My Bullet Journal Supplies Fails and Wins

So I decided after my last post that I needed something a lot more lighthearted. I know I've mentioned this year that I've kind of stopped blogging because I started bullet journaling, which has become my favoured form of journaling now. One thing I've really noticed in the BuJo community is that people have a ridiculous amount of supplies for these little notebooks. So I thought I would share what I have tried that I decided wasn't my speed, and also the things I've tried that I love and will continue to use.

NIKKI FAILS

-Staedtler Triplus Fineliners
This was probably the biggest shock for me. They used to be my go-to pens for everything. I loved them. I have a 42 pack of them, so they definitely gave me colour variety. However, I couldn't do thicker lines of colour with them, and trying to colour in pictures or squares with them often caused them to bleed on to the other side of the page. So now my sad 42-pack sits in my desk drawer. I'm thinking they'll probably end up being used a lot for notes for university more than anything else.

-Zebra Mildliners
This was the first thing I really tried to bring colour to my journals with. I used some Christmas money to get them, and honestly they didn't meet my needs. I didn't get enough variety in colours, which is important to me. I especially didn't get many colours I actually liked. So while they seem to be a hot item in the community, they definitely weren't for me. I gifted them to my boys when they decided to jump on the bullet journal train.

-Stencils
I had intended to have bullet journaling help me become more crafty, and I figured stencils would be a great way to do that. I tried them for the first 3 months, and honestly, they just felt like a lot of work to me. Artsy creativity is just not me, and I've come to really embrace that about my self over the past 6 months.

Faber Castell PITT Artist Pens
-I already had some of these that John had given me in my stocking one year. As just a writing pen, I still love them. However, I found they really like to smear a lot when I put colour over top of them, so I started looking for an alternative for my main black pen.

Steadtler Pigment Liners
-I tried these next instead of the previous pens. I liked them even less. I found they didn't write nicely, and I'm kind of a stationery snob, so that was a big hang up for me. I use these black pens a lot each day, so it needs to be something I enjoy using, at least for me.

-Scribbles That Matter Pro Dotted A5 Notebook
It's kind of funny that this is on here, since I've barely even started setting mine up to become my new journal in August. However, I can already tell the the ribbons aren't as nice as the ones in the Leuchtturm 1917s, and the thread binding is definitely not as good. I do like that it has an elastic pen loops, but that just doesn't make up for it's drawbacks for me. However, I'll stick it out for the (estimated) 4 months it'll take me to fill it, and then I'll be back to my notebook of choice.

NIKKI WINS

-Washi Tape
Now, I hardly ever use washi tape to actually decorate my pages with. That would be a fail for me. However, I use it as monthly dividers by wrapping it on both sides of the edge of the first page for each month. It works awesome for this purpose and makes it so easy to find what I'm looking for. I do, occasionally use colourable washi tape to decorate with, but that's very seldom. The main time I use it is the colourable cupcake washi tape I have. I tear off one cupcake, put on on a daily when it's someone's birthday and colour it in with their favourite colour, or a colour that reminds me of them. I got the cupcake washi tape in a subscription box that I got for 3 months.

-Tombow Dual Brush Pens
I cannot say enough good things about these markers. I have the full set of 96, which definitely satisfies my need for colour variety. They have a big brush tip as well as a bullet tip, which enables me to both colour in and write with them, which was important to me, since that is how I make my journals visually appealing to me. The pigmentation for them is phenomenal and they don't bleed through paper, since they are water based. If you have the money, they are definitely worth the price.

-Tombow Mono Drawing Pens
So these are the black pens I ended up settling on. They write very nicely and as long as I let them have about one minute to dry, they don't smear when I colour over them. Tombow has really become my preferred brand over Staedtler. They are more costly, but I truly find the quality to be worth it.

-Pentel Energize Mechanical Pencil 0.7
These have been my pencils of choice for years now, and I honestly can't see that ever changing.

-Fine Nib Platinum Preppy Fountain Pens
This started when I got a red one of these in a subscription box. I love them! They are fairly inexpensive and write extremely well for the cost. John even uses them, and he's a lefty so he normally avoids fountain pens. I use these for my daily journal prompts as well as my journal entries for how each day went. Eventually I hope to move to a higher quality fountain pen for these, but for now, the Platinum Preppy pens definitely do the job.

-Printables on Sticker Paper
This has been a must for me last month and this month. My wrists have been bad, but I like tracking a lot, so I did up printables of most of my trackers on my laptop. I print them off, trim them down to size, and stick them in my journal to use. They do add bulk to the journal, but for me it's worth it.

-Leuchtturm 1917 A5 Dotted Notebooks
These are hands down my favourite easily accessed journals. They are paginated, thread bound, and just plain awesome. They come in a large assortment of colours, which I love. They are definitely the notebook I would recommend, hands down.

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So that's about it. I still have a deep love for using my bullet journal. It's part of my daily life, and I can't see that changing any time in the foreseeable future.