Back to School Week 2017: What's in My Pencil Case

Welcome to Day 4 of my Back to School week here on my blog! I go back and forth with handwritten and typed notes. Whether I'm at a coffee shop or at school, I have to bring a pencil case full of pens, pencils, and other essentials. If you'd like to see what I keep in my pencil case, keep on reading!

These are my favorite gel ink pens. There's a great variety in colors but most importantly, they dry immediately. If anything makes me angry, it's when I work so hard on a big outline for class then accidentally graze my hand over the paper and some of the ink smears. RUINED. What I love about the G2 Pilot pens is that they dry almost immediately (on printer paper, that is). There's literally a color for everything and makes color coordinating notes super easy. Although black is my staple, I love the multipack I got from Costco. It came with 20 pens (2 sets of 10 colors) for only $13 last year. They don't currently sell it, but here's to hoping they bring it back for back-to-school shopping!
Update: Walmart sells the single 10 pack for $10!

This is self-explanatory. I prefer mechanical to wooden pencils because I don't like to deal with messy pencil sharpeners. I don't have a favorite brand of mechanical pencils either. I use pencils to draw and to sketch titles before I go over it with a brush pen or gel ink pen. I'm also not picky about brands, just whatever is the cheapest.

I like color coordinating my notes as well as lettering so I always bring one or two Tombow brush pens with me, depending on the subject. They provide really nice, vibrant headers for my notes. Each Tombow pen has two sides -- a brush side and thin marker side, so it's really versatile for your needs. The best price I've come across for these brush pens are on Amazon, here. If I don't happen to bring any Tombow brush markers then I'll bring along just a black sharpie pen.

What's a studygram without mildliners? I have my own opinions on the mildliners hype but I bought into it so I always bring a few to my study sessions. I don't use them in the same notes as my G2 pens because that would probably be too much color. I use these for my printed notes. Sometimes I have class powerpoints or self-made outlines so after I print them, these mildliners are great for highlighting important info. Make sure to buy them on Amazon! The 3 pack is the cheapest price you will get them from anywhere on the internet.

I like to draw diagrams or pictures to help me study. I keep a mini sized ruler for when I write/draw on printer paper. Printer paper is my fave for notes because it doesn't restrict how or where I take notes. The ruler is handy for making straight lines for titles or for drawing. I've had this clear one FOREVER (note: I had a printer label I made for it while in middle school but have since peeled it off), and I love it because I can see the notes behind it so I can be precise where I make my lines.