Bullet Journal for Beginner’s Series: Part 2 (Bullet Journal Materials)

Welcome to a bullet journal for beginners guide! Bullet journalling may seem overwhelming at first but this series will guide you through the ins and outs and you’ll be ready to start your own bullet journal in no time!

This is part 2 of the series: bullet journal materials… What do you need for bullet journalling? I am going to be walking you through some of my favorites, things I could not live without, and some good materials for beginners!

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Let me get started by saying you can begin your bullet journal journey with whatever you have in front of you. You can use your spare notebook that’s halfway full that you’re not using anymore with a blue run of the mill pen if you’d like. You can buy the fanciest of fancy notebooks and splurge on the entire tombow collection. What is most important is to find what will make you the most happy. Bullet journalling can be looked at as a time commitment. For this reason it has to be something you enjoy with products you can’t wait to use!

Bullet Journals

When you first start bullet journalling it does not matter what you use for a journal. If you just want to give it a shot you can use whatever notebook you have laying around. You can use a lined notebook, or a dotted notebook, or a grid notebook, or even a blank notebook! I was gifted a dotted notebook so I used that right from the start and I did like how it gave me the feel for a dotted book right from the get go. I prefer the dots to give me some guidance in forming my collections/spreads while still giving me flexibility and not being too distracting!

Here are some popular bullet journal options…

Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook A5 Hardcover Dotted – This will be my 2019 bullet journal and I am excited to try it! It has often been regarded as one of the classic bullet journals.

• 249 Numbered Pages
• Cream colored paper
• 80 GSM (paper thickness)
• Back pocket, 2 place markers, elastic closing band, blank table of contents

Scribbles That Matter Notebook A5 Hardcover Dotted – After I try the Leuchtturm 1917 I look forward to trying the Scribbles That Matter. The higher weighted paper draws me in!

• 201 Numbered Pages
• White paper
• 100 GSM (paper thickness)
• Back pocket, 2 place markers, elastic closing band, blank table of contents, pen holder

Dingbats A5 Hardcover Notebook – This is another popular and more up and coming bullet journal.

• 192 Pages
• Cream colored paper
• 100 GSM (paper thickness)
• Back pocket, 1 or 2 place markers, elastic closing band, pen holder

Artist’s Loft Bullet Journal – This is an excellent option for beginners. At a great price of $5, you have nothing to lose by trying it! It does have slight more ghosting than other options however it’s a great place to start.

• 249 Pages
• White Paper
• 80 GSM (paper thickness)
• 2 place markers, elastic closing band

Pens

You can use any pen in your bullet journal. You can use a blue ballpoint or a sharpie or a black gel pen or only markers or other fancy pens! (Are you starting to get the theme here? You can use whatever you desire while bullet journalling! That’s the beauty of it, you make it what you need and want out of it.) I tend to use two different styles of pens. The first is a pen with pigma ink (essentially it is a similar quality to a permanent marker). I use this for all my set up including drawing tables, writing titles, or creating doodles. The second type of pen I use is a gel pen. I use black gel pens for the filling in of my journal such as writing things in my to do lists, adding events to my calendar, or jotting notes down.

My favorite pigma pen is the Sakura Micron. My first pack was the one that had three sizes: 01, 03, 05. Initially I used 01 for more delicate drawing and writing and 05 for table set ups and 03 for anything in between. These pens do not bleed, they do not ghost, and they are a nice sharp black color.

For black gel pens I am currently using the Ban.do pens because I was gifted them and I think they are cute! But after I use these pens up I will probably just buy a standard black gel pen like Uni-ball Signo.

Markers

I LOVE tombows. They write beautifully. They are easy to use. They do not ghost. They are easy to write over in pen.

At my local craft store they sell individual Tombow’s. The marker packs are an investment, and even though I heard nothing but good things, I wasn’t quite ready to make the splurge. So for starters I picked two colors that I was drawn to and just bought those two markers. I chose a blush pink, Tombow 772, and a medium gray color, Tombow N65. All of my initial collections and spreads including my entire first month were done in just these two colors. They allowed me to experiment with the marker and also get a feel for the bullet journal. Once I knew bullet journalling was for me I thought I would begin to invest in more materials.

Naturally I fell in love with the Tombow.

The first set I bought was the Tombow Pastel Palette. I initially choose this because I was drawn to the pretty pastel colors! But I also knew the colors would work well with the next theme I was going to try which was a sunflower theme.

The second set I bought was the Tombow Secondary Palette. I choose this palette because I knew I could use these deeper richer colors in several of my upcoming themes including a fall theme littered with red, orange, yellow, green, and brown, a pumpkin theme, and I can use the red and green for my Christmas theme! This so far has been my most versatile palette.

Another popular choice of markers for bullet journallers are the Crayola Super Tips. They are often a great choice for beginners. They have tons of color selections, can also be used for calligraphy, and are very inexpensive! I have the Crayola Super Tips 100 pack and love the selection however I find since I started bullet journalling with a much cheaper journal with thinner paper these markers ghost (bleed through to the other side of the paper) a lot. I also find that the color is so pigmented you can not really see writing through the marker and I often use the markers to highlight lines which I write over.

I would choose the Tombows as my marker of choice due to the fact they tend to not ghost through the paper, they are easy to write over and still have visibility of the words, and in general I like the way the write, especially for calligraphy.

Other

Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen– These pens were a game changer for me! I use them as a corrective measure. If one of my puppies bump my elbow or I miss writing a date I can just trace over my mistake with one of these white gel pens. The mistake is then gone! I let it dry for a few seconds and I can write over it.

Below are some other popular bullet journal materials. You should start with the bare minimum until you find your bullet journal style. You might love washi tape, you might not. You might want to use a ruler to draw very straight lines, or you might want to free hand (like me!).

–Washi Tape

–Ruler

–Whiteout

–Stickers

I hope this helps give you some guidance on what materials to start with on your bullet journal! Do you have any bullet journal must haves I missed?! Comment below!

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Bullet Journal for Beginner’s Series

Part 1: The Who/What/When/Where/Why. A bullet journal introduction .

Part 2: Bullet journal materials… What do you need? (you are here!)

Part 3: Initial set up of a bullet journal (the Key and the Index) .

Part 4: Annual vs Monthly vs Weekly vs Daily Spreads .

Part 5: Annual Collections .

Part 6: Monthly Collections .

Part 7a: Annual Plan With Me .

Part 7b: Monthly Plan With Me .