Today’s National Stationery Week theme is #StationeryShopSaturday and I’m so excited to shine the spotlight on one of my favourite suppliers: Under the Rowan Trees. Danielle stocks loads of top brands, from Archer and Olive to Zebra, as well as her own stationery subscription box, which supports British artists and designers.
She stays up to date with trends so stationery addicts can find everything they need in her online store, including the new Pentel Brush Sign shades, those Chameleon fineliners, and the Kaweco Frosted Sport fountain pen, as well as one of my absolute favourite bullet journals, the new Rhodia Goalbook (review here).
We’ve both been learning to letter and she sent me a fantastic bundle of products to help me with my progress.
Let’s take a closer look, shall we? We’ll start with the fineliners. The Gelly Rolls and the Pigma Micron PNs were available to have a play with at a workshop at last year’s Stationery Show. Here are some old pics.
They’re both by Sakura and are great additions to any bullet journalist’s stash. (Journaler? Journalist? This continues to bug me!)
The Pigmas are permanent and water-resistant, with a fine to medium width (0.4-0.5mm). I love this shade of blue and it has a smooth flow, making it a winner in my book. I think I’m gonna need more colours – fortunately there are eight available. And the Gelly Roll, wow! Do you see that sparkle? I really want to get a black out journal so I can play with more of these. The Moonlight pack has already caught my eye.
The Copic Doodle Pack is currently on sale and I highly recommend treating yourself. Available in blue or pink, each pack features two different Ciao markers, a glitter pen, and a multiliner.
I’m loving the Ciaos – they have a brush tip on one end and a chisel tip on the other. Plus they’re refillable (gold star for sustainability). And do you see how juicy they are? They give the Ecolines a run for their money. The multiliner is probably my favourite product in the pack though and I’ve added this to my bujo stash. The glitter pen took a while to get going for me and is a bit faint in the ol’ Archer & Olive, so I’ll find a different use for this one.
Want to take a look inside the Kirsten Burke book? I’ve already started having a play with her A Year in Calligraphy, but it’s always good to go back to basics. This book is ideal for anyone just starting to use brush pens, looking at strokes and the alphabet, before moving on to small projects.
The quality of the book is fantastic and you can use your brush pens in it without worrying about bleed or ghosting. I’m definitely faring a lot better with the tracing rather than the freehand but practise makes progress! It’s also a slightly different style to what I’m learning with Milly from Blink Lettering and I’m looking forward to developing my own style.
Danielle also stocks Kirsten’s Secrets of Modern Calligraphy, a practice pad, and the Little Book of Calming Calligraphy.
Now for the Tombows. A lot of my lettering practise has been with the previously mentioned Pentel Brush Sign pens and I’d been a bit intimidated by the larger tip of the Tombow ABT. As my confidence is growing I’m looking to try new projects and I wanted to have a go at blending. The blending of the pink and blue below was achieved by the typical ‘tip-to-tip’ blend, but I wanted to try something which I saw Calligralicious do.
This was my first attempt at blended lettering and I was quite impressed. Joy is still my favourite word to letter, especially when trying anything new. I’ve been using the Ecoline paper, which is perfect for this. When I’ve practiced a bit more I’ll add some to my bujo.
Then I kicked it up a notch and pondered little designs which I could add to lettering. I’m not at all artistic so wanted to keep it simple. I’m loving these blends and find it so therapeutic to sit down and have a play. I can even get away with doing this during lockdown and sit with Jenson to colour and paint.
I really wanted to create some sort of ocean/heart image to letter ‘vitamin sea’ over the top of and ended up with this, which I don’t think is too bad for a first attempt.
I’m too scared to write over the top though! Fortunately you can pencil over the top and rub it out when you’re done without destroying the colour, so I’ll have a go when I’m feeling more brave!
For now, I’m loving the blending process and mixing things up. I added the blue in the pack to a different shade of blue from my stash and I love the ocean vibes. When my skills have improved a bit I think I’m going to have a go at creating a new blog header. And do you think adding the purple gives it a bit of a mermaid vibe? The pink and blue is a better attempt at the unicorn lettering I tried here.
I definitely want to grow my collection and already have my eye on the Greenery and Sunset packs.
Want to win a Tombow beginners lettering set and a copy of Kirsten Burke’s book? Of course you do! Just complete the Gleam entries below to be in with a chance.
NSW20 Under the Rowan Trees lettering giveaway
Terms and conditions: Giveaway closes at midnight on Friday 1 May. One winner will be selected at random and contacted directly. Open to international entries.
Good luck!
Don’t forget to check out the rest of my National Stationery Week posts. Giveaways include bullet journals, watercolours, office essentials, and fountain pens!
Monday: Bullet journals from Port West
Tuesday: Watercolours from Executive Pens Direct
Wednesday: Colourful essentials from Premier Stationery
Thursday: Let’s get creative with Maped Helix
Friday: Fountain Pen Friday with Pilot Pen
Thanks for your helpful reviews 😊
I just found Rowan Tree and has the prettiest watercolour palette sent.
Such a great site ❤️🤓
This is a fabulous giveaway
Wow I would to be able to just 1 tenth of what you can do xx
Wow this is amazing fingers crossed 😍😍😍🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞
I love the blended lettering and the hearts.
I’ve been doing Blink Lettering m’s brush skills & letter pack since you posted about it last month & this book looks like it would complement it beautifully!
Live these soooo much!
Wow, what a fabulous giveaway! 👌🌈😊
Oooh these are so pretty. I have a Coptic doodle pack (from Under the Rowsn Trees of course) and it’s fab. Loving that Tombow blended letters, I’ve never had the courage to try them, so lovely!
They’re great aren’t they 🤓 Highly recommend having a play ❤️
Ooh love the copic marker pack colours and brush lettering book!
What a lovely set!
This looks great! Loving your artwork 🙂
Thanks ❤️ I like to document my progress 🤓
Wow, this looks amazing! Need to get back to practicing my lettering. X
Beautiful lettering – I would love this prize to practice and try to perfect my lettering! 🤞🏻
Looks amazing! Need to get back to practicing my lettering. X
I’m finding it so helpful at the moment ❤️
This look great to experiment with!
These look like great pens and a great book to use, beautiful art could be created.
Lots of fantastic ideas and inspiration here. Thank you for sharing!
I need to get more into calligraphy, we recently had a beginners tutorial at my work as I am a graphic designer at a packaging design agency and loved it! I just need to practise more and this would be amazing to help me do this!
It’s definitely one of those things you need to work at but it’s so much fun ❤️🤓
This would be awesome. Just purchased my first order from Under the Rowan tree and getting addicted to stationary and lettering. Fingers crossed. 😉
I approve 😉 Welcome to the club ❤️
Lovely colours and great giveaway.
Would love to learn lettering!
It’s so much fun ❤️🤓
This is beautiful emma thank you for the chance.
I love lettering.
Wow such a lot of detail on each product. I have really been enjoying discovering different pens and learning v slowly to letter thanks to Milly this month.
Same ❤️ I’ve found slowing down really helpful.
Omg I love it, I’d never be able to do this, but one can hope right? ❤️ I’d love to have a chance of winning the giveaway
Anyone can do it with practise 😊 You only need to look at my IG highlights to see what I was like when I started
Another amazing giveaway, thanks for the chance to win
The blended letters look fab.
Such a great overview!!
I would be really interested to try calligraphy.
This set looks amazing! Loved looking through your experiments. Some great inspiration there!
All of these look amazing! I love the sakura gelly rolls too but am yet to try that pretty tombow set, or read any of Kirsten Burke’s books! Thank you for all the amazing reviews! 😍
Thank you!
This looks a fabulous giveaway!
Such a gorgeous set, would love to win it
So many beautiful items available from Under The Rowan Tree!