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April 3, 2019

Plum Paper Bullet Journal Custom Notebook Review (Pros, Cons & Pen Test)

After becoming increasingly frustrated with the sewn binding and yellowish pages of most dot grid notebooks I opted to make my own. There are plenty of planner companies offering the option of creating a custom notebook these days but I ended up going with one of my all time favorites – Plum Paper. It ended up being cheaper than most of those sewn bound notebooks too!

This is not a sponsored post. I purchased the notebook myself and as always, all opinions are my own.

Plum Paper custom notebook

To enlarge the screen of the video, click the square icon in the bottom right hand corner of the video (it will say ‘full screen’ when you hover your mouse over the icon).

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<3 this cover. I ordered it in the teal / blue verison for another notebook and loved it so much opted to get the pink version this time.

plum paper bullet journal review pros and cons a5 page size

The main reason I dislike sewn bound notebooks so much is that most don’t lay flat without using a butterfly clip or holding it open with one hand. So coil bound that can fold back completely on itself and stay flat? Yes please!

You can choose how many pages to add depending on how much you want to spend. I opted to add the maximum number of pages. It does make the notebook chunky but I’d rather have too many pages than not enough.

plum paper bullet journal review pros and cons a5 page size video

The inside is the same as their planners with a this belongs to page, pocket folder and the same style of tabs

plum paper bullet journal notebook review pros and cons custom personalised cute

plum paper notebook review annual dates at a glance a5 page size dot grid lined list format

plum paper planner review pocket folder double sided dot grid paper a5

I opted to add 3 types of paper: dot grid, lined and graph.

plum paper personalised notebook a5 page size lined graph dot grid paper

Bright white dot grid paper <3

plum paper planner review graph pros and cons a5 page size cute personalised bujo bullet journal custom notebook dot grid

Graph paper for habit trackers, savings logs, project planners (I use them for timelines / ganttt charts)

Related: Lined, dot grid, graph or blank: what paper type is right for your bullet journal?

plum paper planner review graph pros and cons a5 page size cute personalised bujo bullet journal custom notebook

Plum Paper have plenty of add ons. I previously chose their meal planning add on to create a custom recipe book for my mum (see how it turned out in this post).

Pen Test

plum paper pen test paper quality bleed through ghosting pros and cons

Some ghosting on the thicker pens and I wouldn’t recommend highlighters. The paper quality is ok but not great – the paper quality is really the only thing that lets the Plum Paper planners down.

plum paper pen test paper quality bleed through ghosting pros and cons highlighter fine tip gel

This notebook was part of a Plum Paper haul! See what else I got in this post.

plum paper haul review video honest pros and cons pen testing custom planner notebook vertical horizontal weekly bullet journal meal planning

Planning tips

  • DIY Planner Tutorial: How to make your own planner stickers without a Silhouette machine 
  • My favorite cheap stationery for planning
  • 10 Things people often forget to check before buying a planner

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plum paper custom bullet journal review pros and cons dot grid lined graph bright white paper coil bound personalised

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Posted In: Bullet Journal, Bullet Journal Reviews, Planner Reviews · Tagged: best dot grid notebook, best notebook for bullet journal, bujo notebook, bullet journal notebook, cheap bullet journal, custom bullet journal, custom dot grid notebook, custom notebook, custom organizer, custom planner, cute bullet journal notebook, how to make a custom notebook, plum paper bullet journal

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Welcome to All About Planners! I’m Rachael, a 20-something Aussie addicted to graphic design and all things planning. On the blog you’ll find more than 1,000 posts about all things planning including planner reviews, tips, favorite supplies and some of my past weekly spreads.

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