Ever since I have been home and taking online classes I have fallen back in love with my bullet journal. Its perfect for making simple to do list, a monthly calendar or a daily schedule. It has also been really therputic to make the layouts each week and see them come together. Now, I am not naturally gifted with perfect hand writing, but I’ve discovered a few tips for creating layouts that I’m proud of!
- Make a Sketch
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So, I had to learn this the hard way, but now I always sketch out what my page will look like in pencil before I go over it with a pen. This allows you to make sure that the spacing will work out and takes away the chance for silly errors. This is a picture of a layout I made just this week. You can scroll down to see how it turned out!
p.s. Its always good to test out whether the pen or marker you are using will smear when you try to erase the pencil marks around it or not.
- Pens
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You can make a bullet journal layout with any kind of pens or markers but if you are serious about lettering or want a very versitil writing utincil, I suggest dual brush pens. I just ordered these pens off Amazon. They are not very expensive at all but so far they work great. They work for lettering or coloring and have a thin tip to do outlines on the other end.
- Washi Tape
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Another item I recommend getting is washi tape. This stuff is so cute! These are the patterns I ordered. Once again, they are not expensive, and they make them in every color or pattern you can think of. Its perfect for covering up mistakes or just adding a pop of fun to your lay out.
- Embrace Mistakes
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You are going to make mistakes. Whether its mispelling a word, drawing an ugly flower or making some lines uneven, you are going to mess up at some point. I mess up more than the average person and have learned to embrace it. You would never be able to tell but I tried three different color/outline combinations before I finally gave up and filled the whole title in black in the picture above. I ended up really liking how it turned out though!
- Get Inspired
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It can be really intemidating to look at a blank page and just think up a layout. I normally start out by going on Pinterest to figure out what theme or colors I want to use and then I can adapt it to whatever fuction I need the layout to fulfill. It can also be nice to look at how other people have constructed layouts. For example, I really wanted to do a weekly layout that was up and down so I was so happy when I found this super simple plant one to base my page off of.
In closing, I will say just start it! Even if you hate the first couple layouts you do— keep going. Good luck!