Although you can certainly journal and bullet journal with minimal supplies (literally the only must-haves are a place to write and something to write with), I personally love using my journal as both a creative outlet and a place to organize my life. My bullet journal is the primary place where I explore my creativity. I experiment with lettering, illustration, colors, collaging, design, and creating in general. That being said, the more creative you get, the more supplies you will accumulate. After over 4 years of bullet journaling, I’ve experimented with a lot of different supplies: here’s some of the staples that I love using!
Journals
For my journals, I almost exclusively use Archer and Olive Notebooks. I’ve have tried a lot of notebook brands in my 5 years of bullet journaling, (Leuchtturm, Nuuna, Scribbles That Matter) and Archer and Olive is by far the best I’ve found. They don’t carry the exact notebooks I have anymore, but they always have lots of cute designs, paper types, and styles. For 2022, I’m using a B5 for my regular journal and a B6 for my reading journal.
Sketching & Illustrating
These are what I primarily use to sketch out and draw any layouts or illustrations in my journal I almost always sketch in pencil first, go over it in ink, then erase the pencil markings.
Everyday Writing
Brush Calligraphy
I honestly do faux calligraphy a lot of times in my journal, which means I just use a regular pen and fill in the downstrokes. If I do use an actual brush pen, it’s one of these to brands, or crayolas (seriously, try it).
Paint Pens
Make sure to test out any paint pens in the back of your notebook before you use them in a spread. In a lot of notebooks, they bleed through or ghost. However, Archer & Olive notebook paper is super thick. These are fun to use on the kraft or black-out paper notebooks.
PRO TIP –> I especially like using white paint markers to paint out any mistakes I make on a page!
Accent Colors
I use my Zebra mildliners on the daily, both in my journals and to highlight quotes in any books I’m reading. For the Tombow Dual brush pens, I typically use the black one and a super light gray one to add shadows to lettering, or light rows to charts. I can’t even tell you what pen color # I use because I use it so much the writing has rubbed right off!
I also love Crayola markers because 1. they’re cheap; 2. they have a lot of colors, and 3. they have a flexible tip, meaning that with some practice, you can use these markers for some easy brush calligraphy!
Tools & Multimedia
Organization
I used to run a hand-lettering business, so between that and journaling, I have accumulated a LOT of different kinds of pens and markers. I searched for years for the perfect way to organize them all, and I just about fainted when I found this organizer at The Container Store. I can’t explain how satisfying it was to sort everything out and add labels.
I also love having this pegboard at my desk. I store a lot of my office supplies, washi tapes, and pens here for easy access. I plan on doing a full tour of my reading nook & office space for another post, so stay tuned for that!
PRO TIP: There’s a lot of places to gather free, recycled, or cheap materials for your journal if you’re wanting to use a variety of media types.
- kraft paper from gift sacks, grocery sacks, etc
- stickers from local businesses you enjoy
- clearance sections at craft stores
- old magazines & newspapers (often sold for cheap at libraries)
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