Helen Wang - September 22, 2026
The 2027 Collection Previews
Greetings! I hope you are doing well :) Following my previous blog post about The Themes of 2027, I wanted a space to continue documenting my progress as I work towards completing the 2027 collection. Ultimately, I hope that after every piece of the collection is revealed, this post can serve as an exhaustive guide for the intention behind each piece. This page is organized based on the category of products so readers can easily navigate to the products they are in interested in. However, to remove the need for readers to comb through the text for new updates, I will also include a table of contents with the update dates. Thank you so much for your time and attention :))
By Date
- Sept 2: The Themes of 2027
- Sept 8, 10: Doodle Stickers
- Sept 16: Patchwork Pieces
- Sept 29: headings, dots, squares
By Category
- The Themes of 2027
- Doodle Stickers
- Functional Stickers
- Premade Kits
The Themes of 2027
This is a snippet from the full post: The Themes of 2027. Click on a number to view the monthly theme, my thoughts behind it, and any fun facts I have to share!
January: Good Morning!
Starting off bright and fun! Since January is the start of the year, I made this theme all about the start of the day: morning time :) I wanted January to include ideas of starting fresh in the new year, without it being overwhelmingly about "new year new me". This calendar features an emoti taking a big stretch and yawn, surrounded by some doodles of my ideal morning routine. In the full collection, you will find an emoti practicing their morning yoga, reading while having breakfast, and sporting a bombastic side-eye at whoever woke them up...
Fun fact: The theme I scrapped for January before I settled on this one was "morning cereal". Think milk cartons, lucky charms, cheerios, and cocoa puffs. However, after I finalized June's theme, the two themes were a bit too close for my liking. I still incorporated the idea of the morning, and doodled a milk carton!
February: Something Sweet
I have nothing against Valentine's Day; in fact, it's one of my favourite holidays! Despite being a single pringle for most of my life, it's one of the few holidays I make an effort to participate in, by showing love to myself. That said, I for some reason make it a mission each year to make February's theme sweet & lovely, but not Valentine's related. Someone needs to study my brain.
February's colour in the Hobonichi is a pretty soft brown, so I pulled that in through the delicious chocolately baked goods in this collection. I think my favourite doodle of this set is the toaster oven; not sure why, but I think it's so charming!
Fun fact: The themes I scrapped for February before I settled on this one were (1) peachy (2) quirky decor. The peachy theme would have been quite similar to the final theme, in the sense that I wanted there to be a bunch of various peach desserts! Quirky decor was supposed to be a fun bedroom of duck, fish, and other silly decor.
March: Pondering Pond
Many might be familiar with this! Not only is it matching with the Pondering Pond washi tape we put up for preorder this June, I also dedicated a YouTube video showing the illustration process for the clipart. As mentioned, my intention with this collection was not to make things monochromatic, and the Hobonichi colours only act as accents. In this case, the gorgeous orchid purple shows up in some of the wildflowers, fish, water lilies, and other little doodles. I would say March is the theme that is the most fairytale-like and least realistic. This features my favourite sprout emotis in their natural habitat, pondering about the meaning of life. I also like the rocks.
Fun fact: The themes I scrapped for March before I settled on this one were (1) farm life (2) meadows. If you watched my 2026 collection video where I rambled on for 40 minutes about the 2026 collection, you might remember that I also scrapped a farm & meadow theme for March 2026. I don't know what it is, but I just cannot get this theme right, sigh.
April: Flower Shop
If you are familiar with my work, you will probably notice that I sprinkle in a lot of florals in my designs. In fact, the 2024 collection was entirely about flowers! I find flowers pretty (duh), fun to draw, and they just make anything look a bit more elevated. But another important reason why I do so, is because Mama Tater (my mom) loves flowers. She oversees a lot of the printing & cutting for our store, and she texts me photos whenever she's printing something with an emoti that made her smile. So, here is a month dedicated to all things floral :) More specifically, it captures the wonderful adventure of going to a flower shop to pick out a bouquet, just for yourself–this is something I want to do more of next year!
Fun fact: I was originally going to make April a rose-focused theme, because my mom's favourite flower is the rose. However, I already did this theme for the 2024 collection, and mid-way through designing, I felt like the colour palette just made April look... heavy. I don't know how else to explain it!
May: Map of Town
My interest in drawing maps started when I had the idea to illustrate a map washi tape. Unfortunately, I abandoned that design because I ran my chair over my scanner's cable, crushed it, and felt demotivated to keep sketching the map washi tape lol (I have since gotten a replacement cable). Again, as mentioned in February, someone needs to study my brain.
I do eventually want to go back to designing the map washi tape, but for now, we can enjoy this idea through the May theme! I really challenged myself to use bright, bold colours in the artwork. Despite that, as a lover of pastels & neutrals, I still tried to keep it not too overwhelming to the eye, and cohesive within the theme and with the other 11 themes.
Fun fact: Initially, May's theme was supposed to be Pondering Pond, which is now March's theme. I then changed May to June's theme, and June was supposed to be Map of Town. Finally, I settled for this one. I will talk about why in the next slide!
June: Grocery Store
At the back of my Hobonichi Weeks, I have been collecting various produce stickers as a fun project. I also looove the grocery store, and grocery shopping in general. One of my quirks is staying up for my local grocery stores (yes, plural) to update their weekly flyers, so I can look through the pretty pictures and sales. Anyways, grocery shopping is something common to most of us, and it can be seen as a boring chore to some. I wanted to take this mundane activity and add a bit of whimsy to it! You will find doodles of produce stickers, typical grocery items, and emotis walking in between the aisles with their shopping cart or basket!
I have to state that I made a big sacrifice for this theme. As some might know, I strongly dislike cheese. I never liked it as a child, and I think over the years, my body's nauseous reaction to the smell and taste of cheese has caused an internal hate towards it. I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to go against my nature and include a cheese doodle for June; ultimately, I recognized that I am in the minority, and a grocery store set must have cheese.
Fun fact: As mentioned in the previous slide, I will explain why May was supposed to be "Grocery Store" and June was supposed to be "Map of Town", but I switched them at some point. May in the Hobonichi is a bright spring green, whereas June is a darker, muted green. My instinct was that the bright spring green would work best for colouring in produce, but I felt like that was too safe and generic. I think this darker green produces an interesting colour palette and it makes this collection work for all seasons, rather than leaning spring & summer!
July: Day At The Office
July is beginning of the second half of the year! Since January represents the beginning, I thought it would be clever to make July about the afternoon, to play with the idea of the second half of something. That said, this is called "day at the office" because "afternoon at the office" was way too long of a title lol. I love a good contrasting colour palette, and I think the peachy colours pop so well against July's Hobonichi teal.
This calendar features an emoti walking stacks of paper around at the office, an evil printer ready to jam things, and a coffee station to fuel the day's work. Later in the collection, you will also find an emoti that is slumped in their chair, bored out of their mind.
Fun fact: The theme I scrapped for July before I settled on this one was "home decor". The colour palette was the teal, with light to hot pink. I just realized now that I scrapped both of the decor related themes for this collection (February & July)... oops.
August: In The Bathroom
Don't click out please–just hear me out. Going along with the idea of adding some whimsy to ordinary, mundane things, I thought it would be fun to dedicate a month to a place we all need to go to...
I assigned this theme to August for two reasons: (1) the colours worked well with the muted blue of the Hobonichi (2) since the bathroom is still associated with some unpleasant things, I thought making it my birthday month would show that I do not mean to offend anyone with birthdays in other months. Sorry to the my fellow August-birthday-friends who might not like this theme haha. You might also be familiar with this theme, as I did a preview by releasing a matching washi tape of it this past June!
Fun fact: The theme I scrapped for August before I settled on this one was "Talk of Town". Think greyscale newspapers with a hint of muted blue. While this would have been a fun theme, I felt like the colour palette was a bit too dreary for August.
September: Bread
Good ol' bread. From chomping on a croissant while picking up a baguette from the bakery, to carefully buttering a piece of toast in the morning, bread is unironically something that unites us globally. Okay, I will cut the deep talk, I just simply love bread and I think they made fun stickers haha. To go with the bread theme, we also have doodles of bread toppings, wheat, and a cute toaster!
Unfortunately in recent months, I have needed to greatly reduce the wheat products I consume to not further trigger my mysterious skin condition (sigh). It's not much, but to represent the gluten-intolerant and people with celiac, there is a few gluten-free symbols throughout this collection!
Fun fact: The theme I scrapped for September before I settled on this one was "nuts". Wow, September is not an allergen-friendly month lol. I didn't go with the nuts theme because I already did something similar in... 2023 I think? I did make sure to include a few doodles of almonds and nut butters here!
October: Night At The Office
Ah, nearing the end of the year. You have probably caught-on now that as we progress through the months, we are also progressing through the day. After a day of hard work in July, we don't get to go home; we stay at the office and work overtime.
I'm kidding, please don't take this as my encouragement to overwork yourself! I moreso wanted this to be an ode to night owls, featuring an emoti clacking away when the world is still. Inspired by lo-fi YouTube music playlists, this gives me a cozy and serene feel! I also wanted this theme to work well with Halloween, without explicitly adding Halloween-related elements. This is I believe the only month that is somewhat monochromatic, but I think it works well to capture the night time ambience.
Fun fact: The theme I scrapped for October before I settled on this one was "plums". I love stone fruits, and I become a fiend for plums when they are in season. Unfortunately, I could not translate my love for eating the fruit to a cute collection. Maybe I will revisit those sketches one day...
November: Museum Musings
Something familiar once again! This was another theme I sneakily previewed, by releasing a washi tape version first. This was our second bestselling washi tape during the June preorder! While the Museum Musings washi tape was heavily focused on famous paintings, the idea I had for the full sticker collection includes all sorts of things one can find at museums, such as sculptures, dinosaur fossils, and... stationery fossils?! The calendar features an emoti sketching at the museum, and later in the collection, you will find an emoti ready to dig-up some treasures.
I struggled with November a lot, mostly because I felt like fossils and bones aren't typically found in planner stickers, and I wasn't sure if it would be too niche. I do like how the pieces came together in the end, and I hope you do too!
Fun fact: While I always wanted November to be Museum Musings, I redid the artwork and calendar 3 times. This was the 4th version. I told you, my brain needs to be studied.
December: Happy Stationery
The end of the year is when we all get giddy about our new planners and stationery, so here is an ode to that! I was kind of sad that I decided against doing the "quirky decor" theme for February (who is to blame?), so I incorporated a bit of silliness to December. In addition to journals, fountain pens, inks and clips, we also have fun fruit stickers, a Baggu-like bag, and a tiny fish somewhere.
This is a rather safe theme that I know most will like, but I think it ties everything together nicely for the year. I tried to incorporate the bright red of the Hobonichi colour in a way that wasn't overpowering, and I ended-up with this almsot primary colour palette!
Fun fact: I just finished the December artwork a few days ago, and I did not have a theme in mind until I started working on it. I was completely drawing (hah!) a blank, and I pretty much winged this one. Despite that, this is probably one of my top favourites of the bunch! I hope you like it too :)
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Doodle Stickers
Doodle stickers are my favourite sheets to work on, because I get to be the most artistic and creative–I'm not bounded by labels, boxes, formatting, measurements, and so on. While working on this collection, I was actually a bit baffled by how much time I was spending on the illustrations; while I was stressed in past years too, I couldn't recall ever being this stressed. It clicked for me the other day that prior to 2026, I never actually offered dedicated doodle sheets for each month–I used to only offer a quarterly sampler, so my workload tripled... duh. It's absolutely worth it though. I did go a bit nuts this year with the various doodle options–hopefully there is something here for you that you like!
Large Doodles
The large doodles capture each of the themes in full.* Each sheet features a mix of statement illustrations, medium sized doodles, and sweet space fillers for the sticker sheets and your journal pages alike. These can be universally used across various journals.
* I often illustrate more clipart than what is needed, so some doodles don't make the cut! In 2026, I made a "misfits & oddballs" sampler featuring the left out designs... I might do that again this year!!
washi paper
Small Doodles
These doodles are perfect if you are working with limited space, or just want a small bit of cuteness :)) Each row corresponds with a monthly theme, and each sheet covers one half of the year.
washi paper
Tiny Doodles
We used to offer tiny doodles back in... 2024 perhaps!! I'm excited to bring these back again, because the tinier the stickers are, the more joy it brings. This has been scientifically proven.* Apart from being cute space-fillers, these also work great as extra-fancy bullet points!!
* Studies were conducted by Helen Wang of TheCoffeeMonsterzCo–a sticker maker. There may be a conflict of interest.
washi paper
Subtle & Sweet Doodles
Suuuper excited to share this addition to our doodle line-up!! Funnily, these doodles don't have outlines :)) As the title suggests, these doodles will look subtle on the page, perfect for anyone who want to keep decorations minimal.
Since the watercolour style was loved by some customers last year, I wanted to provide a doodle option that would suit their tastes, despite not doing watercolour artwork this year!
washi paper
Doodle Samplers
If you just need a few decorative elements to get by, these doodle samplers will come in handy!! Each quarterly sheet is roughly divided into three sections, featuring a mix of large and small doodles.
If purchasing the full doodle sheets, you won't be missing out on much if you skip on these samplers!! That said, I do know that many customers are dedicated to purchasing all of the designs (thank you!!) so I kept this in mind: a few of the doodles on these sheets are completely unique, the sizes differ from the full doodle sheets, and some doodles have different orientations.
washi paper
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Functional Stickers
There is a blurry line between what is considered "decorative" and what is considered "functional"... so please nevermind the categorizations haha. While functional stickers tend to be on the simpler side, each sheet has a little whimsical flare :)
Headings & Numbers
Popular for bullet journals and other undated planners! The matte paper option is great if you need to cover something up, and the washi paper option is great if you want the text to blend in with the paper :)
The black doodle version (second slide!) was designed for minimalists and creative souls who want to colour the text in themselves.
Finally, the numbers were designed with international customers in mind, who may not want English text in their planner.
washi paper
matte paper
Dots & Squares
Simple but essential sticker sheets! I had extra space on the regular dot sheets, so I added some dots with cute faces hehe.
Notable change: Unlike the mini dots & squares from past years, I have replaced them with small dots & rounded squares. These are 4mm wide instead of 3mm wide.
washi paper
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Premade Kits
I offer some premade kits for the monthly section of various planners. If your planner is not covered by one of the premade kits, please see the Coordinating Add-Ons section!! (coming soon)
Patchwork Pieces
For 2026, I designed a set of Paper Pieces that featured watercolour artwork and soft pencil lines–those were a hit!! Since I moved away from the watercolour style for 2027, I was in a conundrum; the bold, digitally drawn artwork looked incrediblly jarring when enclosed within the delicate paper sketches.
And so, I had to pivot. I had several trials, and my assistant can attest to the fact that I scrapped a version that was almost finished... I really am my own worst enemy haha. But I'm glad I did, because I came-up with this patchwork idea.
This sheet features layers of patterned "fabric" swatches, "stitched" together on the page, and fiinished off with some fun "patches"!! These pieces are meant to be tucked against the edges & in the corners of your journal pages, to frame the main content.
A frequent request was for the edge and corner pieces to be offered separately from the icons at the bottom, so I am pleased to make that happen for 2027!! The month text is cut separately so you can use these sheets for any month, and all of the doodles & shapes in the white space are all individual stickers too!!
Several customers in our Facebook group mentioned they were having a hard time visualizing what these stickers look like, so when I have some time, I will do a mock-spread and also show the cut lines :))
washi paper
matte paper
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More to come...
Comments
I only now realized that March-June kits were also shown with the Jan-Feb pic⬆️. Helen, they’re so utterly perfect — a very perfect transition “back” from the watercolor sketches.
If you would even consider — even if you end up not making them — creating sheets of the grumpy morning emoti (on the right side of the Jan. sheet), I would love it. I feel so SEEN!😂
I love it already!! I can’t wait for it to arrive!!!
I love the new designs!! Journaling is going to be so much for 2027…..I recently became a grandma so I was wondering if you have any stickers that you may suggest or create to fit my grandma moments? Thank you for all your hard work and creativity!!
Hello !!
Quick question !!
I want to know if there will be 2027 stickers like the 2026 ones that you stick on the cover of the Hobonichi ? 😊
Because I really love them and I can’t wait to order one to make my first video for my YouTube Channel after testing the Hobonichi cousin for 2026 😁
omg! i was really hoping there would be something similar to the ‘large page 1’ monthly sheets from 2026, im so glad these are going to exist without the icons (i have too many of them from other sheets lol) and in washi paper too!!! im getting the full 12 months for sure!
Helen, I love when you do the calendar day headers, I hope we get a Mon-Sun header collection again :) Also maybe a tiny icon for medication/vitamins. I’m so excited! -Flor
Would love to see examples later on how those patchwork pieces actually are supposed to go on the page. A little bit unsure how they work?
Truly appreciate all your creative hard work!! I love it all!!