Bullet Journal Hacks – Tracing

Do you want to join the bullet journal craze but you aren’t the best naturally gifted artist? I kept seeing these gorgeous bullet journal spreads online with amazing art and doodles, but I just don’t have the artistic talent to make mine look that good.  There is an easy solution to that, and I decided it was time to it was time to help out with this super simple hack!

The answer is in bullet journal tracing. I am include two pages chocked full of creative images for you to trace and practice your artistic flare! This is just the beginning, so grab your pens and let’s start tracing!

This is the perfect thing to do while listening to your book, catching up on your latest Netflix binge, or even commuting on the train. Studies have shown that drawing has many health benefits, including better mental concentration, lowering stress levels, and greater problem skills. Who could imagine you get all that by just drawing?

How to Use the Tracing Sheets

1. Print out these sheets.
2. Insert the printed sheet beneath the bullet journal page and move it around to get it to the location you want.
3. Trace!
4. Once you have traced a few and like how they are turning out, you can switch to different colored pens and add them to your current or new bullet journal.

Tips For This Tracing Hack

Sometimes, the bullet journal pages are too thick to easily see the images on the sheets beneath it.  When that happens, there are a few tips to help:

• Use a light box. Don’t run out and buy one if you don’t already own one. There are less expensive alternatives.
• Use a window. Tape (or hold) the tracing sheet to the window and arrange the bullet journal page over it to trace.  
• Use a Computer or Tablet. This one is my favorite!  Load the page with the image you want to trace and lay your bullet journal page over the screen to trace. The cool thing with this tip is you can move the image around on the screen and not have to move the BuJo much.  

How Change Sizes of the Images

It is easy to change the size of an image for printing.

1. You first need to take a screenshot of what part of the printable you want to trace. I use a Mac, so the commands and processes may be different. If you use MacOS, press command + shift + 4 to take a screenshot and select the area of the page you want to capture.
2. Open that image in Preview and resize. Open “tools” in the menu bar and select “Adjust size …” Change the the values in the height or width boxes until you get the size that you want. Make sure to keep “Scale Proportionately” checked.
3. Once you’re satisfied with the size, press command + p to print.  You’ll see the image preview. If the adjusted size is too large or too small, cancel the print and adjust the size again.

Of course, if you use the computer or tablet trick, you can skip all these steps.  On the iPad, just resize the image using your fingers on the screen. Easy Peasy!

Downloadable Bullet Journal Tracing Sheets

Here are the two tracing sheets with several doodles on them.  Please feel free to use them as you practice your tracing. These are for your personal use.