Review: Daycraft Animaland 2013 Diary - Elephant

You may have noticed a lot of Daycraft diary reviews in the blog-verse recently! Well, that's because 2013 is coming up fast and Daycraft has a great selection of planners to suit anyone - be it smart looking planners, or absurdly cute planners.

Mr. Lee generously sent me an Animaland 2013 Diary in the Elephant design, and a Signature 2013 A6 Diary in green. I decided to do the Animaland diary first because it's my favorite!

Animaland 2013 Diary - Elephant

Features 

• Yellow/Elephant
• Laminated pearl paper cover
• 106mm x 150mm
• 216 pages
• 60 gsm paper
• Week-to-view
• International holidays
• Nutritional labeling information
• Gift ideas
• 71-week planner (from August 27, 2012 to January 5, 2014)
• Sticker attached

Wow. That's a pretty extensive list of features in this tiny little diary. Not bad tiny though! I mean, compact and well-designed tiny.

This adorable diary is very pretty and very cute! The pearly yellow cover is very attractive, and the entire design is heartwarming and cheery. The cover is firm and the pages are bound to the covers so the whole diary can open easily without breaking the spine. It does lie flat! This is something special for a hardcover notebook to lie flat!

Inside, each week is laid across two pages. Saturday and Sunday, as usual, share a space. This may be something you don't care about, or if you usually need a lot of weekend planning space, this may drive you nuts. I am easily able to overlook this because I'm in love with the diary otherwise. It's just too cute for words!

The paper is not fountain pen friendly. Wet inks such as liquid inks and Sakura-type craft pens will bleed through and show through, but normal gel pens, pencils, and ballpoints will be just fine. Gel highlighters would be the way to go as well.

Colors look great on this paper.

Bleed through with liquid inks.

Each month has its own drawing and a color theme, as well as a little doodle on the Wednesday of each week.

There are a few perforated pages at the back that look like little gift tags. I have no idea what their intended use is but I'd say they'd be perfect for leaving someone special a little note!

Okay. The pièce de resistance of this diary is without a doubt the stickers. Oh. My. God. You know I'm sticker crazed, right? Well, I didn't even realize there were stickers in here until I opened it up and out fell these adorable. Whimsical. Ridiculously cute. Little sticker sheet. I wish there were like five sticker sheets, but alas, I will settle happily for one. I love love love that Daycraft made stickers for the Animaland series. Why you'd want any other series at this point, I cannot imagine.

Because this diary is very slim and has a firm cover, it's ideal for a purse or bag. It's almost pocket sized but is just a wee bit bigger. I really like its size - it's very comfortable to write in and to hold. As mentioned by Life Imitates Doodles, an elastic closure would be great on this diary.

Price
Animaland 2013 Diary - Elephant - ~ $15.00 USD (or $119 HKD)

Daycraft offers free worldwide shipping. That's a pretty awesome deal! Pay attention to what language you want to order, as well as color and size.
Overall
Daycraft makes lovely products - they make a range of notebooks and diaries in a variety of designs that will please almost anyone! They're simple, look good, and are well designed. While Daycraft diaries have paper that is not fountain pen friendly, they can be both whimsical and sweet, or classy and refined. 

I realize the Animaland diaries may be too much for some folks to bear, but I also know it's going to win a lot of you over!