Inside my new Dingbats bullet journal — Blog post about our latest GBR Journal by A Cornish Geek

Emma Farley from ACornishGeek.com has recently had the chance to try out one of our latest notebooks releases from the Earth Collection (she is the first ever user!). Amazing detail and a simply flawless notebook for all your journaling needs. Check out how to use page tabs as well. Well done Emma!

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You know what I love most about being a stationery blogger? When I review a product and harp on about the quality of paper or the flow of a pen, you guys totally know (and care!) what I’m talking about.

The recent bullet journal trend has awakened the stationery nerd in so many people who have previously forgotten the joy of the traditional back to school stationery shop. For me, every day is like that and I love sharing my favourite products with you.

When I was gifted the new Dingbats Earth journal* at the London Stationery Show (did I mention I was the first person to receive one?!), I couldn’t wait to share it with you. I chose the Great Barrier Reef cover because I live by the sea and my favourite colour is blue. So, of course, I had to take it for a little photo shoot down on the sea front.

The Great Barrier Reef Journal features an infographic spread on the inside cover for you to explore more about the reef, its threats and how we can help save it. Dingbats is a super green company. All materials used are non-animal based and therefore 100% vegan. Even the water used to produce the paper is returned to the rivers cleaner than when it was taken out. They use degradable and recyclable materials and only FSC-certified paper. The FSC labels guarantee that the trees that are harvested are replaced or allowed to regenerate naturally. Their covering material is also engineered to be degradable faux leather.

Back home, I got to thinking about what I wanted to use my new journal for. I’m not a traditional bullet journaller in the sense that I still don’t keep everything in one place. I have a pocket diary which I carry around in my handbag to track appointments and Jenson’s social life and I have a separate blog planner (although I have decided to highlight some elements in this new bullet journal). Maybe one day I’ll feature everything in the same place but it will take more set-up time than I have time for at the moment and, considering bujos are meant to help you save time and be more organised, it just sounds counter-intuitive at the moment.

The most important thing for me is the pen test, so I headed straight to the back of the journal to see how defined the various shades of the different Stabilo* pens (pastel highlighters, pointMax, Sensor and Pen 68) would appear against the off-white paper and what the potential bleed-through would be.

I’ve got to say, the Sensor pens are an absolute dream to write with — super smooth, no smudging and I like my handwriting! I reckon that’s always the test of a good pen. The pointMax pens are nice too but I wasn’t a fan of the inconsistency with the Pen 68. The pastel shades are pretty enough to make up for it though.

Once I was happy with the themes, I chose an initial order and colour-coded the sections.

I’m also not the most artistic of people, so I had a little practice run in a separate notebook first. Then I set about laying out my spreads.

I’ve not included all of them below as I don’t want to bore you with my stats and blog planning but you can see how well the Stabilo pens work for colour coding and how handy the tabs and page numbers are in the journal.

There’s also a pocket at the back, two ribbons and an elastic closure. I have to say, I can’t fault this journal; it has everything a true bujo nerd needs. Plus, if you’re just starting out, there’s a handy ‘how to’ at the start.

Do you bujo? What are your essential spreads and supplies?

Dingbats’ new Earth Journals are now available to pre-order at £17.95 each.

Full product spec:

• Hardcover bound with pearlescent PU leather (100% vegan)
• 2 bookmarks
• 184 numbered non-perforated pages with tabs (100gsm coated cream fountain pen-friendly FSC-certified paper), 16 micro-perforated pages, 3 index pages, 2 key pages and future log
• Opens flat
• Expandable pocket
• Elastic closure
• Pen holder

* I was gifted Dingbats’ new Earth journal and Stabilo sent me their pointMax, Sensor and highlighter pens for review. The Pen 68 set was from my Ryman scrapbook bundle. All nerdy thoughts are my own