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A Special Note to Self-Conscious Creatives As much as bullet journaling is about functional, customized planning, the flexibility of a blank notebook can also be a canvas for creative art. In fact, the cute doodles, festive banners, and stylish lettering you saw on Instagram and Pinterest were probably some of the reasons you were attracted to bullet journaling in the first place. We all admire and appreciate pretty things! But I have a feeling you re quick to remind yourself that you could never replicate something like that. Am I right? My friend, please don t sell yourself short. While fancy pages are not a requirement for bullet journaling, you have the same creative potential inside of you as everyone else. Even if you haven t flexed your creative muscles for years, you can still exercise them and improve that skill. Creativity can be cultivated, and this guide will show you how. While I can t teach you how to draw or paint million dollar masterpieces, I can give you examples of simple doodles and lettering you can easily replicate on your own. These drawings add touches of flair to my own journal, and I personally love how the information inside is captured in a fun, eye-pleasing way. I ve found that if something is pretty, I m more likely to use it! Embellishing your journal also: Draws attention to important elements Displays a visual reminder of memories you ve made Helps you better retain the information inside Plus, once you find your creativity groove, doodling in your journal will feel more like a relaxing adventure that relieves stress, rather than a pressure-filled activity where everything has to be just perfect. This is my hope for you! That you will not only fall in love with the flexibility of a personalized planning system like bullet journaling, but also fall in love with way it nurtures the creative part of your soul.
Supplies List You don t need a massive supply stash to start doodling, but there are a few basics you ll want to keep on hand. Pencil and Eraser: I pre-sketch almost all my lettering and doodles in pencil first. It helps to know how the art fits on the page and gives me the option to move certain elements around and resize if needed. Any pencil is fine, but I prefer to invest in an art eraser like the Staedtler Mars Plastic Eraser so lines are easy to erase. Dark Black Pen: The pen I use to trace over my pencil lines is the Faber-Castell Pitt Pen, size (S). The ink is bold and stands out beautifully against white or cream paper. I occasionally switch to size (M) if I want a thicker line. Colored Pencils: To add color to your doodles, pick up a large pack of colored pencils any brand is fine so you have endless color options. You can also use these pencils to create ombre effects in your lettering, which I ll show you how to do in just a little bit! Colored Markers: Markers offer a slightly bolder color, and are extremely easy to use. I love the Zebra Midliner Highlighters (available on Amazon) because they are dual tipped they have an angled end for highlighting and brush lettering, and a pointed end for more detailed coloring. An alternative option to the highlighters are Tombow Dual Brush Pens. Ruler: If you love straight lines, a simple 6 ruler is extremely handy! Keep all your supplies together in a portable pouch to allow for easy access. That way, if you want to doodle on the couch or on the go, you ll have everything you need in one place to create those pretty pages.
Lettering It s helpful to have a few different styles of lettering to choose from when adding a new title to the top of your page or if you need to draw attention to a particular word or phrase. The styles in this guide feature simple alphabet samplers you can easily duplicate in your own journal. You can also run a search on MyFonts.com if you want to expand your font choices. Find a font you like, then fill in the text box with the word or phrase you plan to use. An exact replica of how the phrase looks in that particular font will pop up, giving you instant lettering inspiration! If you re interested in going deeper into the world of lettering and calligraphy because there s a lot more to learn than what I cover here I recommend the book, Hand Lettering for Relaxation by Amy Latta, for more professional techniques.
Modern Display Lettering Modern Display Lettering is the easiest style to start with because you simply make one side of the letter thicker than the other. You can leave the empty space as is, or fill it in with a color or pattern for a different look.
Tall & Skinny Lettering Tall & Skinny Lettering gives your letters a whimsical, almost childlike vibe, and is a fun way to experiment with both serif and sans serif fonts. Serif fonts have a small line added to the ends of each letter stroke as an embellishment. Casual Cursive Lettering Casual Cursive Lettering is a stretched out cursive font designed to represent a casual, handwritten look. Kick your lettering up a notch and include an extra swash on the first and last letter for added flair. Personally, I love the look of all lowercase, but you can certainly add an uppercase letter to the beginning of each word if you prefer.
Fake Calligraphy Lettering Fake Calligraphy contains elements of the casual cursive look, but adds a bold downward swash to resemble brush lettering. When you create your letters, you ll want to make the loops a little larger than normal to account for the extra pen stroke.
Brush Lettering Brush Lettering is typically created with a thick brush pen, using extra pressure on the downward strokes for a bold look with lots of movement almost like the letters are dancing! However, you can also use the fake calligraphy principles we discussed earlier to achieve a very similar result.
Ombre-Styled Lettering To create the ombre-styled lettering shown here, pick out a collection of 3-4 colored pencil colors in the same family reds, blues, purples, greens, etc. Start with the lightest color and work your way down to the darkest color in smooth strokes.
Doodles and Other Creative Elements Doodles refer to anything from cute little icons to larger elements like arrows, boxes, banners, and frames. Use them as a visual reminder of the memories you ve made or to draw attention to important information. Incorporate a seasonal theme onto your monthly layouts or add whimsical dividers to separate different parts of your page. The possibilities are endless! Weather Icons Fun Doodles
Holiday Doodles
Holiday Doodles (continued)
Boxes, Banners, and Frames
Dividers
Title and Header Ideas Now that you understand how to create simple hand lettering and doodles, it s time to put everything together into easy title and header ideas you can use at the top of your pages. Switch up how you introduce your monthly, weekly, and daily layouts to keep your bullet journal exciting and fresh. Don t be afraid to try new things, and come up with your own creative twist!
Daily Headers
Practice, Practice, Practice You ve probably heard it before, but nothing comes easily without practice. The same goes for any type of lettering or creative art. You must practice if you want to get better at it. Here are a few ideas to incorporate drawing and doodling into your everyday life: Participate in a Doodle-A-Day Challenge Instagrammer @the.petite.planner hosts a monthly challenge called, Oodles of Doodles. She provides a prompt for each day based on the monthly theme, and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to draw an image based on that prompt. @alexandra_plans and @christina77star also host a monthly Doodle with Us challenge, but this one comes with a twist. They challenge participants to look at their doodles as one large scene, and every day s doodle is just part of the bigger picture. Keep a Daily Memory Log You can also create a space for doodles as part of your weekly or daily layouts, At the end of each day, fill in that space with something you want to remember. When you flip through your journal, it won t be filled exclusively with endless to-do lists. You ll have a lot of memories to look back on as well!
Create a Doodle Journal Keep a reference library of doodles you love in a section of your journal or as an entirely separate notebook. As you find inspiration you love (the Instagram account @therevisionguide is an excellent resource), draw those elements inside your journal under specific collections weather doodles, boxes, arrows, dividers, etc. Then when you want to add extra flair to a page, you don t have to search the ends of the internet to find it. You ll have a notebook of your personal favorites carefully curated in one place! Are you ready to jumpstart your creativity? Shake off the fear of putting pen to paper remember, you can always start with a pencil and practice the different ideas shared in this guide. Keep it simple, and add more elements as your confidence grows. Most of all, have FUN. You can do this!