While at the Chicago Planner Conference last week, I was able to pick up some sample products from Happy Planner. I got a discbound notebook, some stickers and folder extras. I was familiar with Happy Planner as I’ve often heard other people mention them and had seen some of their products stocked in places like big box craft stores.
Happy Planner Happy Notes Classic Dotted Lined Notebook
The Happy Notes notebook I received is the Simple Sprigs design (on sale for $8.39) and is the Happy Planner CLASSIC size (7.5″ x 9″) which, on the website, is actually the medium size. There is also a MINI (4.625” x 7”) and a BIG (8.5″ x 11″). Prices for the notebooks range between $6 to $24 depending on size and if its on sale.
Each notebook comes with 60 pages of pre-printed paper and three matching tabs to help organize your notebook. The covers are laminated card stock and printed with matching designs on the front and back making it possible to reverse the cover if I want to “mix it up”.
The dividers match the aesthetic of the cover and the designs on the paper. This particular notebook has a sweet, cottage core vibe. The cover has some gold foil accents on the leafy pattern.
The discs are a simple grey color and the centers are punched with a heart shape. Discs can be changed out or upgraded as needed. There are aluminum discs as well as plastic discs and in a range of sizes. I should not have looked at all the options because some are so cool — ghost cut out, tortoise shell and glittery styles!
There are phrases printed on the paper and tabs that is designed to be inspiring and uplifting. I’m a salty human that tends to roll my eyes at “stay kind” and “dream big” messages but the flowers are pretty and honestly, right now, I probably need more positivity and less grumpiness so I’m going to embrace the messaging instead of covering them up with washi tape.
Each page is printed with light grey dotted lines. I don’t usually go in for lined paper but the lines are really light, lighter even than shown in the photo below, and is just enough to keep text tidy without being too distracting.
I could not find any specific information about the type of paper used in the notebook but it felt like it might be fountain pen friendly.
With fountain pens on this paper, only about 50% of the fountain pens behaved appropriately. Anything wider than an EF or Japanese F had issues with bleeding and feathering. Despite some wonky behavior of the fountain pens, there wasn’t terrible bleed or show through on the back. But I don’t think the notebook was ever designed to be used with fountain pens.
Most of the gel, rollerball, felt tip and brush pens behaved appropriately and had very little bleeding or show through on the back of the paper.
The great thing about the Happy Planner notebook is that you can also purchase refill papers and fill your notebook with different designs and layouts without being stuck in a bound book. You can also remove and rearrange pages and dividers at will. This feature should not be overlooked. It essentially makes the covers reuasable and other papers can be added to the notebook with a simple paper punch.
Happy Planner Plastic Envelopes (Set of 3)
I also received a set of the three plastic envelopes, The Breathe Live Explore set (on sale for $4.99), which include hole punches to fit snap into the discs in a Happy Planner. Happy Planner uses the same mushroom shaped punches that other discbound planners use so these envelopes might fit into other notebooks or planners as well.
The envelopes are only about 3.25″ wide and will hold receipts and other small bits of paper but it is pretty narrow and does not accommodate their Classic Sticker Sheets which seems like an oversight.
The envelopes are pretty and feel durable and I love adding things to my notebooks and planners that help keep me organized and tidy but I wonder if these are more aesthetic than functional since they are so slim.
Happy Planner Classic Sticker Sheets
I was most familiar with the Happy Planner Classic Sticker Books. These tall slim books (9″ x 4.75″) include approximately 30 pages with dozens of stickers on each page in a specific theme or style with prices ranging from about $19-$25 at full price and on sale for as little as $6 for older designs.
The sticker book I received is the “Shibori” collection (on sale for $11.99) with includes a lot of indigo blue patterns and designs. The overall effect felt more like Greek terrazzo tiles than Japanese Shibori.
Some of the stickers included a lovely copper foil stamping but most of the sticker pages are litho print only. All are kiss cut.
The stickers are designed to work with and fit into the size and shapes of the standard Happy Planners and notebooks but can be used in other books if your choose.
There are some simple stickers with messages like “due” or “plan” but others have inspiring messages. If messaging is not your thing, be sure to look through the sticker book images to see how many wordy stickers are in the set. I’m not a big Disney fan but the Disney Good vs. Evil sticker set has some messaging stickers that are more in line with my salty outlook with messages.
Conclusion
I’d say the paper in the Happy Planner notebook performed adequately for the price point and the customers it was designed for. Its acceptable. I will probably continue to use the notebook for project planning and various notes and an excuse to use my massive collection of non-fountain pens. I wish the paper was more fountain pen friendly but the designs are cute and the price is good, especially since the system in modular. I can always use the covers and fill the notebook with my own papers.
The Plastic Envelopes are pretty but not as useful as I had hoped but, dang, are they cute! And finally, the sticker set is a good value. If you find a set that taps into your favorite look or aesthetic, than they are a good value.
My final perspective is that I had always overlooked Happy Planner because I had seen them in big box craft stores and assumed it was cheap junk but I am pleased to discover that the products are well-designed, pretty and overall good quality. In today’s economy, its kind of a delight to see such quality products that are available at reasonable prices and accessible in store and online.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Happy Planner for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
ED Note: Notebook sizes corrected 11/19/24
I’m a big fan of discbound notebooks, first getting started with Levenger’s Circa line of products, and then discovering the extremely smooth paper by ATOMA. While I don’t have any Happy Planner selections, this gives me some encouragement to try them out! Thanks so much for sharing this!
p.s.
I’m going to go nuts if you don’t tell me what that red swirl striped pen is at the bottom of the last picture…?… I’m searching around and don’t see anything like this…. hmmmm….
That is the Morning Glory 0.28 liquid ink needle tip. Was available on JetPens but may have been a special design. Nice rollerball.
Is it durable? I e always wondered if those disc planners can be thrown in your backpack and carted around or if they need to live on a desk. What keeps the discs from falling out?
The laminated covers help keep the discs from moving too much. The little mushroom punched areas also grip onto the discs so it feels pretty sturdy. At potentially $10 or so, it seems like a decent gamble to try it out.
I bought my first Happy Planner on sale this past summer to try out. Similar to you, I found that the paper in the planner does fairly well with my fountain pens, but I mostly have F and EF. Gel pens also are great. I’m a huge fan of discbound notebooks and have bunches of them.
I solved the narrowness of the envelopes by cutting my sticker sheets in half.
BTW, the sizes you said at the top are incorrect. You received the Classic size, which is the medium of the three. The Big size is closest to letter, Classic is medium and similar to B5/composition, and the Mini is the smallest size.
Ah! I mixed up the names. I’ll correct it in the review