Get the exclusive (almost) Weekly Digest.

    School Prep: Watercolor Notebooks

    July 16, 2013 by Brandy Vencel

    It’s that time of year again! Yesterday I bought books, books, and more books. Now, I’m onto my supplies list. Are you getting some planning done this week, too? I must make hay while the sun shines–there is so much to do and so little time in which to get it done.

    Today I found what I have been looking for for months. It’s these:

    They used to sell these at our local store, but I haven’t been able to find them lately. I really like the spiral binding–it allows the pages to lay flat while we paint. I love the hard cover, which protects the book from the trials of the journey.

    These are what we have used for our inconsistent habit of nature study journaling.

    I needed a new one for myself, plus one for my brand new Year One student, Q-Age-Six. It’s a tradition around here that you paint on random sheets of watercolor paper until you commence Year One, at which point you receive your very own nature journal. The children love this. Oh, they still use watercolor paper for indoor practice, but these journals are just the ticket for our outdoor explores.



    Get the (almost) weekly digest!

    Weekly encouragement, direct to your inbox, (almost) every Saturday.

    Powered by ConvertKit
    Print Friendly, PDF & Email

    7 Comments

  • Reply Hayley Beck July 24, 2013 at 5:30 am

    Brandy, what do you use for water colour paints? Anything in particular?

    • Reply Brandy Vencel July 24, 2013 at 3:48 pm

      I have not spent money on expensive ones, though I hear that they are really nice. My best “investment” yet has been to use Michael’s 40% off coupons to buy the big Artist Loft sets. The thing about water colors is that if the little well the dry paint is in is small, it runs out so quickly that you end up buying more and more. Artist Loft makes some small ones, but they also make some classroom sets that have wells that are twice as big, plus the paint seems to go far, so I really do love these.

      With that said, I’ve seen some nice travel sets with refillable paints that I’m thinking about for Christmas, at least for my two older children.

      By the way, I’m not ignoring your email, just waiting until after my MIL leaves and I have more time on the computer…

  • Reply Ann-Marie July 17, 2013 at 1:29 pm

    Those look lovely, Brandy! Love the idea of a travel watercolor journal too. Do you know how many pages does it has?

    • Reply Brandy Vencel July 17, 2013 at 1:58 pm

      Ha! This is the one issue…they haven’t arrived yet, so I don’t know for sure. The listing on Amazon doesn’t say. They look so exactly like what we had before that I’m hoping it is exactly the same. The ones we’ve used in the past have 20 pages, with pages so thick that you can use both sides.

    • Reply Brandy Vencel July 18, 2013 at 4:52 am

      Ann-Marie! They arrived in the mail today, and they are thicker than our last ones–24 pages! And the pages really *are* thick enough to do double sides if you like. FYI. 🙂

  • Reply Jane Jasmine July 17, 2013 at 12:17 am

    Love the nature journaling books! Would love to find some like those…care to share where you got them? 🙂

    • Reply Brandy Vencel July 17, 2013 at 1:57 pm

      Hi Jane. 🙂 If you click the picture, it’ll take you there. I meant to do a text link also, but I don’t know what happened! Sorry! I’ll try and fix that later…

    Leave a Reply