I discovered the Printfresh brand when I was doing my Christmas shopping several months ago. I was in a lovely gift shop in Mt. Kisco, NY called Porch, and among their many nice things, I saw a beautiful chunky journal with a velvet cover. My usual tastes in notebooks tend to run towards minimal designs, but this one was an eye-catching exception. I contacted the manufacturer and they were kind enough to send me not only a sample of the velvet notebook, but a big box of other products for me to review and share with some lucky winners!

Velvet Journal

The Velvet journal has a beautiful indigo tie-dye pattern. This one is called Shibori Stripe, inspired by Japanese textiles. This small size measures about 4 x 6″, but it’s quite thick so will fit better in a bag than a pocket. There is a pretty big cover overhang but it kind of goes with the thickness and square corners.

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When you open the journal, the binding feels quite stiff. This would be the main downside to this notebook– it is difficult to open flat due to the square spine. Repeated flexing helps, but I did worry the spine would break or tear. Inside, the endpapers are made of a lovely paper with bits of flowers throughout. There is a ribbon marker (an unusual metallic braid with a knot at the end) but no back pocket.

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The 360 pages are lined, with the lines ending within the page, and larger margins at the top and bottom. The paper feels smooth and medium weight. I expected it to have a lot of bleed-through, but was pleasantly surprised to see that it actually performs quite well with most fountain pens. A few were a bit feathery, but there was almost no bleed-through.

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Overall, this journal is lovely and will please most fountain pen users except for the difficulty in opening the pages flat. The list price for this small journal is $20, which is a little on the high side but it really is a beautiful, gifty object. Various designs are available on Amazon for $18.

Leather Marbled Sketchbook & Journal

The larger version of the leather sketchbooks made me say “Wow.” At 8.75×12.25″, it is a generously sized and substantial book, and I’ve never encountered a marbleized painted leather cover like this. The cover is really beautiful. There is a line of stitching on the back cover, perhaps just because it is easier for them to use two separate pieces of leather to bind such a large sketchbook– the smaller leather journals don’t have the stitching (I didn’t unwrap or test the smaller journal).

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When you open it up, you are greeted by beautiful endpapers too, as well as a black ribbon marker (but no back pocket).

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The paper inside is a creamy white, fairly smooth. The weight is not specified but it is not very thick. Here again fountain pens work fairly well with no bleedthrough but some feathering. I did not test watercolor paints but this paper is probably better for dry media.

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At $38, this is more expensive than a hardcover sketchbook from Stillman & Birn or Moleskine, but those brands don’t have the luxurious leather cover. Many leather covered sketchbooks in this size are at least this price or more. Again, this sketchbook from PrintFresh offers a distinctive and gifty package that sets it apart. Available for purchase on Amazon.

Wire-O Bound Notebook

I love wire-o bindings for work notebooks, where I want to have the option of folding the cover back. These have a fun pattern on the cover, stamped in gold to match the wire. The pages within are lined and perforated for easy removal. I did not do pen tests on the wire-o notebook. The list price of this notebook is $13. Similar designs are available on Amazon.

Conclusion

Printfresh notebooks are indeed fresh! Their designs are lovely and make these journals and sketchbooks special gifts for notebook collectors who already have all the run of the mill brands, or for anyone whose creativity is inspired by a colorful, attractive design. Be sure to check out the Printfresh website for their full line of products.

Giveaway!

Thanks to the generosity of the folks at Printfresh, I have quite a few samples to give away to some lucky readers!

Five winners will each get one Printfresh notebook. Please note that prizes can be mailed to US addresses only. Winners will be randomly selected from entries received in any of these ways:

On Twitter, tweet something containing “Printfresh Notebook @NotebookStories”, and follow @NotebookStories .

On Facebook, “like”  the Notebook Stories page and the Printfresh page, and post something containing the words “Printfresh Notebook” on the Notebook Stories page.

On your blog, post something containing the words “Printfresh Notebook” and “Notebook Stories” and link back to this post, also leaving a comment below with the link in case the trackback doesn’t work.

On Instagram, follow @Notebook.Stories and @Printfresh, and comment on my Printfresh post, tagging a friend and adding a hashtag of your favorite adjective describing the Printfresh notebook, journal or sketchbook. (Example: “@myfriendsally #velvetcover”)

The deadline for entry is Friday March 29, 2019 at 11:59PM, EST. Good luck everyone!

I received free samples to review but no other compensation. All opinions are my own.