The Right Pen Makes All the Difference — Writing, Drawing & Detailing in Your Journals

Blog Post 2: The Right Pen Makes All the Difference 

Writing, Drawing & Detailing in Your Journals

If you caught our last post, you’ll know that finding the right journal is the first step toward a creative, personal, and inspiring journaling practice. Now that you’ve chosen your journal, let’s talk about the tools that bring your ideas, lists, doodles, and reflections to life — your pens.

Pens may seem like a simple choice, but when you’re journaling, creating art, or adding handwritten touches to your scrapbooking layouts, the pen you pick can change everything — from the texture and mood of your writing to the longevity and look of your pages.

At ScrappingClearly, we stock a wide range of journaling pens, fineliners, and paint pens that suit every style — whether you love a crisp handwritten note, a doodled border, or a splash of metallic ink across your layout.

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Journaling Pens – For Writing, Doodling & Detailing

Journaling pens are designed for smooth, consistent writing without bleeding through your pages. They’re ideal for daily writing, note-taking, sketching, or fine detailing in planners and notebooks.

Some customer favourites in-store include:

• Uni-ball White Pen – The Uni-ball White Pen is perfect for adding crisp, opaque highlights, doodles, and contrast to your journal pages. It shows up beautifully on dark backgrounds, painted surfaces, and mixed media layers without skipping. A must-have for adding those final bright details that make a page pop.

• Fude Ball Pens – Ideal for bold, smooth statement journaling. Their rich, opaque ink glides smoothly across the page, making them ideal for titles, headers, outlining, and adding emphasis to important words or phrases. They also write beautifully over paint, gesso, collage, and textured surfaces, which makes them a must-have for mixed media journals.

• Tim Holtz Distress Markers - Distress Markers are perfect for journallers who love adding soft colour, shading, and subtle detail to their pages. Designed with water-reactive ink, these markers let you blend, wash, and layer colour effortlessly — ideal for adding gentle backgrounds, colouring stamped images, or creating watercolour-style effects without the mess of paints. The dual tips (fine point + brush tip) make them incredibly versatile for : Use the fine tip for writing, outlining, date stamping or doodle details & use the brush tip for colouring, shadowing, and blending with water. They work beautifully in notebooks, art journals, tags, and layered mixed media pages. If you want controlled colour with that signature Distress look, these markers are a fantastic tool to have in your journaling kit.

• Art Marlene Duo Acrylic Markers - Bold Colour × Two Tips, the Art by Marlene Duo Acrylic Markers deliver vibrant, opaque colour with the versatility of two nibs in one pen. Use the fine tip for writing, details, and outlining, and the brush tip for colouring, shading, and expressive strokes. They write beautifully over paint, gesso, collage, and textured pages, making them perfect for mixed media journals that need strong, reliable colour.

• Artline Supreme Markers - Artline Supreme Markers are great for adding clean colour, simple shading, and quick lettering to your journal pages. Their smooth-flowing ink and comfortable nib make them perfect for titles, borders, doodles, and everyday notes. A reliable go-to marker for lightweight mixed media and creative journaling.

When you’re writing in a junk journal or vintage-style book, the fine tip of a black or sepia fineliner complements aged papers beautifully. For a bright art journal, coloured pens add contrast and energy to your pages.

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Paint Pens – Adding Bold Colour, Texture & Highlights

If pens are for writing, paint pens are for expression. They glide over textured surfaces where regular pens can’t — perfect for mixed media journals, tags, and art pages layered with paint, gesso, or collage.

In the ScrappingClearly store, you’ll find:

• Posca Paint Pens – A must-have for any mixed media artist. They come in a huge range of colours and nib sizes, and can write over acrylic, watercolor, gesso, or even fabric.

• Spectrum Noir – Spectrum Noir Markers are perfect for journallers who love soft blends, smooth colouring, and polished shading. Their dual tips (fine + chisel or brush, depending on the set) make them great for lettering, colouring stamped images, adding shadows, and creating gradient effects. They’re ideal for adding detailed colour to journals, tags, and mixed media pages where you want a refined, alcohol-marker look.

• Pilot Pintor – Pintor Paint Pens deliver bright, opaque colour that works on paper, paint, gesso, fabric, wood, and more. They’re great for journaling and mixed media when you want bold marks, lettering, doodles, and highlights that really stand out. Smooth flow, strong colour, and reliable coverage make them an easy favourite for creative play.

• Life of Colour - Vibrant, versatile, and fun! Life of Colour pens are perfect for journaling, scrapbooking, and mixed media projects. With brush and fine tips, they glide smoothly, layer beautifully, and even blend with water for painterly effects. From bold brights to metallics and earthy tones, these pens make every page pop with colour.

• Ecoline Brush Pens - vibrant, fluid, and full of life! These water-based brush pens are perfect for journaling, hand lettering, and creating smooth, expressive strokes. Their transparent, ink-like colors layer beautifully and blend effortlessly with water for painterly effects. Whether you’re adding bold highlights, soft backgrounds, or delicate details, Ecoline pens give your pages that splash of artistic flair without fuss. Pro tip: Keep a water brush handy to turn your lettering into a seamless watercolor masterpiece!

• Liquitex Paint Pens - Liquitex Professional Paint Markers deliver rich, artist-quality acrylic colour in a smooth, controlled pen. They’re perfect for journaling and mixed media pages, writing effortlessly over gesso, paint, collage, and textured layers. Use them for bold titles, graphic lines, layering, and adding strong pops of colour that stay vibrant and permanent.

• Kent Urban Paint Pens - Kent Urban Paint Pens are perfect for adding bold, opaque marks to your journal pages. They write smoothly over gesso, paint, cardstock, collage, and textured surfaces, making them ideal for mixed media layers. Use them for titles, borders, doodles, highlights, and expressive marks where you want strong colour that stands out.

Paint pens are fantastic for:

• Writing affirmations over textured backgrounds

• Adding dots, doodles, and borders

• Highlighting areas of your page with white or metallic accents

• Creating layered journal covers or mixed media tags

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Tips for Mixing Both

One of the best-kept secrets in journaling and scrapbooking is the combination of journaling pens and paint pens. Try this creative formula:

• Use fineliners for your notes and outlines.

• Add paint pens for embellishing, layering, or colour blocking.

• Finish with metallic or white paint pens for that extra highlight or visual “pop.”

Pro tip: Always test your pen on the back page of your journal — some papers, especially coated or handmade ones, may react differently to wet mediums.

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Coming Up Next…

In our next post, we’ll dive into how tags and stamps can elevate your journaling or scrapbooking spreads — adding layers, meaning, and texture that pull your page together beautifully.

Whether you’re jotting down gratitude lists or capturing those end-of-year reflections, having the right tools — from your journal to your pen — makes the creative process flow effortlessly.

Explore journaling pens and paint pens now at ScrappingClearly   and get ready to fall in love with the art of writing again.

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