A few months ago, I met Karen from Exaclair at her BookExpo booth and got a sneak peek at some new items from Rhodia and Clairefontaine. A few weeks later, some lovely samples showed up in my mailbox! Let’s take a look.

First off, here’s the new large Webnotebook with dot-grid paper. I love dot-grid paper, it’s such a nice alternative to having lines– you can use the page in all directions, so it’s great for writing, drawing and doodling. And of course, the yummy Rhodia paper works well with pretty much any pen and is heavenly to write on.

Then we have two handy pocket-size notebooks. The Clairefontaine Life Unplugged notebook has been around for a while, but the Rhodia Unlimited notebook is new. Both are slender and flexible, combining some of the lightweight portability of the Moleskine Volants with added features such as an elastic closure and more pages. They’re shown below with a pocket Moleskine for size comparison. Because the notebooks are softcover, the elastic can flex them slightly if it’s a bit tight. The binding does not lie very flat, particularly in the Rhodia version. As you can see, all the pages in the Rhodia notebook are perforated, and have a nice layout with a grid plus a separate header, which reminds me of one of the Book Factory lab notebooks I reviewed.

Next, there’s the Clairefontaine Graf-It sketchpad. This does not have the usual super-smooth Clairefontaine paper, but a slightly toothier paper that is nice for drawing on. It’s still fairly smooth, and the paper feels fairly lightweight, but had less show-through than I would have expected. A nice feature is the micro-perforated edge so you can tear sheets out neatly.

Finally, here’s a bonus item that’s not really a notebook: a Rhodia paper mousepad! What a great idea– it’s such a handy way to have a nice piece of doodle paper handy on your desk at all times. They designed this very cleverly, gluing two edges of the pad so it won’t slide around while you’re using your mouse. (The staples shown on the cover are fake, just a little touch to make it look more like the traditional Rhodia blocs.)

You can look for these items at your local stationery shop, or take a shot at winning a couple of items I’m giving away! Two lucky winners will be selected, one to receive the Clairefontaine Life Unplugged notebook, and one to receive the Rhodia dot-grid notebook. As usual, you can enter in any of the following ways:

On Twitter, tweet something containing  “@Exaclair” and “@NotebookStories.”

On Facebook, “like” the  Notebook Stories page and the Rhodia Drive page, and post something containing the words “Rhodia” or “Clairefontaine” on my wall.

On your blog, post something containing the words “Rhodia” or “Clairefontaine” and “NotebookStories” and link back to this post.

The deadline for entry is Friday October 14 at 11:59PM, EST. Good luck everyone!