Plan With Bri: The Supplies

Welcome to the wonderful world of Bullet Journaling; an underground community of creative people who believe cursive isn’t dead and every aspect of life can be fit into a two-page spread. I am in my second year of journaling and BOY OH BOY HAVE A LEARNED A LOT. If I can pass on any *sage* words of advice it is this:

Don’t be a perfectionist.

If you are, you’ll never actually journal anything. Trust me, I was a perfectionist once. I remember getting my first journal and just staring at it hoping it would design itself. I was so afraid that the tiniest mark would "ruin" the page. The beauty of journaling is the mistakes, so say YOJO (you only journal once) and just create a page that makes YOU happy.

But if you hate it...

PRO TIP: Just tape/glue the page together and act like *nothing happened*

You know how people lose it when a new Apple product comes out? Well that’s me every time I step foot in the stationery supplies aisle at Michaels. People always ask what I use for my journal so here’s my go-to supplies and links if interested. In my next “Plan with Bri” post I’ll be planning out August/ September and sharing my school layouts and some fun going abroad spreads so stay tuned for that and skip this if you hate someone rambling about stationary.

The Journal

I am currently sporting a Leuchtturm1917 Dotted Hardcover Journal in the color Emerald (Ooo fancy I know) This is the brand that most bullet journal-ers use. The dotted pages make it great to create spreads in whatever which way you want. This is an *official* bullet journal which I recommend for beginners because it has a bunch of tips in it and the index is already set up for you. However, it’s not necessary whatsoever and I don’t even look at those pages honestly (whoops).

Writing Utensils

I always use pencil first when planning out my journals. So make sure you have a good pencil and eraser on hand.

My holy grail of pens are Micron. I LOVE Microns. They don’t fade, they don’t bleed through the paper, and they come in a variety of sizes and colors. 05 is my preferred size for most of my writing. The only downside is they take a few seconds to dry and I have been too excited and have just continued writing or immediately started erasing my pencil marks. This ended up smudging my hard work. They do not take long to dry and will last- just be careful. You have been warned. Also, I just got the colors Navy Blue and Burgundy and I am in LOVE.

My favorite way to add color is with my Tombow brush pens. They do not bleed through the paper and have two tips to draw with. The brush is great for coloring and highlighting, while the other nib is great for calligraphy and just thicker lines than what I get with my Microns. You can buy set packs or just go to Michael’s and get your favorite colors and create your own color palette (that’s what I did).

I love to add a metallic pop to words or little doodles to fill spaces, so I love to use a gold gel pen to do so. My favorite is this Uni-Ball Gel Impact pen. Takes a while to dry but completely worth it.

Tapes

Okay this is where I have a problem. I love collecting various washi tapes. I am a sucker for golds and florals so that is the majority of my collection. It’s the easiest way to add designs and color to your journal. The best(and one of the cheapest) places to get washi tape is AliExpress. I spend hours just surfing here.

I also HAVE to have my Elmer’s Tape Runner which I use to glue down cut-out pictures or whatever I need. I also use glue dots from time to time but they are thicker than tape which leaves things kinda popping off the page which is *sometimes* the effect I want. I DESPISE glue (besides the occasional glue stick, they are okay I guess) so this is so much easier.

ETC.

I love cutting out magazines and newspapers to make headings or just add pictures to my journal. So save magazines and newspapers because you never know if there’s an image you can use inside. I’m lucky that Glamour magazine keeps mysteriously showing up at my door even though I DIDN’t order it. I don’t really want to call an ask about it, I’m just going to accept this as a gift from my

~',*magical fairy magazine-mother.*,`~

It also doesn’t hurt getting some craft paper to use for whatever you may need. I like to cut out shapes and write headers on the colorful paper. It’s even great to divide up the page into sections. I don’t know, just let your imagination free. I picked up an 100 piece pack for like a dollar at Michael's a while ago and I still haven’t run out so props to Michael's for selling paper at a BARGIN.

Conclusion

This is all you will need to create a mediocre-at-best journal like mine. I'm going to go spend hours on Pinterest looking up inspiration only to be discouraged by my lack of artistic ability!!! I'll probably reference this page a lot when talking about my Bullet Journal in the future so be on the look out for more fun updates. I leave you now with some of my favorite *artsy* spreads I did recently to show you that the journal can be