Welcome to the third installment of Use What You Have (UWUH): glitter in your bullet journal edition! There was definitely a deep, resigned sigh that followed when I pulled this out of my dumpster fire. But, I did it! Unlike my last UWUH layout using paper bags, I did not show you how you can use this in an actual weekly spread. No! I will tell you right away, I DO NOT recommend doing this in your actual bullet journal! Lol! But in case you want to…
Here is the video for your viewing. I am still cleaning glitter from my workspace if you are wondering. But maybe after Christmas I’ll get it under control!
Glitter Bomb Supplies
- Archer & Olive Kraft Paper Notebook
- Elmer’s Clear School Glue
- Generic glitter in medium/mid-sized texture (not powder but not confetti sized)
- Old paint brushes: an oval one to paint the glue onto the page, and a flat one to brush excess glitter away
- Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen
- Pentel Hybrid Pigment Ink Gel Pen in White
- Pentel Sparkle Pop Gel Pens
- PaperMate Flair in black
- Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Vintage Photo and Tea Dye
Glitter in a Bullet Journal Tips
Firstly, try to use older supplies, like the paint brushes and the Flair. I used the paint brush to paint glue onto the page, dumped glitter on it, waited for it to dry a bit, and then tapped the book to get the glitter off. This way, I was able to re-use the loose glitter for the next letter. I went one letter and one element at a time, just to make sure that the glue wouldn’t dry before I put the glitter on.
It was a lot of back and forth with glue and glitter to get the coverage that I wanted. At the end, I went in with just the glue, as a varnish almost, to secure the glitter in place (yea right?! :P). When it came to grabbing the stray glitter pieces, I used an Exacto knife and clear tape to capture as much of it as possible.
However, DO NOT, under any circumstances use spray adhesive in your bullet journal! (Lol! Do what you want really but follow the spray distance directions to the letter!). The spray adhesive left streak marks all over my journal (and desk). I tried erasing the glue but that didn’t work. In the end, I used Distress Inks to cover it up a bit.
The last point I want to share is filling in more of the negative space. Once my layout was done, it looked a little empty. I took my Sparkle Pop pens and added various sized dots throughout the layout. This balanced it a bit more and added more of a glitter effect (without having to add more glitter).
Final Thoughts
I know I’ve alluded to how miserable it was to use glitter, but I did have fun trying new things. Next time, I will be sticking to the glitter glue and/or making my own. I will also colour in the elements first to a.) prevent glitter from being spread everywhere because I rested my hand on it, and b.) to help give the layout more depth.
I hope you enjoyed today’s video and post. If you would like to follow along to see what I do next, subscribe to my email newsletter and follow me on Instagram @natashamillerletters. If you are inspired to use glitter in one of your layouts, make sure to tag me so that I can check it out!
Talk soon!
