Materials & Supplies for Journaling
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Notebooks
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Archer & Olive has become my go-to brand for dot grid notebooks. The thick 160 gsm paper holds up incredibly well to all sorts of pens with no ghosting. These notebooks feel luxurious with fabric covers and beautiful bookmark accents.
I have recently started using the larger B5 dot grid notebook, and I love the extra space it provides. Archer & Olive also stocks a variety of "specialty" notebooks with black paper, kraft paper, gilded edges, and more.
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One of my very first bullet journals was from Scribbles That Matter and it was an amazing entry point into journaling. These journals feature a few pre-printed pages for your "index", "key" and more. They have 160 gsm paper and come in a couple different sizes (A5, B5, B6).
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I love the covers and style of these notebooks. The covers have a unique texture and animals embossed on the front (I have this blue "whale" cover notebook).
These notebooks also feature "cream" colored pages, and the pages are 100gsm, so a little thinner than the others in this list.
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Pens
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These are my go-to, every day writing pens. I use them for almost everything. Most of my writing in my journal is done with the Extra-Superfine (XS) pen. These pens dry extremely fast and I have never had issues with smudging or bleeding.
I am also a huge fan of the "Soft Chisel" (SC) pen. It is super effective at filling in large areas with solid black. I find that the soft tip is much easier to control and work into corners while the chisel gives more structure than a normal brush tip would.
All of these pens and more can be found in this 8 pack starter set.
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Even though I like to keep my journal pretty minimal, these Zebra Mildliners give me just the right pop of color. I mainly use the bold end to create headers and highlight important things that I need to remember.
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Tombow Dual Brush pens are widely used in the journaling community. While a lot of journalers use the brush end to make beautiful lettering, I tend to use them similar to the Zebra Mildliners to highlight important things.
They come in a TON of different colors, but I primarily use this grey tones set.
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I like to use a variety of paper in my journal, and when writing on black and brown paper/tape, these white gel pens have been the best for me. They lay down solid white that is hard to beat. (And they work great on my black masking tape!)
Stickers & Washi
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When I first started bullet journaling, I was looking for simple black washi tape to accent my spreads. To my shock, it was very hard to find. I ended up buying masking tape and cutting it down to a thinner size. This set me on a path to stock it in my own shop.
Each roll provides 60 yards of tape (way more than the usual washi tape roll). The tape is 6mm wide and is writeable with white gel pens.
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When it comes to setting up my daily planner pages, I love having these stickers to make setting up the page super quick. I still get a nice bold look, but in much less time.
Each of these number sticker sheets comes with enough numbers for a full month (00-31).
Paper
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Translucent tracing paper is a great way to add texture and interesting visual elements to your bullet journal. This tracing paper is my favorite because it is relatively inexpensive and the 100 GSM paper weight makes it sturdier than normal tracing paper.
I've been using this frequently ever since purchasing it for my January 2021 "Shoji Door" theme!
Tools
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Besides a pen, a ruler is possibly my #1 bullet journal tool. I couldn't even dream of drawing a straight line without one. I love this Westcott ruler because it has a cork base which helps it stay in place and also ensures that my pen tips don't get scraped.
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Another design I come back to frequently in my bullet journal is the circle. I use this compass with the attached pen adapter (linked below). It is a little pricier, but make sure you get the compass with the detachable ends if you want to attach the pen adapter!
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Before finding this adapter, I would draw the circle with a pencil and then go over it with pen by hand. Needless to say, my circles got a lot cleaner once I could attach my pen to the compass and make them all in one pass.
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You will often see me cutting masking and washi tape in my journal. To get precise cuts, I use this X-Acto knife. I find it allows me to get a cut, but with a light enough touch that I don't (often) cut through the pages of my journal.
