, it becomes a part of our own history and help us plan our futures too.     

Have a great National Stationery Week! 

Artline Tuesday - English Language Day

Today is English Language Day, a day to reflect on the all the things we love about our language and celebrate the written and spoken word.  I thought the best way I could do this would be to select some of my favourite quotes written by British authors and create a spread in my journal to mark the occasion!

Celebrating English Language Day

It feels like it has been ages since I have done any lettering so I dug out my Supreme brush markers and Artline 200 fineliners and started creating my pages.  For the title and date I used a blue fineliner to write the letters and numbers first.  Then I went back over the down strokes with my brush marker in the same colour blue ink to make them look thicker.  Doing the lettering this way was a good way to easy myself back into it as I haven't done any calligraphy practice for a while now and I'm definitely a bit rusty!

If you are just getting started with hand lettering this technique will give your writing the look of calligraphy while you are still learning all the strokes and what pressure to use for them.

Some of my favourite quotes by British authors

My second page is dominated with a quote from JRR Tolkien, I used the same trick to create this with my brush marker and matching fineliner and I'm really happy with how it turned out!

I decided to add a few doodles to the pages before I filled in the remaining space with lots and lots of quotes.  Some of them are from my favourite books and some I found while researching British authors.  I used lots of my fineliners to write the quotes and add some extra colour, I also wrote some of them in different directions to make the whole thing look a little more interesting.

My full spread celebrating the English Language

Have you heard of English Language Day before?  Will you be doing anything to celebrate today?

Thanks for stopping by!

National Stationery Week 2019 - the countdown begins!

Okay, so if you've been here a while you will know I absolutely LOVE National Stationery Week!  It is a week long celebration of all things stationery related and one of it's main aims is to get people writing and rediscover their love of pen and paper.  Well next Monday is the start of National Stationery Week 2019 and this will be my sixth year as a #NatStatWeek blogger!

Some of my NSW photos from the last five years

The sponsors this year are Derwent, Paperchase, Ryman and Stationery Supplies and starting on the 29th April each day of NSW has it's own special theme and hashtag which are listed in the image below....

This year's themes

If you want to get involved this year then here's some more information for you!

If you are a fellow blogger you can write about National Stationery Week and share the details with your followers.  You can review a new piece of stationery or share your favourite items on your blog and social media.  Make sure you use the hashtags too!

If you are a stationery lover then you can treat yourself to some new stationery and join in with the conversation and competitions online.  Also make sure you are following National Stationery Week on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and search for #natstatweek and the other hashtags in the image above.  I have made a note of them in my planner so I won't miss any of them!

If you are a stationery retailer there is a form you can fill in here to take part and give you access to campaign artwork and posters.  You can run special offers to celebrate NSW, host a giveaway or competition, create a special display (if you photograph it and send it to dan@smallmanmedia.com it might be featured on the NSW social media channels!) and join in with the fun online.

Right now I'm finalising my plans for next week, with a fancy pen and lovely notebook of course!  We are down to 6 and a half days until it begins and I, for one, can't wait!

Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Bloglovin' to make sure you don't miss anything and if you can't wait either then you can check out all my previous NSW posts here to keep you going until the 29th!

Artline Monday - Easter holiday activity

The Easter break has started and any day now you will probably hear the dreaded words "I'm bored!" so today I have a fun and easy activity you can do with your children to keep them occupied for an hour or two.... potato printing Easter eggs!

Now, I thought every young child had done some potato printing in the early years of school but my daughter is nearly eight and she had no idea what I was on about when I mentioned this to her!  Maybe teachers don't have time to carve potatoes for a class of 30 children anymore?  Who knows!  But it is still a great activity to do at home.

Potato printing supplies

You will need:

• Lots of paper
• A potato or two
• Artline poster markers (the chalk markers work well too)
• A knife for carving
• Kitchen roll for blotting and cleaning

When you are selecting your potatoes try to find oval/egg shaped ones, you can cut and trim them into shape but it's easier to start with a basic egg shape.

Carve patterns

Hold your potato upright as if it was an egg in an egg cup and then slice it in half top to bottom.  You can either carve some Easter egg style patters into the potato flesh yourself or give them to your children and let them design their own with a child friendly knife.  We went with stripes and tried to make some flower shapes on our second potato but they ended up looking more like splodges!

Adding the colour

Once you have your carved potatoes, blot them with kitchen roll to pull out some of the moisture before adding the paint.

Then it is time for your children to get creative, pass them the poster markers and let them paint their designs onto the potatoes.  

Ready to print

When the potato is coloured in they can turn it over and print the image onto their paper. 

Printed Easter egg

The children can remove any excess paint from the potatoes with the kitchen roll and then paint them again in different colours and repeat the process over and over.

More printing

We made lots of different colour Easter eggs with our potato "stamps" and had a lot of fun!  You could cut out the prints and use them to make Easter cards or decorations or your children could draw in some more details and patterns using fineliners and pens once the paints have dried.  My daughter carried on printing without me and made sheets and sheets of eggs which she has stuck up on her bedroom wall to decorate the room for Easter.  

Our colourful Easter eggs

If you are looking for more arts and crafts to do over the holidays check out these previous Artline posts for more ideas.

Have a very happy Easter and thanks for stopping by!

Artline Monday - Easter eggs

Decorating eggs for Easter has become a bit of a tradition in our house over the years so I always look forward to getting creative with my girls and our stash of Artline pens when the holiday rolls around.

Our eggs and supplies

We started off with a basket of cooled hard boiled eggs and a selection of Artline products.

The first egg we made is.... can you guess?  It's Mike Wazowski from Monsters inc!  My youngest daughter loves this guy, he always makes her laugh when we watch the Monsters films!

Monsters inc egg

She painted the whole egg green with a poster marker and then left it to dry for about 5 minutes.  I helped her draw the eye with a white paint marker, a blue Supreme permanent marker and a black Artline 853 OHP pen and then she added the smile and popped him back into the egg carton to finish drying.

Kawaii ice cream egg

My eldest daughter made this sweet kawaii style ice cream egg.  She drew a waffle cone pattern on the bottom half of the egg using an orange Artline 853 OHP pen and then coloured in the top half of the egg with a purple chalk marker to look like a scoop of ice cream.  Once the chalk was dry she added eyes, rosy cheeks and smile using a white paint marker, another Artline 853 OHP pen in black and a pink Supreme marker.

Ladybird egg

I couldn't resist making a ladybird egg, the design is really easy to do but it looks great.  I painted the egg red with a poster marker and then helped my girls with their eggs while mine dried.  Once it was completely dry I added details like the head, wings and spots using a black water colour marker and a white paint marker for the eyes. 

Minimalist calligraphy eggs

All the other designs are quite colourful and vibrant so I wanted to do something different with the last of our eggs.  I thought it would be nice to do something simple and minimalist so I just used a white paint marker  on these two and wrote "hello" on one egg and "spring" on the other one.  I also added some spots and dots for the finishing touch, I think they would look nice as part of a table centre piece for Easter.

Last year we made chicks, a flower basket and even a unicorn with our eggs, you can see them here if you need more inspiration!  School breaks up on Friday so this is the perfect activity to keep your children busy while they count down the days until they can devour their chocolate eggs!

Thanks for stopping by!

Artline Monday - Spring home & garden organisation

Spring always gives me the motivation to get cracking on things like tidying up the gardens after winter and tackling my house with a big spring clean, it is the perfect time to get back to basics and concentrate on things around your home.  With this in mind I thought I would share a few Artline products in today's post that are really handy to have around the house.

Handy pen's to have in your home

If you love cooking up a storm in the kitchen then the Artline 770 freezer bag marker is the pen for you!  

Perfect for batch cooking

It is perfect for writing on, well freezer bags (of course!), sandwich bags and all kinds of packaging and boxes so whatever you want to mark up and pop into the deep freeze this pen has got you covered. The 770 also writes clearly on greasy surfaces and can withstand sub-zero storage unlike other pens.

When I get the chance I make up big batches of things like chilli and bolognese and then freeze them in smaller portions for when my kids all want something different to eat.  I use the freezer marker to label the bags with what is inside them and the date they were made and frozen.  It kind of makes me feel like a domestic goddess to look in the freezer and see bags of homemade food, even though I am really not one!

Getting the garden ready

If spring makes you want to get outside and enjoy the sunshine then doing some gardening is a good way to pass the time.  Whether you are planting seeds, bulbs, flowers or vegetables the Artline 780 garden marker is the right tool for the job.  It dries instantly and is waterproof and UV fade resistant so whatever the weather this ink can handle it all.  The pen can be used on lots of different surfaces too like plastic, wood, metal, glass and porcelain.

Keep your private information private

Do you receive a lot of junk mail in the post?  I feel like I am forever finding useless brochures and marketing materials being put through my door.  To make matters worse they all seem to have my full name and address on them so I can't just throw them into the recycling bin.  If you're in the same boat then you need one of these Artline secure markers to hide your personal information!  The black ink obscures anything you want to keep private and it is completely opaque once it has dried.  Scribble over the text you want to redact and then the paper can be recycled, problem solved!

Labelling with the Artline 750 Laundry marker

If you have children in school then this Artline 750 laundry marker is a godsend!  If you labelled all your children's uniform, PE kits, swim kits, bags and coats in September with this pen then they should all still be clear and readable, but if your children are anything like mine then they have probably lost or outgrown at least one or two pieces since the start of the school year.  If you have replaced anything grab this pen and write their names and classes etc on the labels and fingers crossed they will make it the end of the school year!

Which of these pens do you think would be the most useful for you?