O'BON Review & Giveaway!

O’BON is an innovative company based in the United States that creates environmentally friendly school supplies. Quality, responsibility, and affordability are fundamentally engraved within each product they produce. O’BON focuses on creating items in a way that will allow them to save trees. One way they do this is by creating items from old newspapers. While making environmentally products, they also find it important to create items that are fun for children. All the products you will find at O’BON contain bright colors and fun designs! “Smiles for your kids today, trees for your kids tomorrow.”

The History of O’BON
“O’BON was essentially born out of a new, revolutionary process in pencil making. By rolling a used sheet of newspaper around a stick of graphite, we began creating pencils that were superior to the outdated wood versions all too common today. Not only does our method protect the graphite much better than the old wood version, but our pencils are the far more environmentally responsible choice. Add to that some simply stunning designs by our sister company Evoke, coupled with inexpensive prices and voila! We are creating products that are the best choice for our customers...

Today, O’BON products can be found in nearly a dozen countries around the world, with plans underway to increase that number rapidly. Particularly at this juncture in human history, amidst growing concern over the state of our environment, this quick expansion is aimed at providing people with environmentally responsible options capable of making a significant difference. Every minute, an area of rainforest the size of 20 football fields combined is cut down, partly due to the creation of conventional wood pencils. O’BON stands firmly behind the notion that to lose such a massive chunk of diverse ecosystem is completely unacceptable.

This ambition to reduce deforestation on our planet makes up the foundation of our business, and is represented ever so beautifully in the designs that we use. Today, O’BON pencils are made to represent several different themes, and we dedicate our Wildlife Series so passionately to the animals that we are trying to protect. In addition, a percentage of the revenue we receive from every product we sell goes back into the community, either through education or charities in an effort to make our world an even better place to live.”

Review
I had an opportunity to test out a set of pencils from O’BON and a spiral notebook (both from the wildlife series).

I completely love the set of pencils I received. I love the different patterns on each of the pencils! The patterns are so vibrant and unlike any other pencil I have used before. These pencils are supposedly easy to sharpen so I had to test it out. I originally thought with them being made primarily of paper, they would be difficult to sharpen and probably would leave a jagged looking edge. When I sharpened the pencils for the first time, I was extremely surprised how easily they sharpened and that the sharpened part was not jagged at all. Also, I loved the look that sharpening these pencils gives. Because they are made with newspaper, when you sharpen them you will see a interesting colored design. Very unique! Overall, I loved these pencils and they work just as well as any other pencil, maybe better. These pencils supposedly last 2-3x longer than conventional lead pencils, which is great! The only thing that could make these pencils even better would be the addition of an eraser on the end.

Second, I tested out O’BONs spiral notebook. This notebook is really unique because it isn’t made with regular paper. All of the paper in O’BONs notebooks are made with a product called Bagasse. Bagasse is made from the pulp generated from sugarcane after it’s juices have been removed. O’BONs website explains, “bagasse is far less taxing on our environment than conventional paper and is very cheap to product too.” Like the pencils, the front and back of these notebooks are covered with beautiful, vibrant pictures based on things in nature. Each spiral notebook has 80 pages and is perfect for carrying around in your purse. Each page of this notebook contains a space for the date and page number at the top right-hand corner. These attributes make this notebook ideal for people who want a little book to journal in.

After having a chance to review two of the products that O’BON offers, I am really impressed. I am very happy to see that a company is doing something to make school supplies more eco-friendly. Plus, not only do they care about the environment but they also strive to offer a beautiful product unlike any others.

How many winners will there be? O’BON is being very generous by offering prizes to ten (10) winners!

What can you win? Each winner will receive a package of 10 O’BON pencils and an O’BON spiral notebook, both from the Wildlife Series.

To enter, visit O’BON, then come back here, and tell me which product is your favorite.

Earn up to 4 extra entries by:
-Subscribing to my blog. Do not forget to activate your subscription.
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-Following me on Twitter (ihchicky). Please make sure to leave your Twitter name in your -comment.
-Blogging about this giveaway on your blog. Please make sure to leave a link to your blog post in your entry.

For each of the above actions you do, you will receive one extra entry into the giveaway. Please leave an additional comment for EACH thing you have done for an extra entry.

You can have a maximum of 5 entries in this giveaway.

This giveaway will end on Saturday, December 20th at 11:59pm (Central Standard Time). After the giveaway has ended, the winner will be picked randomly using random.org. EMAIL RULES: In order to win, you must provide a valid email. I will be notifying the winner by email only. Please make sure your blog profile includes your email address and make sure that it is visible. If you do not have a blogger account, please make sure you have included your email address in your post. If there is no email address provided, to contact the winner, another person will be chosen. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the winning email notification with their complete mailing address (I will be forwarding all this information to the sponsor), If this information is not received within 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is open to residents of Canada and the US!

Good Luck!