The Inkwell Press planner is an excellent quality planner, but it does come with a very high price tag. So when I saw an Inkwell Press x Blue Sky collaboration planner (Blue Sky seem to have so many collab planners at the moment!), I had to get a copy for myself.

I purchased this planner as part of my recent USA stationery haul.

Quick facts

• Size: I purchased the 6.25″ wide x 8.75″ high version (comes in other sizes). Note the cover extends beyond the tabs. The inside pages are just under 6″ wide x just over 8.5″ high
• Softcover
• Twin wire binding
• 12 month duration (calendar year) – all pages are dated for 2025
• 2 page important dates
• 2 Goal planning pages
• Dates at a glance page (2025 and 2026)
• 2 page Monthly calendar (starts on Sunday)
  • Bonus monthly calendars for October, November and December 2024 are included
• 2 page monthly planning
• 2 notes pages per month (each page has 2/3 lined, 1/3 dot grid)
• 2 page weekly spread (starts on Monday)
• Tabs for each month
• 15 Double sided notes pages at the back of the planner (each page has 2/3 lined, 1/3 dot grid)
• Neutral color scheme throughout
• Bright white paper

Price:

• $18 USD for 6.25″ wide x 8.75″ high (this is the size I purchased)
• $26 USD for 7″ wide x 9″ high
• $23 USD for 8.5″ wide x 11″ high

There’s also a day to a page version if you like the style of this planner. 

Let’s take a closer look!

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The Cover

The cover is thin cardstock with a separate clear plastic protective cover which makes the planner super lightweight. There were a few other cover designs but I liked ombre best.

Approx. 1.7cm / 0.67″ thick

At the front of the planner is a pocket folder and one sheet of functional planner stickers.

Dates at a glance

Next is the important dates section which has a generic layout.

The line spacing is 8mm.

Annual goal planning

There are 2 pages to do an overview plan of your goals for the year. The pages look nice, but from a practical perspective you’ll need the notes pages at the back of the planner as there isn’t much room to plan on these pages.

Monthly goals

There is a ‘mission board’ for each month with sections to plan your goals with the same categories that tie back to the original goal planning pages at the start of the planner.

This is followed by another notes page but this time 2/3 lined notes with focus box, and 1/3 habit tracker.

The line spacing is 6mm.

There are no pre-filled habits so you can add whatever you like each month.

Monthly Calendar

The monthly spread starts Sunday (which is not consistent with the weekly spread which starts Monday).

Each box is 3.3cm wide x 4cm high.

The sidebar has sections for a top 5, lined notes space and a mini dates at a glance calendar for the following month.

Unfortunately the planner has split boxes, rather than re-starting the numbering on the top row.

As this is a planner from the USA, it has US holidays pre-printed. The font is small though, so it doesn’t take up too much space in the boxes.

Monthly Notes

The line spacing is 6mm. The dot grid spacing is just over 5mm between the dots (6.5mm from the edge of one dot, to the edge of the next dot).

Weekly Planning

The weekly spread starts Monday, with the same amount of space to plan each day of the week.

Just like the original Inkwell Press planner, this version has lined writing space and 3 boxes per day. The line spacing is 5mm and the boxes for each day are 3.9cm wide x 1.6cm high.

USA holidays are also pre-printed on the weekly spread.

The pages are bright white but since it’s a collab with Blue Sky, to make the planners affordable, Blue Sky use thinner paper. Inkwell press has 140gsm paper. I did some research but wasn’t able to find the paper thickness of the Blue Sky planners.

The weeks are split between months. For example, 30th June 2025 falls on a Monday, so that is in the first weekly spread behind the July tab.

Love the consistency of the hexagon theme throughout this planner!

Extras pages

There are 15 double sided notes pages (so 30 in total) at the back of the planner, behind it’s own ‘notes’ tab. All of the pages have the same design as the rest of the notes pages in the planner: 2/3 lined, 1/3 dot grid.

Tabs

There are laminated cardstock tabs for each month and another for the notes section at the back of the planner. They’re quite thin and flexible material, but the cover of the planner does extend beyond the pages so the tabs are protected.

Pen Testing

I could see ghosting of whatever was printed on the backside of the page so I was expecting pens to have really bad ghosting and possibly bleed through. But it was actually mostly just indenting onto the other side of the page.

The MAMBI stamps bled through the page and the highlighters were close to bleeding through.

Pros of the Planner

• Portable size and lightweight
• 3 page sizes to choose from
• Multiple cover styles to choose from
• Very affordable price
• Minimalist color scheme
• Double sided pocket folder
• 1 page of functional planner stickers
• Functional layouts throughout
• Plenty of notes pages

Cons of the Planner

• The pattern is only printed on the front cover
• Pages are prone to ghosting and indenting
• I could only find the planner at Staples in the USA

Would I use this planner?

Yes! A planner with color printing, extra monthly notes pages plus all of the notes pages at the back for the prices Blue Sky are charging is ridiculously good value. The planner is far cheaper than the original Inkwell Press planner so if you want to try out the layout or don’t like disc binding, this is a great option. 12 months of the monthly calendar inserts alone cost $22 on the Inkwell Press website (and only come in one page size 7″ wide x 9″ high).

The paper quality isn’t the greatest but everything else in the planner is just about perfect so I can forgive the thin paper this time.

How does it compare to the original Inkwell Press planner?

I did a review of the Original Inkwell Press planner in this post. The original version has 140GSM paper which did very well during the pen test. It also has discbound binding and multi-colored inside pages.

The collab with Blue Sky planner comes in twin wire binding only (no discbound option) in a daily and weekly version with a few different cover designs (cardstock with a clear cover, not vegan leather like the original Inkwell Press).

The Inkwell Press x Blue Sky version I purchased only had the one color scheme inside with navy and grey featuring throughout. The original Inkwell Press had multiple colors throughout, including color shading on the boxes for each day in the weekly spread. The current version of the Inkwell Press planner has a paired back weekly spread with no color shading (same as the collab planner).

The key differences (to make the planner affordable) are that the paper is much thinner, and the cover is nowhere near as strong.

If you’re not sure the layout of the Inkwell Press planner is going to work for you, definitely try out the Inkwell Press x Blue Sky collab planner – the affordable price point is hard to pass up!

More planner reviews:

• Day Designer for Blue Sky Horizontal Weekly Planner Review 
• Creating a custom, personalised planner with Agendio
• Best Fitness Planners Roundup (Health, Wellbeing, Exercise, Food Log Trackers etc.)
• 4 Expensive Planners that are worth the investment

Planning Tips:

• 10 Bullet Journal weekly layouts if you want to keep work and personal in the same spread
• 30 Things to track in the monthly spread of your planner
• After trying more than 20 pen brands, these are my top 5

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