I was on the fence about reviewing these Travelers Notebook 10th Anniversary Mini Edition notebooks (via Amazon) because my initial reason for the purchase was more for a personal reason rather than for the site, but once I had them in my hands I couldn’t help but want to share with everyone because they are just pretty darn awesome.  Hopefully you can still grab some for yourself since its a limited edition release, but if that link to Amazon doesn’t yield results, and your favorite stationery shop doesn’t have them it looks like eBay still has some to offer as well.

Each of these mini Travelers Notebook 10th Anniversary notebooks comes in a collectible tin which can also store the refills for a regular size version of the Travelers Notebook.  When I purchased my Travelers Notebook 10th Anniversary Mini Edition notebooks, I only got the black and brown versions, but note that there is a lighter brown version called Camel that comes in a blue tin.  The Camel version is a lighter brown or tan version of this mini notebook, but personally I just don’t like that color and I read other reviews that it doesn’t handle wear as well because its more susceptible to picking up dirt and stains.

Inside the tin for these Travelers Notebook 10th Anniversary Mini Edition notebooks you will find three main components as well as a sheet of stickers, which is seen underneath in the above picture.  The three main components from top to bottom are the leather notebook cover (top, wrapped in cardboard), the medallion or charm (middle), and the package of paper (bottom) for the innards of the notebook.

Once you remove the cardboard covering from the Travelers Notebook 10th Anniversary Mini Edition notebook, you are presented with a mini canvas bag that houses the leather notebook cover.

I’ve already shared a picture of what the outside of the Travelers Notebook 10th Anniversary Mini Edition Inside Leather Cover looks like above, so here is a picture of the inside of the leather cover.  Each leather cover has an elastic band closure that is attached and wraps around the mini notebook horizontally and there is also an adjustable string that can act as a page finder or key chain loop.

Although the front of each cover on the Travelers Notebook 10th Anniversary Mini Edition is blank, the back side has some branding and the 10th anniversary text proudly displayed.  Its pretty hard to do any sort of subtle text or branding on such a tiny notebook.

Here is one slightly more close up picture of the back cover.  No real reason for this picture other than the fact that I liked how it came out and it showed some nice detail on how the text is embossed in the back and how the elastic closure is attached as well.

The other two components that I mentioned previously are displayed here in this photo.  The Travelers Notebook 10th Anniversary Mini Edition comes with three sets of paper for writing as well as a cover page, a set of thicker cardboard stock, and a set of brown craft paper sheets.  There are 10 cover sheets, 5 sheets of white graph paper, 5 sheets of white ruled paper, 5 sheets of blank white paper, 5 sheets of cream graph paper, 5 sheets of cream ruled paper, 5 sheets of blank cream paper, 5 sheets of brown kraft paper, and 10 cardboard cover inserts. Also pictured here is the charm or medallion.

Each sheet of paper, whether graph, ruled, or blank measures 44mm x 41 mm, but keep in mind these will be shortly folded in half in order to make up the innards of your mini Travelers notebook.  Also the picture with the quarter on top of the full unfolded sheet of graph paper should give you some perspective on just how tiny these notebooks are.

An important thing to note before you actually assemble your Travelers Notebook 10th Anniversary Mini Edition is that inside it comes with a very helpful full size diagram of the paper layout.  The 41mm x 44mm page layout is visually very easy to mistake for being a perfect square, but obviously that is not the case.  Before you go ahead and take the irreversible step of folding your sheets (they recommend 5 sheets) in half, use the included guide to make sure you have the longer 44mm side acting as the horizontal axis.  The picture above intentionally shows the page misaligned to point out the difference between the dimensions.  Remember, always measure twice and cut (or in this case fold) once.

Once you have your paper properly aligned, go ahead and make that crease that will act as your reference point for the stapled binding in a moment.

Now that you have your pages, cover sheet, and cardboard backing folded, its time to take the final step of stapling your notebook innards together.  You can get away with using a standard stapler if you wish, but in keeping with the whole mini theme, I figured I’d go with mini staples as well.  I used my mini Max Sakuri Flat Stapler (via Amazon) that uses the smaller No. 10 size staples.

Once stapled, slip the paper innards under the inside elastic strap and there you have your completed Travelers Notebook 10th Anniversary Mini Edition ready for use!  Probably the most awesome little notebook in the world.  Oh, but lets talk writing samples and practicality.

Travelers Notebook 10th Anniversary Mini Edition Writing Sample:

The Travelers Notebook 10th Anniversary Mini Edition is cute and unique, but it doesn’t mean that we can bypass thinking about its functionality and the writing experience.  From a practical sense, its easier to write in the notebook if its not inserted in the leather cover, because the elastic bands get in the way a little bit.  Overall though your best bet is to go with a micro tip gel ink pen, which is what I did with a Uniball Signo UM-151 .28 mm.

I was going to use an EF fountain pen, but the relatively huge barrel and grip sizes of my EF fountain pens compared to the slim body of the UM-151 just didn’t feel comfortable for getting into the tiny pages of this notebook.  Overall the paper handled this pen well, keeping in mind that depending on the resolution of the screen you are reading this on, that scan of the writing sample above is magnified by about 6 times its original size.  Like I said, these are awesome and can make for a great little gift, check them out  (via Amazon) or if you missed the boat there on these limited editions be sure to give eBay a shot.

©2017, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.