2018 was sort of the year of the planner for me. While I’ve been doing my Erin Condren planner for 4 years now, this is the first year I have a completed Bullet Journal. I love both systems and will definitely continue to use both. Throughout the year, I have had some favorite spreads, ideas and supplies which continue to inspire me. I thought I could round everything up into a single list to hopefully give some inspiration to others as well! I have a few different categories (which you will see below). Also: watch out in the upcoming weeks for my 2019 set-up post!

Bullet Journal Spreads:

Weekly Spread Layout: 

This is the weekly spread that I keep going back to – from May until now I’ve more or less had a Horizontal week with a sidebar on either side. On the left, I tracked various habits. On the right I put a calendar and to-do list for the week. I’m not going to say that I used everything to its fullest potential every week, but I did keep coming back to this so clearly something about this layout worked for my life.

Theme: 

 

I would say my favorite overall theme was my March theme of succulents. This was early into my Bullet Journal and my first spread using Tombows and I absolutely loved the way it turned out. I think also I just appreciated the minimal doodles I was using and the way the colors worked together. To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if I did the same type of theme this March.

Cover Pages

 

My three favorite monthly title pages are the ones above for May, June and October. May and June were inspired by pieces of graffiti I had found and October was an idea I found on Pinterest.  I loved the way the colors turned out in all of these spreads and I definitely enjoyed the lack of lines in these. I am definitely looking forward to finding new graffiti to be inspired by this summer.

Collections:

 

 

My favorite collections this year are the ones that are most relevant to my life. I loved using my Happy Mail spread whenever I needed to send something overseas to my friends. I really liked the idea of my USA trip spread and how I organized the information. My travel spreads are always some of my favorites. Finally, I loved referencing my task lists whenever I was working on my monthly schedule.

Erin Condren Spreads

I thought a lot about what spreads really spoke to me this year. There was one that immediately jumped to my mind. It was the week that my dear friend, Emily got married.

I used gold foil accents including washi tape and overlays. I absolutely loved how the pink, gold and brown looked together. This kit is from the sticker shop Scribble Prints Co.

This year, I also really loved rainbow spreads. I loved the first spread I did in honor of my nephew’s birthday in May in particular. But the Harry Potter spread is also one of my absolute favorites – my only complaint is that somehow my Gryffindor roots aren’t highlighted.

My last four spreads are a little bit on the random side. 2 are from a shop called Bubba Bear Studios which I love since they are sort of “boy” themed for one of my friend’s birthday and the other was for visiting my nephews. The other two are from the complete opposite end of the spectrum and are decidedly two of my girliest spreads. Flipping through my planner, these had to make the top of my list.

Supplies 

Markers

I have to say that I have two favorite marker types this year. The first is the Crayola Super Tips. There are so many reasons to love these babies. They are relatively widely available. I can get them even here in Spain. They have 100 colors. They are cheap – this pack was 20 Euro but in the states I know you can get them for cheaper. You can use them for lettering or coloring. I just think if there’s any place to start for bullet journal market supplies – these are the right ones.

My other favorite Marker is the Zebra Mildliners. I love the colors. I love the dual tips. They are a little bit expensive but in no way unreasonable. I would definitely recommend Mildliners to bujo pals and am so excited for future trend collections.

My favorite pens of the year have to be the Papermate InkJoy Gel pens. I only use them in my Erin Condren and for jotting notes down for myself. The only issue with these pens is they can bleed through thin bullet journal paper. Other than that – I absolutely love them. I think the colors are great. The writing is smooth. The letters are always consistent. I honestly wish they did trend colors because I would absolutely buy them. These are probably the pens that I use the most on a day to day basis.

Washi Tapes

For my washi favorites – there is definitely one blog that made the top of my list. That would be Scotch washi tape. While I don’t think that their designs are the most wild I’ve seen (I do have a really cute cat one though), they are consistent. There’s a good amount of tape on each roll. They generally speaking stick for a long time. All of the glitter tapes above are from Scotch. The large gold and pink with gold dots from the non glitter picture are also from Scotch.

As for other tapes I liked, I just grabbed a couple of my favorite ones that I use often. I don’t necessarily know the brands – I’ve picked them up over the years but I reach for pink and blue the most often.

---

 

So there you have my relatively comprehensive list of all my favorite bullet journal and planner things in 2018. I’m really excited to start up my new bullet journal for 2019 and experiment more! Are there any supplies I should try out in the new year? Or, do you have any ideas for spreads that I can incorporate? I would love if you share any and all ideas in the comments below!