TIL the hard way that watercolor markers bleed through cheap paper

I was bullet journaling at a coffee shop in Portland last week, using some new water-based markers to color in a habit tracker. About 5 minutes in I flipped the page and saw the whole thing had soaked through 3 pages back. Ruined my weekly spread and the monthly overview completely. I had to rip those pages out and start fresh, which meant re-drawing my whole August layout. Now I stick to a 160gsm dot grid notebook and test every marker on a scrap page first. Anyone else run into this with cheaper journals?

2 comments

2 Comments

grant_perry8d ago

My buddy Sarah did the same thing with a cheap notebook and it bled through like ten pages of her food log.

wrenstone7d ago

Oh man, I feel your pain so hard. I learned that lesson with a Moleskine years ago and it ruined a whole month of recipes I'd sketched out. Now I always grab a sheet of copy paper and scribble on it with the marker first, then hold it up to the light to check for bleed before it ever touches my journal. Cheap paper is basically a sponge for anything wet, so I'll also switch to ballpoint or fineliner if I'm using a notebook under 100gsm. Sucks that you had to tear out pages, but at least now you know for next time.