Many of us like the idea of printing off a planner and having it in our bullet journals. But that might sound daunting. Here you can learn the simple way to paste printables into your bullet journal!
Bullet journals aren’t just an effective way to organize your schedules, goals, or to-do lists; they can also be an outlet for your creativity. Bullet journaling is an art to many and a necessity to many others. Those who use it as art understand the importance of making their journals as visually appealing as possible. Likewise, those who use it as a tool understand the importance of saving time and creating easy, doable tasks.
If you’re looking for some tips and tricks to maintain a bullet journal attractively and efficacy, you’ve landed in the right place. Using printables in a bullet journal is the most simple, easy, and budget-friendly solution to your planner. Using printables helps you have a well-organized record of your daily, weekly, monthly or annual schedules and plans. Now, how to use these printables in a bullet journal? Let’s read on to find out more about one of the easiest methods: gluing (or pasting).
Printing & Crafting
To use digital printables in your journal, all you need is a printer at home or a print shop that you can visit at your easiest convenience.
Further, there are plenty of easy printer options. You can use a standard printer (the type everyone thinks of when I say “printer”), a small desktop label printer (you can print more than labels with these), or a pocket printer, like our favorite, the Poooli Printer.
Printables have already become a widespread practice in the 21st century. Therefore, you’ll find a large variety of digital printables available on the internet for purchase (or for free, as we offer). Pasting your printables is the perfect way to take freedom into your own hands and be as creative in customizing your bullet journal as you desire to.
To start the exciting journey of adding printables to your bullet journal, you need to pick the printables that complement the vibe and purpose of your bullet journal the best and then print them out on any paper of your choice. If you choose from our collection of printable planners, you can use my guide to printing in different sizes!
Now you need to pick the paper you are printing on. The most popular paper choice is plain white, but you might experiment with brown paper or off-white color. You can even get fancy with paper size or using dotted or grid paper (check out our free paper designs below)! Once you have the printables in physical form, you can cut the parts that you’d like to add to your journal.
If you plan to add the whole thing, then no need to cut anything off!
Experimenting Layouts
At this point, all the creativity within you comes into play as you begin experimenting with different layouts for the printouts of the graphics you'd like to paste in your journal.
However, if you intend to use the printable as-is and do not want to get creative, you really can skip this step. All you will need to do is move on to pasting it (next step below).
But, if you are looking to get creative with your printables, start by randomly placing the printables on a blank page of your bullet journal and shift their placement till it starts making sense to you. Then you might explore the idea of adding washi tape, stickers, or stamps to pull your design together.
Disclaimer: Do not move on to the next step (including adding the stickers and washi tape you've picked out) until you are satisfied. Sometimes we get excited and add the stickers and tape as we go, but that can make it harder to properly glue down the printables without making them wrinkly or ripping the page accidentally.
Time to Paste It All
Once you're satisfied with the layout design of these printables in your journal, you are ready to paste. First, you might consider taking a quick photo of the page to ensure that you don't forget the placement of everything. Then, once you are ready, you can apply glue to the pieces you'd like to paste!
Pro Tip: If you want to avoid wrinkles and rips, use a ruler to pull the page flatter than your hand could. All you need is a flat edge that isn't sharp, like a ruler. Then you apply the glue normally to your printable page, set it to the page on the center, and use the flat edge to squeegee the air out from under the page, moving from the center to the edges.
Adding Final Touches
Adding some final touches to your printables will give you a finished look. Using colorful pens and markers is always a good idea to make your spreads look more well put together. Outlining the glued pieces highlighting the essential parts are great touches.
Additionally, you can also use tools mentioned previously like washi tape or stickers at this step too! Then, you might consider adding customized quotes in your handwriting in the blank spaces. And finally, you have the instagrammable bullet journal that you low-key always admired, and you didn't even have to come up with the page design yourself!
Check out our Collection
Elizabethjournals offers a wide range of colorful and unique printable layouts that are just a click away from your computer! My collection is inspired by the belief that everyone deserves to have a well-maintained bullet journal even if they don’t have enough time and resources to customize it.
In addition to our ever-growing collection of printables, we offer custom printable creations for those of you who need something specific! Having a great and usable planner is the most effective way to plan all the important events in every stage of one’s life! Your bullet journal matters to me. So, explore my collection to find out more!
