The First Weeks-sized K-planner book!

2024 PHYSICAL BOOK from CREFFECTIVEPAPER.COM

CLICK HERE TO SHOP THE BOOK

THIS IS A PRE-ORDER

WHO IS CREFFECTIVEPAPER.COM?

Creffective paper is a (mostly) digital printable shop catering to ring planners of all sizes. It is owned and maned by Jade in South Korea. She is a small business that I love supporting (even before I PR’d for her). Jade’s designs have two of the design qualities I love: ELEGANT & FUNCTIONAL. It’s very easy to lean towards either one. For example, popular minimalist shops like Cloth and Paper and 8lotus have beautiful and elegant designs. However, I personally find them leaning a lot towards elegant. I still really love my 8lotus printable inserts. But I crave for a more ‘engineered’ functional look to add to the elegant aesthetic. On the other end, the ‘engineered’ and functional designs, such as with Peanuts Planner Co., are very… functional and utilitarian. I do enjoy adding stickers and whatnot to personalise my pages (such as what I do with the Hobonichi Weeks). But, just like with the first examples, I crave for elegance.

Creffective paper is one of the few shops that has seen balance. Her designs are never too much. It feels edited and curated. Just take a look at this Stress and Happiness Level tracker. The tracker itself runs from -5 to +5 – this lends the tracker to so many possibilities. This kind of functional aspect is a very smart design detail. The page itself is very clean with the lines varying (thick vs thin) to indicate spaces. If you have seen my layouts/videos/posts, then you know how much I love lines.

If you enjoy these little details, functional but elegant pre-designed pages, and hard bound Weeks-sized planners, then this book is for you.

THE BOOK

This is the first Weeks-sized planner book created in South Korea that I have seen. And, I am blown away by the way it is designed (layout-wise). It is a hard cover (PU leather in black with gold foiled 2024), which I love. This is a full year (2024) dated planner with the following pages (in order):

• front matter – 1 page
• 2024-2025 Calendar: 2 pages (1 year in each page)
• Future log: 6 pages (small calendar above lines)
•  Monthly(MO2P): 24 pages (grid side and bottom bars)
•  Weekly(WO2P): 106 pages
•  Grid Notes: 100 pages (numbered)
•  Information page: 1 page (your information, similar to a ‘return to’ page)

The collection of pages is very similar to the Hobonichi Weeks. This is something that I like since I’m very familiar with the way the Hobonichi Weeks is designed. However, the individual pages are quite different. For example, the side bar of the monthly is placed on the right instead of the left.

THE WEEKLY PAGES

Against all the other pages, these the pages that most of you will be seeing at a daily basis. So, we should talk about this haha. I’ve mentioned in my Instagram that I would not be purchasing Weeks-sized books from small businesses. Although I find them all very beautiful, I personally find them too similar to the Hobonichi Weeks (just my opinion). The one from Creffectivepaper.com is something different for me (again, just my feelings).

Why do I feel that this layout is different enough from the Hobonichi Weeks?
Dedicated sidebar + days of the week in the middle
FOCUS – you know how much I love ‘focus’ section
PRE-EXTENDED DAILIES – I draw this every single layout ideas video
BIG calendar that I can actually see (my eyesight is not good and I’m not young)
Dates covered in the week instead of week number

This layout also offers quite a lot of wonderful layout options. Needless to say, I am getting this book. You can expect to see videos on layout ideas for this book in my 2024 videos.

THE PAPER

When I started promoting this book (yesterday haha), the paper-question is the primary concern. In that, is this book using Tomoe River Paper (TRP). No, it is not. Instead, it uses Marchmallow CoC. I’m thinking you might not have heard of this before. Neither have I because I had focused only on TRP like it was the holy grail paper.

Here’s I’m going to just copy, paste, and clean up what I’ve written in my Instagram post.

The 2024 Creffectivepaper.com physical book uses a Japanese paper called ‘Marshmallow CoC’. The paper comes in different colors, but Creffective Paper uses the ‘Natural’ type which is a soft cream.

Is it thin like Tomoe River Paper?
No, the Marshmallow CoC is thicker (at 105 g/m², which is the thinnest this paper type can be, and TRP is 52 47 g/m², and TRSP is 47 g/m²). Now, don’t frown on thicker paper just yet. Marshmallow paper was designed for long-term usage with stiffness for support and thicker paper have less chance to bleed-through.

Is it fountain pen friendly?
Yes. But with caution. This paper is uncoated (which gives it a robust texture), which makes me nervous. Generally, uncoated paper is wonderful for water-based and oil-based ink. But it is also usually quite thick (like art books). I personally have not tried this but the listing says this paper is fountain pen friendly (I will review once I get it).

Does the book lay flat?
Yes. Several factors are at play. First, the paper is stiff and heavier than TRP. This will be a hard cover, which definitely helps. If this has a headband (the stitching at the top of the book block), then it will help make this lay flat. It should still be ok without bands. I will update in the comments section once I find out.

Is Marshmallow CoC a Japanese paper?
Yes. The paper mills are in Japan. The distributor is in Japan. The manufacturing, I believe, is in SKorea (this is a K-book). Actually, Marshmallow paper is also sustainably sourced virgin pulp (I believe MD paper is also uncoated). Plus, there’s quite a bit of technology involved. Marshmallow paper was designed primarily to ‘be touched’ and be used for a long time. Unlike TRP, which is designed to be thin and not bleed-through. When you use TRP, you feel the paper curl through time since it also absorbs quite a bit of moisture. I will have a full post on this after I’m done with this one.

Take away

This is not TRP. But this is not bad paper. TRP is not the only good paper (ex. Midori uses MD paper). Marshmallow CoC is actually in between TRP and MD. If you like both, you might like this.