Favorite Stationery

I make my journals myself! You can buy one in my Etsy shop. My classic "ripped" design (like the blue notebook pictured here) is made with 120gsm, dot-grid, bright white, super-smooth calligraphy paper, which is amazing for writing and drawing with ink. I also make custom notebooks (ie. custom cover designs, types of paper, grids / lines) - send me a message on Etsy for requests!

These are great for drawing and monoline lettering! My comfort zone is drawing black and white patterns so I've tested quite a few fineliner brands, and there are two that I always go back to: Micron and Unipin. I like these equally, maybe micron is a bit more of a brown-black while Unipin is a bit more of a blue-black but really... they're both black... They're great for getting lines of uniform thickness when drawing, and they use archival ink that won't bleed and can be layered with water-based markers or watercolor. The one caveat: if you also use these for writing, you'll wear through the nib pretty fast (but check out my favorite writing pens)

What I look for when I'm writing lots of text (ie. in my reading journal) is a pen that's going to flow smoothly on the page, that won't cramp up my hand, with ink that won't smudge, and that will essentially make it look like I have good handwriting! Here are my favorites, in order from least to most fancy:

- Uniball Signo DM 151 in 0.38mm - this might seem like a basic black gel pen but this particular one writes really thin and smooooth, it's my everyday go-to (I literally have these all over my house)!

- Zebra G402 in 0.5mm - this one writes just as well as the uniball pen above, but it looks a little more fancy because it's made of stainless steel rather than plastic, and it has a super comfortable grip.

- Lamy Safari Fountain Pen, Fine nib - Nothing writes smoother than a fountain pen, and as far as they go, this model is on the more affordable end. It also works with cartriges, which makes it a lot more manageable (and portable). One thing to watch out for - make sure you pair it with high-quality paper (the calligraphy paper I use in my notebooks is great for this) to avoid the ink bleeding!

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I have tested A LOT of brush pens, but there are really only 3 I reach for: they are all small black brush pens, so they're perfect for small headers in your journal or writing envelopes. Here are my 3 favorites:

- Tombow fudesnosuke, especially the hard-tip brush pen: I used this guy to learn calligraphy and definitely recommend it for beginners (and really any level)

- Pentel fude touch sign pen: also a harder nib that's great for learning, and probably my go-to nowadays. It also comes in tons of pretty colors.

- Kuretake Zig Cocoiro brush pen: I like this one because it is the smallest brush pen I've found and you can get some really thin upstrokes that look as close to pointed pen calligraphy as you can get with a brush pen.

Stickers are another super easy decorative element in your bullet journal. I like to buy stickers from small businesses & artists on Etsy and, of course, I also like to make my own that match my style and theme! Of course, you can find my stickers in my Etsy shop. The stickers I use the most are circle stickers - I use these for headers, to label individual dates, but also to cover mistakes! Some of my favorite stickers to use are:

- kraft circle stickers

- grid stickers

- lyric circle stickers (where the script actually has some meaning to me if anyone takes the time to read it!)

- My coffee doodle stickers

These are BIG brush pens, and I mostly use them to color things in or for the marker tip (rather than for big calligraphy) because there is such a variety in the color choices! I love to go to my favorite stationery shop and doing swatches before I buy new colors! Here are some of my favorites:

- Blue/Grey: N52

- Holly Green: 312
- Neutrals: 942 Tan / 992 Sand / 977 Saddle Brown / 947 Burnt Sienna / 969 Chocolate

These are similar to the Tombow dual brush pens mentioned above, except they come with a highlighter tip (instead of a brush tip) and a marker tip, plus they're a lot easier to carry around since they're not as tall as the Tombow dual brush pens. Again, tons of colors, but my two favorites are mild blue and mild brown.

Washi tape is such an easy, versatile way to decorate any journal spread or craft project. I use it to stick papers or photos in my journal, as a removable frame for artwork, or just to decorate (I especially like to use washi tape to make certain page borders stand out or as a backdrop for cut-out tabs). You can get washi tape pretty much anywhere these days, but thewashitapeshop has a lot of beautiful designs, including my favorites: the 10-piece vintage color set and classic window pane grid set.

If you couldn't tell from the above picture, these have gotten a LOT of use. I love the old-school typewriter look of this type, plus this set includes numbers and a super-portable box. You can use them with any ink pad, but I also like to use my brush pens instead of ink (just use the brush pen to "color" the letter then stamp) so the color options are endless!

This is the most beautiful thing I have ever bought. I originally got it as calligraphy ink, and it works beautifully with a pointed pen and nib, but I've also used it a lot to create gold splatters on various projects and it always looks amazing. You need to shake it really well each time you use it, and it takes a little while to dry but there's something mesmerizing about the way the gold shimmers as it dries, and the outcome is worth it!

I like to paste pictures & scrap paper in my journal, so I always have some form of glue or adhesive with me. Any glue stick will do really, but if you want to get obsessive about it like I do, this Tombow glue is my personal favorite. I also love a roll-on adhesive, like this one from Tombow, because it's a super-thin layer that won't warp your paper (and this particular one sticks really well).

Looking at journal spreads on instagram can give the impression that some people never make mistakes, and that's just not possible. So how do you cover up mistakes? The simplest solution is often the best, and plain old white-out really is a journaler's best friend. For smaller mistakes, I like to use a white gel pen - specifically the Uniball Signo White gel pen - or a white Archer&Olive acrylograph. And for larger mistakes, I either cover it up with a sticker, glue the pages together, or cut out a page from the back of my notebook and paste it over my mistake! Or you know, we can learn to live with our mistakes... (easier said than done!)

Composition really is half the work, and often takes half the time of any journal spread or drawing I make. There’s something cathartic about winging it but 90% of the time, I sketch out my pieces in pencil before hand. Really ANY PENCIL WILL DO, as in any store-bought #2 / HB pencil, really, but I do have some recommendations:

1. If you have drawing pencils that are harder than HB (ie, 2H), the lines will be lighter and easier to erase.

2. You might prefer a mechanical pencil because it’s more portable / you don’t have to sharpen it / the lines are pretty constant in thickness / any reason really, then this is the one I use and I really like it. I also really like the eraser it comes with, and you can buy refills for the eraser end too!

3. Get a good eraser! There’s nothing worse than eraser that just smudges the pencil marks or damages the paper. Like I said I’m a fan of the Tombow Mono erasers, but the one I’ve been using for years is a free promotional eraser I stole from my Dad so I can’t really recommend it… The other type or eraser I can recommend is the Tombow Sand eraser, which is a really grainy/rough eraser that WILL damage your paper if you over-use it but is great for erasing / lightening mistakes in ink.

If you're new to journaling and want to try these favorites without getting overwhelmed with choices - or if you're dying to get these favorites all in one place plus some unique handmade items, then you are exactly who I made this for! I made or curated every item in this kit so you'll have everything you need to get started:

• A handmade A5 dot-grid journal made with 120gsm calligraphy paper. The cover's ripped design is available in 3 colors: Navy blue, Sage green, and Coffee brown.
• A hand-printed pouch to store all your supplies
• 3 sticker sheets: kraft circle stickers, sienna grid circle stickers, and script headers.
• 4 gold clips to hold your notebook flat open.
• 2 washi tapes: a neutral beige and a black and white grid washi.
• A micron fineliner, in size 03 (my go-to).
• A tombow fudenosuke hard nib brush pen
• A uniball signo white gel pen, both to fix small mistakes and to write or draw on darker paper
• A dual-tipped zebra mildliner in mild brown,
aka the perfect touch of color.
• A little instruction booklet.