Best Stationery Finds: Notebooks, Pens, and Art Supplies Worth Trying

Introduction

Some years in stationery are about big upgrades, and some are about quietly finding the tools you actually reach for every day. This roundup gathers the notebooks, pens, storage solutions, and art supplies that earned a permanent spot on the desk this year, each one with a clear reason to recommend it.

Notebooks: A5 Portability vs B5 Capacity

The Leuchtturm1917 A5 dotted journal proved to be the perfect transition back to a smaller format. After years of using larger B5 notebooks, the A5 struck the right balance: light enough to carry to the office or while traveling, without feeling cramped. Even with stickers and washi tape added inside, it stays slim and easy to bring along.

The trade-off becomes obvious when you compare it with the Archer and Olive B5 bullet journal. With watercolor paper pasted in for monthly cover pages and plenty of images added over time, the B5 grows genuinely thick and heavy. It remains the better choice for creative spreads where you want room to work and durable paper for mixed media, but it is not the notebook to toss in a bag every morning.

Storage and Organization

A spinning caddy from Walmart turned out to be one of the most practical desk upgrades of the year. Priced between $10 and $20, it offers seven compartments, six around the outside and one cup in the center, with enough room for colored pencils, fineliners, scissors, a craft knife, tape runners, and binder clips. The rotating base means everything is one spin away.

For pen storage, clear acrylic pen cubes purchased in a set of six solved a nagging problem: many pens should be stored horizontally to keep ink from drying out or clogging the tips. Each cube creates triangular slots, and six stacked cubes provide 24 individual compartments that look tidy on a shelf.

Similar acrylic cubes are still widely available online even if that exact listing has disappeared, so it is easy to replicate this setup.

Stickers and Washi Tape

The BGM iide holographic sticker set in the nature collection delivers delicate, whimsical detail with holographic foil accents. Each set includes three sheets: one with fruits and foliage, one with birds, florals, books, and an ink bottle motif, and one with landscapes like mountains and trees. Because they sit on transparent paper and stay thin, they add minimal bulk to journal pages. More varieties exist beyond the nature collection, and they are available through specialty stationery retailers.

The Marx maste perforated washi tape in the watercolor selection is a three-roll set covering three distinct looks: a full watercolor background in pink, a single dab of watercolor, and an actual brush stroke. The perforations let you tear off pieces like stickers, and the tape is writable, so it works for titles, headers, or doodling on top of the watercolor shapes.

That combination of beauty and flexibility is what keeps this set in constant rotation on journal pages.

Pens and Pencils

A tiny surprise favorite: the Pilot FriXion stamp in red, shaped like a play button. It is perfect for quickly marking scheduled entries in a bullet journal, adding a pop of color where a hand-drawn icon used to take time. Because it belongs to the FriXion line, the impressions can be erased with a FriXion eraser. Pilot also offers other designs like emoji and facial-expression stamps in different colors.

The Tombow Mono Graph mechanical pencil and eraser duo in mint feels refreshing and practical in equal measure. The pencil includes a clever lock mechanism: press the clip to release the lead, and slide it back up to lock it in place so it cannot extend or retract while traveling. The Mono eraser erases with very little pressure and its dust clumps together, keeping debris to a few easy-to-clear strands.

The uniball One line stands out for its beautifully dusty, muted color range and a black ink that is darker and more opaque than many other gel pens. Ink flow is consistently smooth and easy to write with, making these a dependable choice for daily journaling.

The uniball One P takes the same ink formula and wraps it in a shorter, chubbier body designed to reduce hand fatigue during longer writing sessions. It is charmingly compact, though the smaller barrel does not fit standard pen loops.

The uni Jetstream in 0.5mm converted a longtime ballpoint skeptic. Where typical ballpoints skip and write inconsistently, the Jetstream glides smoothly and evenly, with a writing feel remarkably close to a gel pen even if the ink is not quite as dark. It is easily the most pleasant ballpoint writing experience on this list.

Fountain Pens

The TWSBI Eco is the best fountain pen tried so far, largely because you fill it with bottled ink yourself rather than buying cartridges. That syringe-style filling makes the experience more personal, and the extra-fine nib writes beautifully. The clear body shows the internal mechanisms, and the twist-off design feels more secure for travel than a friction cap, protecting the nib from accidental detachment.

The Pilot Metropolitan, picked up earlier in the year, feels more luxurious in the hand and is a solid alternative, though it requires separate ink cartridges rather than bottled filling. For anyone starting with fountain pens, both represent approachable entry points with distinct personalities.

Highlighters, Brush Pens, and Markers

The Zebra Mildliners neutral set delivers five gorgeous earthy shades that feel far more refined than typical vibrant highlighter palettes. They are pigmented yet soft on the page, which makes them a favorite for journal entries and book annotation alike. This neutral pack has been the most-used Mildliner set so far.

For brush pens, the Sailor Shikiori line earns the top spot for both formulation and color range. The shades are inspired by the seasons and lean into earthy jewel tones and dusty soft neutrals that other brush pen lines often miss. The brush nib is flexible without being too soft, which makes these genuinely beginner friendly, and the double-ended design pairs a brush tip for lettering and larger fills with a fine tip for journaling and doodling.

The Zebra ClickArt markers have a signature quirk: once dry, the ink looks slightly raised, almost like a painted, subtly three-dimensional texture similar to a paint pen finish. Beyond that distinctive look, they come in a huge color variety including many soft, muted shades, and they write with richly pigmented, vibrant ink that makes them fun to use daily.

Conclusion

The common thread across these picks is practicality with personality: a notebook sized for real life, storage that keeps pens in good condition, and inks and colors in muted, usable shades. If any single item here matches a gap in your own setup, each one has proven itself through months of actual daily use rather than novelty.