I promised in my earlier BuJo post that I would share some of the stationery I purchased to set up my bullet journal. Well, here is that post! I’ve provided some links where I can just to show you the product, but none of them are affiliate links so get them from wherever you want.

The journal itself

When it came to the dot journal itself, I wanted something with thicket pages because I knew I would be using coloured pens and I didn’t want them seeping through the paper. But I also wasn’t too keen on spending a small fortune on a book that I might not end up connecting with or continuing. So I sourced a happy medium and found myself a journal by Scribbles That Matter– I purchased a purple Pro 160gsm version., which cost $30AUD

The journal comes in a really nice box and has a black felt tip pen included. It also has a neat ruler that helps you divide your pages into equal segments.

One of the things I love most about this journal is that each spread lays flat, so it makes it really nice to write and draw in. The two bookmarks are really handy for swapping between yearly and weekly spreads, too. Definitely a great first journal.

Dual-tip pens

Having done a decent amount of research before starting my own bujo I knew that I would be wanting some decent coloured pens, and a popular type was a dual-tip, where one end had a nice brush version, and the other a thin felt tip style. Again, I wasn’t keen on spending a small fortune, but I still wanted something with variety and that would last awhile.

I ended up finding a series of pens from a brand called Ohuhu, and got a 60 pen set that came in a pretty decorative tube (that tube swayed me a lot more than I’d care to admit!!)

The pens are really lovely – I use the brush side for filling in sections and the felt tip end for drawing borders and stuff. They also came with a swatch that matched the colours with the numbers, though I found it wasn’t very accurate so made my own. I’m really happy with the pens, though. This set cost me $31AUD from Amazon.

Dual-tip highlighters

So, as good as those coloured pens were, as I started mocking up my journal I realised that whilst they were great for colouring and drawing and what not, they did not work well at all as a way to mark a date on a calendar, for example, or use as a background colour for text. They were much too vibrant and overwhelmed the text.

The other pens I had seen people use in their bullet journals was “faded” highlighters. Well, that’s what they looked like anyway. After some hunting in peoples’ videos to capture them in use, I found a popular brand from Japan called Mildliner. I ended up getting a bundle of 25 pens from Amazon ($53AUD), and also purchased a separate 5 pen set ($10.50AUD) from a local store here called Washi Gang.

These were the most expensive thing I purchased towards my bujo. But they were worth it. They add just the softest touch of colour to a page that really makes writing pop. Just gorgeous. I will probable continue getting the new releases each year.

Black pens… and white pens

One of the things that I noticed really quickly was that although my journal came with its own felt-tip pen, it was a little too thick for me and my handwriting. I’m trying to get better with writing smaller in the journal (that’s just how it is) but the pen that came with it just wasn’t cutting it (nice as it is). Again, after some more research, I came across a highly recommended brand of felt-tip pens – Sakura Pigma Micron Drawing pens ($17.50AUD). I scored a 6 pack of pens – 5 felt tips of various sizes, and one brush pen.

I tell you what, these were worth every darn cent. They are an absolute delight to write and draw with. The tip of the smallest is just so teeny and tiny!! So delicate. Highly recommended.

But of course, if I had black pens and coloured pens and highlighters, the only colour pen I was missing by this point was white! I stuck with the Sakura brand and went with a 3 pack of Sakura Gelly Roll in Classic White ($12AUD).

Truthfully I’ve not had a chance to use these yet, but the quick scribbles I did when I first got them was promising! Again, 3 didn’t tip sizes, too, which is really helpful.

Pen case

With all these dozens of pens, I needed to find a way to organise and store everything. I spent AGES trying to find something that I thought would be suitable. I’m happy with what I chose because it’s practical, but I really need to get some decals or something on it because it’s boring to look at being all black!

Another Amazon purchase, this one promoted itself as having 184 slots – and it does – however using every single slot is not possible with aby of the pens I have, so they are quite spaced out. But it was still a good buy overall. $30AUD

Also, because I’m a control freak and also because I wanted to know how each pen looked, I made some swatch cards for everything. The Ohuhu pens already had numbers on them so that was fantastic, but the mildliner pens did not, and were written in Japanese to boot, so not readable for me. So today I made some little number stickers and stuck them to the bottom of each pen. Easy!

Pouch and travel pen case

The last pieces I purchased were for transport purposes. First up, my beautiful book pouch from Charlie and Fox (it’s also where I got my stunning dust jackets from!). I had actually already purchased a pouch for my journal, but then this one came out shortly after and it was a no brainer – this was for my buju:

You can purchase this pouch from here. It’s got a soft padding in it – they are originally designed for carrying your books around, but I use min for transport thing.

And then the last piece, which needed to be able to fit into the pouch, but had to be big enough to hold all the pens for the month and the front section. I came across this gorgeous roll-up pencil case ($12AUD).

I thought it was going to be small when I got it, but it’s actually the perfect size!

So there you have it – all of the bujo supplies I purchased when I started my journal. Thankfully I already had all the other pieces on hand, such as washi tape and coloured/patterned paper so that helped save some money, and I can print out stickets when and as needed. But I will say this – you can make a great bullet journal using only a black pen. Don’t feel you have to go overboard with ‘all the things’ The key is to make it yours and make sure you use it.