A reasonably priced dot grid notebook with page numbers, good quality paper and without a boring cover? That’s my dream combination for a dot grid notebook. Let’s see how close the Make it Happen bullet journal by The Paper Studio comes to ticking off each of those.

Quick facts

Size: 15cm wide x 20.3cm high (6″ wide x 8″ high)
Hardcover
Sewn binding
5mm dot grid (192 pages)
40 dots vertically x 30 dots horizontally
Comes in one cover style only

Price: $25 AUD at Carefully Crafted

This brand also has plenty of sticker books – my favorites are in the photo above: calendar foiled, chores, bullet journal and home life foiled.

Let’s take a closer look!

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The Cover

Usual hardcover typical of sewn bound notebooks. At least this one is navy blue instead of black and has a motivational phrase on the cover instead of plain.

Approx, 0.75″ thick (1.8cm)

With 192 pages the planner isn’t heavy, but you will notice the weight of this if you carry it with you in your handbag.

Inside Pages

There are no pre-printed pages in the notebook – it has a 5mm dot grid on every page.

There are 40 dots vertically (plus 2 extra that are cut off due to the curved edges of the notebook) x 30 dots horizontally.

The dots are printed very close to the edge of the page and the spine of the notebook which (for me) is problematic when trying to draw lines and keep the ruler straight. There is also a miss-alignment of the dots on some pages.

I often get comments about how bold / dark the dots are in notebooks. This one has bold medium grey dots.

Pages lay mostly flat on their own

Pen Testing

I tried all the usual ballpoint, gel and fine tip pens I use when pen testing all bullet journal notebooks.

There was some minor show through for marker pens and stamps, but not enough that would deter me from using the back side of the page. For the price of this notebook, the paper quality is good.

Highlighters had some light ghosting (much less than dot grid notebooks usually have), however my favorite Tombow dot makers bled through the page.

Pros of the Notebook

Portable size
5mm dot spacing
Cheap
Less boring cover than most dot grid notebooks
Good paper quality
Pages lay mostly flat
Bright white paper

Cons of the Notebook

Only 1 ribbon bookmark
No page numbers
Dot grid is cut off on the rounded corners
No pocket folder
Misalignment of the printing of the dot grid on the pages

Would I use this Notebook?

I like the notebook and will use it. It’s unfortunate that there are no page numbers, there’s a misalignment of the dots and that the dots are printed so close to the edge of the page. The paper quality, while not perfect, is far better than a lot of other dot grid notebooks I’ve seen (including ones that are more expensive).

I don’t know if other people do this, but I’m a sucker for notebooks with motivational phrases on the cover like this one’s ‘make it happen’ as I like to dedicate these ‘themed’ notebooks for different purposes e.g. project planning, travel planning back when I used to do that on paper etc.