Today I want to talk about one my favourite subjects: art materials! Specifically my favourite art supplies to use in my Bullet Journal spreads (because honestly I could be here all week talking about all my favourite art goodies…)

My decorated bullet journal is part scrapbook, part planner, part memory keeping project and my favourite way for me to play around and have fun creatively! I create a monthly overview and use this as a calendar, but this journal is more about recording memories and having fun with the decoration (also part of that memory-keeping process!) than forward planning.

A supply list to get you started with creative bullet journaling

I just want to mention that I have a lot of art supplies and you certainly do not need everything in this post to get started! If you want to make colourful, hand-drawn pages like mine here are the basics you’ll need:

• a journal or notebook: go for one with thicker pages if you want to add a lot of colour!
• basic drawings supplies: graphite pencil, sharpener and eraser
• inking supplies: some black fineliners (various widths are handy for adding details but you can get started with just one, 03 or 05 are good options)
• some colour: water based pens and coloured pencils are good options, along with gel pens and even acrylic paint pens for details

And that’s it! You might find that you have a lot of these already, especially if you have young children. If you’re new to this sort of planning, you could always raid the kids’ markers and pencils and have a play with them to get a feel for what you enjoy using.

My favourite Bullet Journal art supplies

I’m always interested in what other artists use in their work (because (a) I am nosey and (b) because I’m always on the lookout for new materials to try!) so here’s a comprehensive list of the supplies I like to use in my journal.

1. The Basics

• The journals: Scribbles That Matter A5 dot grid journal and Archer and Olive A5 dot grid journal
• Graphite pencils: Uni-Ball Kuru Toga 0.5 mechanical pencil and Staedtler Noris Eco HB pencils
• Black pens: Uni-Pin fineliners, Pigma Micron PN and Tombow Fudenosuke brush pens
• Eraser: Staedtler Mars plastic eraser
• Pencil Sharpener: T’Gaal Adjustable Pencil Sharpener

I’ve used both the Scribbles That Matter and Archer and Olive A5 dot grid journals, they’re pretty similar in terms of size and paper and both take lots of ink and colour very well.

The process for my decorated pages is always the same: start with a rough pencil sketch, then ink using fineliners (or Fudenosuke brush pens) and erase the worst of the visible pencil marks. I don’t bother using a ruler or other drawing aids as I’m not worried about wonky lines but you could use a ruler to help here if you’d prefer a crisper, cleaner look. I also use the same fineliners I ink the drawing with to add in my plans and write notes on the spreads I create.

2. The Colours

• Water-based brush markers: Tombow Dual Brush pens, Sakura Koi and Ohuhu Journal Dual brush pens
• Coloured pencils: Prismacolor Premier and Faber-Castel Polychromos pencils
• Coloured fineliners: Stabilo 88 and Staedtler Triplus fineliners
• Gel pens: Uni-Ball Signo white and gold and silver metallic gel pens
• Acrylic markers: Posca paint markers

This is where the quality paper in the Scribbles That Matter and Archer and Olive journals comes into its own: with all the colour. I use a lot of layers of water-based marker pens and coloured pencils to build up the colour and both journals take it all really well with minimal bleeding or ghosting. I often add extra details over the top of all that with coloured fineliners and white gel pen so the paper needs to be robust! I’ll also use the lighter coloured brush markers to highlight over my text where needed (no need for additional highlighter pens!).

When I’m creating illustrations for my shop, I often use watercolours and alcohol markers as my first layer. I don’t use them in my bullet journal for a couple of reasons – (a) because I like the distinction the different materials create between “work” and “play” and (b) because it’s asking a lot of the notebook paper to take wet media or alcohol based inks, especially when you want to use the back of the page too. Watercolour washes might buckle the paper and the alcohol markers will bleed through to the reverse of the page (and maybe even through to the next page too!) so I stick to water based pens as my base layer in my journal.

3. The Stamps

• Waffle Flower Crafts Clear Stamps – Planner Dates – sadly no longer available at the time of writing, hopefully they will be back soon!
• Alphabet stamps: Clark’s ABCs, Quinn’s Capitals and Quinn’s 123s from Lawn Fawn, and Big Outline Alphabet and Basic Alphabet by Studio L2E.
• Tsukineko Brilliance Ink Pad in Graphite Black
• Acrylic blocks
• Synthetic chamois cloth (for cleaning)
• Small sticky notes – handy for masking off sections when stamping

I am very much a novice stamper, and not a very good one at that! I often end up restamping or colouring over the mistakes I make when stamping but these errors don’t worry me, they’re all part of the character of the page. A white gel pen comes in handy to tidy up mistakes here and there.

The Planner Dates set is definitely my most used, I use it on every monthly and weekly spread I create. If I don’t fancy hand lettering the bigger alphabet stamps come in very handy for adding a quick and easy title. The outline versions are perfect as I can colour them in to fit the rest of my spread.

And that’s it, all my favourite art materials for creative bullet journaling! Here’s a final reminder that if you’d like to create similar style bullet journal spreads you can get started with just a few basic art supplies: a pencil, an eraser, black fineliner pens and a small selection of water based markers and / or coloured pencils. And maybe a stamp set and ink pad if hand-lettering isn’t for you!

A quick note about the links: for most of the links above (all non-affiliate) I’ve linked directly to the manufacturer’s website or to my favourite Cult Pens (not only do they carry so many fabulous pens – be still my beating heart! – but they also offer international shipping). Many of these supplies will also be available from your local art or craft shops along with the big online retailers wherever you are in the world! And of course, the materials I mentioned are interchangeable: any non-water soluble black fineliner that doesn’t smudge when you use a water based coloured pen over it will work just as well as the ones I have listed. I hope this list will be a helpful starting point if you’d like to create similar decorated journal pages!

If you’d like to browse all my favourite art supplies in one place, here’s my Amazon storefront (this is an affiliate link, if you click and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you):

However you decide to use your bullet journal, I hope you have lots of fun with it and that it helps you record your thoughts, memories, ideas and plans and that it helps you stay organised! Happy journalling!

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