3 ways to color bullet journal stickers

If you have visited Etsy or Pinterest lately you will have seen the growing number of bullet journal images and printables. Bullet journaling is taking off and as it does, more and more exciting goodies are shared to fuel our obsession. While bullet journaling is a simplified planning system that is based on using pens and a journal, you can add your style with stickers and embellishments. Let’s face it…who wants a boring journal. If you want to add unicorn stickers and glittery sparkles go for it. You can never have too much glitter…(unless you are a small child with fumbly fingers…then there definitely a limit to glitter usage). But for us big girls, creating a journal or planner you love and love to use should be your main goal. Journaling is great, but if you are not inspired to create a page, then it soon becomes a chore.

That’s where printables come in. Yes in a perfect world we would all create our page layouts from scratch and would love them…but sometimes you just don’t have the time. And sometimes…our best efforts to decorate a page with doodles ends up looking like your three year old took up the pen. I’m all for making things easy…and enjoyable. If you are the same then printables will become your new best planner friend.

Printables come in all sorts of designs. You can print out an entire page layout and not have to draw a thing or you can use bullet journal stickers to add a quick embellishment to your page. Stickers come in color, black and white, matte and glossy versions.

And if you want to get creative you can color your stickers. Adult coloring is super popular at the moment so you can embrace the trend, get out your pencils and color like a crazy woman.

Below I share some coloring experiments where I use pencils, Copic markers and wait for it…watercolor paints. Yep you hear right. I used water and paints on a page printed at home…and the printer ink did NOT run! I discovered this a couple of years ago when working on an art journal. I’d previously been told that water and printer ink weren’t a good combination. That may be the case in some situations but the moral of the story is to experiment and see what your experience is.  

For all three of the below experiments I used matte stickers printed on an Epson XP-442. This printer is a standard printer that retails for around AUD $77 and is not “special” in any way. The inks used in the printer are also standard ink refills.

Color stickers with watercolor paints

Like I mentioned, a lot of people assume that printer ink will run when water is added to the page. That isn’t always the case. If you saturate the paper and scrub with your brush you may have some issues but if you use water sparingly you may be able to use watercolor paints on your stickers or printable pages. Plus heavier weight papers will deal with water better than copy paper which is prone to crinkling. The sticker paper I used for the above sticker is 130gsm and took the paint well (for a non-watercolor paper) and didn’t crinkle at all. If you wish to use watercolor paints on plain paper select a heavier weight such as 130gsm or over. The only issue I had with using watercolor paints on non-watercolor paper was that the colors didn’t blend as smoothly as I would have liked. But overall, the end result had all the beautiful qualities of watercolor painting that I liked.

One thing I will say about watercolor is that you need to let go of any perfectionist tendencies. Watercolor is unpredictable but if you are prepared to experiment and go with the flow (sorry I couldn’t help the pun) the results can be lovely.

If you are just starting out with watercolors, purchase a cheap set of student watercolors. If you decide they are your thing, you can always upgrade later. I use Winsor and Newton Cotman Watercolors.

Pros

·         Soft colors dreamy colors

·         Can blend colors to suit your layout

·         Range of quality and pricing to suit all levels of use

·         Generic or kids watercolor sets easily found in many department stores and stationery shops. More expensive brands available from Art stores and online.

Cons

·         Some papers may not handle the water causing bubbling or lift the paper

·         Some printer ink may run when water is applied

·         Watercolors can be intimidating due to its unpredictable nature especially if you are a novice

·         You will need to practice/experiment to become comfortable with watercolors

Color stickers with Copic Markers

In this second coloring experiment I used Copic Markers. Copic Markers are an alcohol based marker and can be blended using blender pens for smooth color transition. Generally Copic Markers are used with a specialty paper so using them on sticker paper or plain paper can have varied results. In general I was happy with how the markers went on the sticker paper. The markers didn’t lift the printer ink but when using the blender pen, it did leave some slight smudging which was frustrating especially as I was using a light pink background. Even though I have had Copic markers for a few years, I have to admit I don’t often use them. I guess I’m a watercolor girl at heart and find it hard to swap allegiance.

Pros

·         Wide range of colors

·         Can blend colors using the blender pen

Cons

·         Cost per marker can be expensive and may take a while to accumulate a range of colors

·         Ink may cause some printer inks to run

·         Blender pen may smear printer ink

·         Depending on the paper use, results may vary and be less than optimal

·         Color selection and blending may take a little time to perfect.

Color stickers with pencils

Coloring with pencils is by far the easiest option for coloring your stickers and printables. I love watercolor so that would be my first go to, but pencils come in a close second. Pencils are easy to get, easy to use and are inexpensive to buy. And in most case, people have used them. They are the good old all-rounder that will come through for you when you get frustrated with watercolors or markers.

Pencils work best with smooth matte paper but you can use a textured paper. Matte sticker paper worked well with pencils although I did get some indentations on the paper with a pencil that wasn’t sharpened properly. When using pencils, start lightly and gradually build up your colors and shading. If you decide to tweak your colors it’s easier if the colors are light than if they are a solid color. Plus it’s more difficult to erase colored pencil so go lightly at least until you know how you want to color your sticker. If you use Prismacolor pencils you are able to blend and smooth colors with a blender pencil. The end result is great but not essential especially if you are starting out. If you find that you love using pencils, I recommend the Prismacolor range of products. The pencils are delicious, blend well, have a great range of colors and lay down color smoothly. Once you try them, you will never go back to ‘normal’ pencils!

Pros

·         Wide range of colors

·         Range of quality and pricing to suit all levels of use

·         Easy to find in shops

·         Easy to use

·         Higher quality pencils (Prismacolor) can be blended using blender pencils for smooth colors.

Cons

·         Depending on the hardness of the pencil, indentations can be left on paper

Want to experiment for yourself?

To experiment for yourself, make sure you grab the free rabbit printable shown in the above images. Print them off on different types of paper and stickers and see how your printer ink works with different mediums. I’ve also included the files needed to trace and cut the illustrations so if you want to create stickers with them, you can.

To access the printable, along with other freebies, click the button below.