The Pen is Mightier Than The Sword

*Update* – Winner of the $15 Jetpens gift certificate announced below!  🙂

As long as I remember, I have loved writing in notebooks and journals.  There’s just something about holding a pen in my hand and writing away into a notebook that I can’t resist.  I still have notebooks that I’ve written in from the 6th grade!  Don’t get me wrong, I love computers and being able to use it to type notes, emails, journaling, etc.  But I do love pens and paper.  Pens hold a special place in my heart!  ♥

With a lot of scrapbookers and digi-scrapbookers doing Project Life this year, I thought I would do a roundup of my favorite pens for writing & journaling for you.  There’s even a giveaway contest at the end of my post!  🙂

When I think of a good pen to write with, there are several attributes that I look for.  Then pen should glide effortlessly over my paper.  The pen should not skip while writing.  I should not have to put much pressure on the pen for it to write smoothly.  The pen should not smear and should dry relatively fast.  When writing in a journal or notebook, the pen should not bleed through the page so that the other side of the page is unusable.  I should be able to get a good grip on the pen and it should feel good between my fingers.  A bonus if the pens come in different colors.  And for archival purposes, the pen should be acid-free.  (Most pens are nowadays.)

Sharpie Pens – one of my favorite journaling pens is the Sharpie pen in fine point.  These Sharpie pens are felt-tip pens and they do not smell like a Sharpie marker.  In fact, they don’t smell at all, which is a good thing.  They come in many different colors too!

These felt tip pens from Sharpie won’t bleed through most papers, are smear resistant when dry, permanent on paper as well as water resistant.  And the ink formula is acid-free and non-toxic.  I find the tip size just right, as it writes a line not too fine and not too thick.  I use these Sharpie pens to write in my Moleskine daily planner every day.  My Moleskine planner has relatively thin pages and these pens don’t bleed through the paper, so I can write on the flip side of the paper without getting annoyed.  With so many colors available, I can even color-code different appointments and tasks in my planner as well!  I also often use these Sharpie pens to journal on my Project Life journal cards.  In short, I big puffy heart love them!

Pentel EnerGel Deluxe – another favorite pen of mine for journaling is the Pentel EnerGel Deluxe.  I have loved this pen for years.  It writes extremely smoothly without a skip.  The vividly-colored, acid-free ink dries quickly without smearing or blotting making it ideal for left-handed writers.  When I write with this pen on Project Life journal cards, I can almost instantly slip these into the page protector pockets without my writing smearing.  I love the strong colors and I like that the pen is retractable.  The rubber barrel grip is nice on the hand too.

Uni-ball Signo 207 – these Uni-ball Signo 207  retractable 0.7 mm gel ink pens write very smoothly and comes in many colors.  These are a recent discovery for me and so far I love the smooth ink flow and bold colors.  I use them to write in my work notebook every day, task after task.  These pens feature acid-free, fade and water resistant ink. Plastic body has a comfortable textured rubber grip for easy and comfortable writing.

Zebra Laflleche – the Zebra Laflleche are smooth-writing ball point pens with one special feature… they are scented!  Six tasty colors are available including strawberry, blueberry, chestnut, chocolate, lemon mousse, and Maccha green tea. Water based pigment ink writes in bright colors and is water resistant.  The pens are slightly too thin for me to feel very comfortable in my hands.  But they write very smoothly and the scents are a fun touch.  Unfortunately, as of this writing, these pens are very hard to find, they may have been discontinued.

Next I want to compare some black pens for journaling.  The perfect black pen is like the little black dress.  It is perfect for every occasion, classic, and timeless.

If you prefer a bold and thicker stroke, I would go with the Uni-ball Signo Impact.  It is a thick-writing pen with strong black ink that rolls very smoothly.  Other thicker pens include the Sakura Glaze (which dries with a slightly raised surface), and the Sakura Pigma Micron 08.  For thinner lines, I love the Sharpie black pen, the Pilot Envelope Address Writing Gel Ink Pen in Extra Fine, the Pentel EnerGel Deluxe, and the Uni-ball Signo 207.  All of these pens write very smoothly and would work well in your journaling endeavors.

Last but not least, I have some one-off pens that I like.  You can get these in many colors, but these are the colors I have at hand for demonstration purposes.

I really like the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Gel Ink Pen in 0.5 mm.  The tip is just fine enough for precision writing, yet has very smooth ink flow.  This pen is very popular in Japan but is hard to find in the U.S.  I got mine at Jetpens.com.  If you love a broader-tipped smooth-writing gel ink pen, I highly recommend the Uni-ball Signo Broad UM-153 Gel Ink Pen.  I have these in several colors and they all write very smoothly with broad strokes.  I also really like the Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.7 mm Gel Ink Pens.  I found these in a local Japanese store and was delighted to find them cheaper at Jetpens.com.  I especially love the Zebra Sarasa pen in brown, because a good brown pen is hard to find!  For metallic gel ink pens, I love the Sakura Gelly Roll.  I have several of the Sakura Gelly Roll Moonlight Gel Ink Pen and the Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust Gel Ink Pen.  I especially love the Gelly Roll Stardust in Marine Blue Star color, the glittery look is fantastic.  Be aware, though, that these pens dry slower than most of the other pens I’ve talked about in this blog post.

I know some people don’t like to handwrite their journaling in their scrapbook pages or Project Life pages, because they don’t like their own handwriting.  I found this article at the UPPERCASE blog that talks about pens that improve your handwriting!  The author recommends several pens for different types of penmanship problems and I was totally intrigued.  Give it a read and see for yourself!

Last but not least, one of my favorite stores on the internet to purchase pens is Jetpens.com!  Jetpens offers a huge selection of awesome pens.  You can even find hard-to-find Japanese pens there.  I love that you can purchase any color individually there, so you don’t have to purchase a whole package of pens to get the 2-3 colors that you want.  I also love that they offer free shipping on purchases over $25!  Oh and they do carry my favorite scrapbooking adhesive there too!  I buy the refills there in bulk.  Jetpens often offers giveaways on their blog, Facebook, and Twitter pages, so follow them for some pen goodness.  Here’s the good news:  Jetpens has generous offered to give a $15 gift certificate to one person who comments in this blog post!  So leave a comment and see if you’re the lucky one!   😀  Comments will close Thursday night at 11:59PM US Eastern time and a random winner will be chosen!

Christine (listgirl)

*Comments have been closed and a random winner has been chosen!


Congratulations Debra!  Jetpens will send you your gift certificate via email!