Midori MD Diary Stickers Review

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

It’s apparently planner season and since I don’t use a traditional planner, I decided to get these Midori MD Diary Stickers from Vanness Pens when I was at their shop back in late March (thank you to them for providing these items for review.) These stickers from Midori are meant to be used in notebooks (or really anything) where you need monthly layouts. They come in three sizes (Small, Medium, and Large), but I am only reviewing the Small and Medium ones.

D Diary Stickers in M (left) and S.

Both sticker sets come with the following:

• 16 monthly calendar stickers (starting with December of the prior year and going through January of the following year). The sets I got were for 2024, so the monthly stickers went from December 2023 to January 2025.
• 2 yearly calendar stickers for the current year and next year (in my case, 2024 and 2025).

Small (top) and Medium monthly and year stickers.

The Small stickers measure roughly 5.5” x 3.75” (or 14 cm x 9.5 cm), while the Medium Stickers are 6.75” x 4.5” (17.2 cm x 11.8 cm). The Large set is 8” x 5.5” (20 cm x 13.8 cm).

The monthly calendar stickers are Monday - Sunday and also have the year in the bottom right corner, which is very handy as there are 2 December and 2 January stickers. They also have Sundays and Japanese public holidays circled. Japanese and international holidays are noted in Japanese as well. Other than Christmas Eve & Christmas and New Year’s Eve & New Year’s Day, the holidays aren’t particularly useful for most folks.

Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve (as confirmed by Google translate) both fell on Sundays last year.

Since I don’t use A6 for my bullet journal, I decided to use the Small monthly sticker as a tracker for dental hygiene and skincare. I didn’t want to adhere the sticker to my bathroom mirror, so I used washi tape to put it on, where I tracked my skincare routine (A = AM, P=PM, and checkmark for evening flossing/brushing - I know, I know, I need to floss more, lol). I kept a Zebra Sarasa 03 handy to mark it up. I often forget what I did by the time I update my habit tracker, so this was a handy way to keep track.

I’m sure this wasn’t the intended use case but I kinda liked tracking things on the mirror.

The Small stickers fit nicely in an A6 notebook, and the Medium stickers are good for an A5 notebook. It could also fit on B6, but with very little margin on the sides.

The Small Diary sticker in a B6 notebook (I did not affix it to the notebook because this “The Little Prince” notebook is my only B6 notebook.)

The Medium Diary sticker in a B6 notebook - this would be more difficult to put in place due to the minimal margins and the curling (see below.)

The stickers are fairly thick and the sticker release/backing paper is much thicker than what you’d typically get with regular stickers. Midori recommends peeling just one side of the release paper, positioning the sticker onto your page, and then removing the other side. I didn’t follow this recommendation for the A6 monthly sticker. Even though the release paper is scored down the back, peeling the stickers took a bit of effort and the resulting curling made it a bit annoying to deal with. It was mostly fine once I got it on the page and was able to close the notebook and have it weighed down by another book for a few minutes.

This is what it looks like when I peeled both backing papers off of the sticker.

This is how the Small sticker looked when I first affixed it to the page. I quickly removed it and decided to move it to another Hobonichi.

Moved to another notebook and squished it down for a while and the sticker page is now behaving. You can also see the text underneath that I was covering up (more on that below.)

I used the Medium sticker in my A5 Leuchtturm and it fit just fine with some margins to spare on the top and bottom (I like to use washi tape to give it a little bit of flare and so I’m not just hoarding washi tape, lol). Following Midori’s recommendation to only peel and stick one half at a time did not make a difference in the curling but it did make placement a little easier. It was almost impossible not to bend it backwards when removing the backing paper so there is a bit of a crease in the middle after peeling. The creases are more noticeable in some angles than others.

You can just make out the horizontal crease in the middle of the Medium stickers.

The crease is much more prominent on the Small sticker in the Hobonichi. Not sure if it’s because I removed both backing papers or not.

I decided to follow instructions (for a change) and only peeled one side. It’s still very curly.

Because my current A5 Leuchtturm has 120gsm paper, you don’t really see much ghosting, so you don’t see any writing below the sticker from the other side. With the Hobonichi though, you can see what’s underneath, although the writing is “extra” visible because I put the sticker on top of the writing, whereas the A5 had writing on the other side of the page. You can get an idea as to how “see through” the stickers are, if you are going to put it on top of an already-written-on page.

The Medium sticker in the A5 Leuchtturm.

The stickers are fountain pen friendly, which is great because I only use FPs in my bullet journal. There was some slight smearing when I smoothed the Small sticker onto the sheet because I wrote on the sticker before sticking it in the notebook. It is the same paper that is in the Midori MD notebooks (but not MD Cotton), which means it is cream-colored and not white. The paper is fairly smooth but slightly toothier than Tomoe River. It was nice to write on and I didn’t have issues with the few FPs I used on them.

Overall, aside from the not-super-easy peeling and the resulting curling of the sticker, I liked the convenience of having the monthly sticker for my undated notebook. I used to print out monthly calendars and tape them to my bujo and now I don’t have to. I also liked that there are stickers for 14 months. I think the only thing I could do without is the holiday text since it isn’t useful for non-Japanese customers and it takes up room in an already limited space. I don’t know if I would use the yearly stickers but it’s nice to have for reference.

You can find the Midori Diary Sticker Small 2025, Midori Diary Sticker Large, as well as the day free/undated Midori Diary Sticker (same size as the Small), on the Vanness website. The Medium Diary Stickers have been ordered but are still making their way to the shop, so that’s what I’m going to be ordering when it arrives in the next week or so.

(Disclaimer: The Midori Diary Stickers were provided for review by Vanness Pens at no charge. The notebooks pictured are my own.)

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Midori MD Letter Pad Review

Midori MD Letter Pads are designed with a purpose. As the name dictates, they are primarily letter writing pads, but, as someone who doesn’t write letters, I think they are useful for all types of creativity. There are a couple of things they aren’t for, too.

Midori makes some of the best paper products on the market. Not only that, but I would be hard pressed to find another brand with this much variety in their lineup. It’s astonishing, and borderline overwhelming. Even the letter writing focused pads have several different formats and layouts.

I chose a standard letter pad layout in the Midori MD Stationery Horizontal Ruled A, which includes 50 pages of Midori’s proprietary paper. Paper I know, and I love. The line format - soft grey lines 9.5 mm apart, with wide margins - is the unique factor here. This is paper with a purpose, and that is to create something fun, interesting, and beautiful, for someone other than yourself.

What it isn’t is a desk pad, or a journal. Technically, you could use a Midori Letter Pad in this manner, but why? If you love Midori, you have a dozen other choices to solve those problems. Same with the stack of unused notebooks sitting on your shelf right now. You know who you are.

So this notepad isn’t for everyone? Absolutely not. It has a reason to exist, which needs to match your reason to buy it. My reason is that I love Midori, and I love how my handwriting looks on these wide lines and wide margins. Why are the margins designed this way? To make the words in the center of the page stand out. I love the visual it provides.

It’s a large visual, too, with the paper size outside of the normal A5 boundaries. It sits at a similar 210 mm tall, but is 168 mm wide, 20 mm wider than standard. I have no idea why, but it will be wider than A5 envelopes for mailing.

Being a Midori product, my expectation is that will handle every pen, nib, ink type, and pencil I throw at it with ease. It did. It’s not the elite fountain pen ink shader or sheener that paper designed for those characteristics will show, but it shows plenty. All of my currently inked pens performed well on the page, with no feathering, bleed, or show through. Gel ink, rollerball, ballpoint, and pencil all worked great as well.

The only negative I ever list with Midori is its stock cream-colored paper for those preferring a stark white page. I like the cream, and don’t find that it takes away from my ink colors enough to take away from all of the other great features.

Another great feature? The price. This Midori Letter Pad is $8 for 50 sheets. That’s very fair, and in line with the full Midori lineup. That said, this is a specialty product, and if you write multi-page letters with one line per line, and one side of the page, you could work through one of these pads quickly. If you have smaller handwriting, you could fit two handwritten lines between the lines, which is something I may try.

Midori Letter Pads are something you may consider trying, if it fits your needs. Like I said, they have a few specific tasks where they will shine, and aren’t a big commitment. Plus, they are Midori. It doesn’t get much better than that in the world of paper.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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My Seven-Notebook Writing System

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

Last week I reviewed the Midori MD 70th Anniversary set of seven notebooks and I had a lot of fun thinking about all the ways I could put them to good use. I knew I didn't want to split up the set--the rainbow stitching is everything! Normally I'd use them for school, but I'm in my last two classes now--there are no future semesters to save them for! But the thing I'm most excited about being done with school is returning to full-time writing.

Being an author really means running a small business and there can be a lot to keep track of. I have, in the past, used one notebook to track all my writerly business, but they fill up fast when you're keeping busy. Enter a big set of seven lovely notebooks...

Also enter the fabulous Lochby Field Journal, which is robust enough to contain this ambitious plan.

I assigned each of the notebooks to a different aspect of writerly business: Deadline and submission tracking, listing and outlining ideas, jotting down bits of story drafts, making notes about critiques and edits, listing publication and contract details, notes about the craft of writing, and keeping track of the classes I teach or readings/signings, etc.

Keeping track of deadlines is important for obvious reasons, but it will be helpful to keep them listed in one place, alongside due dates for other open calls for submissions that look interesting. That way I can glance at that list and make a more informed decision about how busy I am when I'm approached for a project. Since many deadlines can be six months to a year out, tracking them on a calendar isn't a good way to get an overview. This way I'll have a list I can reference to confirm that I should definitely not take on any more work in the month of April! I can also keep track of where I send work and when. Some publishers don't send rejections--you're meant to assume you were rejected after not hearing back after a certain amount of time passes, so it's important to know when that time is. Most publishers also don't allow you to submit the same work more than once, so it's crucial to keep track of where you've sent each piece.

Keeping track of ideas is also important. Ideas are everywhere, and some are more demanding than others. Sometimes a good idea tries to butt in when I'm working on something else that has a due date and I don't have time to set it aside to focus on the shiny new idea. I've always kept an idea notebook, so this isn't a new one for me, but hopefully this will help me keep them in better order. They do tend to show up on the backs of receipts or scribbled in the margins of school notes. Sometimes I need a place to just jot down a single-sentence concept, and sometimes I need to write the whole outline. This book will hold both/either.

If whole sections of a story jump into my head, but they aren't ready to be fully written yet, I need a place to write down that bit until I'm ready for it. That will go in the next notebook, Draft Bits. Stories often come to me out of order, so this is a place where I can write scenes down when I need to come back to them.

I am part of a monthly critique group, as well as a more sporadic workshop, so I need a place to write down the feedback I receive on my work, as well as any ideas I have for edits to a piece. The Critique and Edit Notes notebook will be the home for that info.

Publication information goes in the next one. This is where I'll keep track of contract terms (Do I retain audio rights to this story or does the publisher? When does the exclusive printing period end? Is it a flat rate payment or are their royalties to track?). This way I won't have to go combing through contract files every time I want to reprint a piece.

In the next notebook, I'll record bits of wisdom about the craft of writing. When I attend panels or author talks, I like to write down anything educational or interesting, or notes about what particular editors are looking for in work submitted to them.

In the last notebook, I'll keep track of my own gigs--when I lead workshops or teach classes, do readings, speak on panels, do interviews, or appear on podcasts. I haven't always been good at tracking that, and then a friend mentioned how important that info is for a potential CV if I ever want to get a teaching job or archive my work. This will give me a good way to plan for and track all those appearances.

To cram all this content into one notebook cover, I used skills gleaned from Traveler's Notebook journalers. I used sewing thread (because that's what I had--I'll get elastics eventually) to tie notebooks 1 and 3 together, with the back cover of 1 and the front cover of 3 facing each other. Then I slid notebook 1 through the first elastic on the Lochby so that the elastic fit between the two notebooks, holding them by the threads. Then I slid notebook 2 through that same elastic at its halfway point. I repeated that process by tying notebooks 4 and 6 together, sliding them though another elastic, and then putting notebook five on that same elastic between them. Notebook 7 is on its own elastic at the end. They all fit quite well! There's enough movement that each notebook is still easy to write in, and there's even still room for me to stuff a bunch of writing note scraps in the pockets of the notebook cover. The thick spine and adjustable clasp on the Lochby are my friend, here.

I'm eagerly anticipating the shift from writing research papers to writing more stories and novels. I've still written a handful, but not nearly as much as I want. For the past two years, the notebook that's been filling up fastest is the one where I list all the ideas I don't have time to write. I'm excited to start filling up all these notebooks, replacing the inserts, and filling those up, too. 93 more days. (In fact, my last ever day of class is the first day of the Chicago Pen Show.) I'm so ready.

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