Whimsical Holiday #3: Those Believe Notebooks...Are They Worth It?

Welcome to the third post in the Whimsical Holiday Blog Series here at Createyou86. If you have been apart of the Planning or Journaling community for any amount of time you will have heard of the "Believe Notebooks".  These became popular several years ago during One Book July because the creator of the challenge was using one herself.  They were also made famous because BELIEVE was spelled wrong on the front of the notebooks for the longest time.  They finally fixed the spelling.  This past year I purchased the B6 size (Black), and A5 size (Red).  However, I had issues with the black notebook from the word go.  The B6 version is about $13 on Amazon, and 600 pages, and the black ones come gilded.  Here are some things I do not enjoy about these smaller black notebooks:

• I have to keep a rubber band around the book to keep it closed.
• The back page is so tight that it needs to be cut in order for the book to be able to open fully.
• The glue binding which is normally really good came undone immediately upon fully opening the book. (This is why the front doesn't stay closed.)

On the other hand the red believe notebooks behave as a normal notebook should.  When I first took it out of the packaging the size, and design immediately reminded me of a church hymnal.  The color is beautiful.  Both notebooks come with two bookmarks.  I removed mine.  I love that the red book is NOT gilded.  I have actually been cut by the gilding on the black notebook.  The A5 notebook is about $23 on Amazon, and is definitely worth the extra few dollars to have a book that actually behaves how it is supposed to. I will never repurchase the black notebook, but the red one would be a definite repurchase. Below is a photo of my notebooks.

I also did a YouTube video about these notebooks so you can see exactly what I have described in this post.  Please watch it below, and leave a comment about what you think about these notebooks.

LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW:
What is your favorite notebook that you have purchased this year?  Mine would have to be my Midori MD A5 Notebook that I do sketches, and painting in.  

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for another holiday blog post!