Today I thought I would share what I keep in my pencil case. I recently cleared out a lot of stationery items so these could be what I consider my must have things for class. My pencil case is from the Let’s Squawk range at Paperchase, it is actually sold as a makeup bag but I use it as a pencil case since I need so many different things.

You know how sometimes you go to buy something and it’s only when you’re at the till paying that you realise the thing is a little more expensive than what you expected. That was my experience with this pencil case, but I’ve pretty much used it every day for the last six months so I guess it was money well spent.

Mechanical Pencils: I am really quite lazy and don’t like to sharpen pencils (though you will note I have a pencil sharpener anyway) so I use mechanical pencils. I have a few Pentel ones but I really love the Muji mechanical pencils. I also have a rubber from Muji which works almost the exact same way to the pencil. Not sure why but it’s so much easier that way to use than a regular rubber.

Sharpies: I’ve found that sharpies are the best thing for writing in sketchbooks with, they come in black but I also love the metallic colours. Sharpies are also great for using in any sort of logo design project, they have a thick nib which makes a bold mark on the paper.

Fineliners: I’ve been mostly using these for my bullet journal. I’ve tried a couple of different brands like the Rotring or the Micron but the Staedtler ones are my favourite (in the 03 size).

Tombow Markers: I love these Tombow dual tip pens, I used them extensively in my book shop project. They have a brush tip on one end and a thin nib on the other. These are great for drawing, they are also water soluble which means you can add water and get some really interesting effects.

Writing Pens: I really love the Muji gel pens in 0.38 for my bullet journal. I also have a Lamy Al-Star fountain pen with purple ink which I use occasionally in my sketchbook. I really need to figure out how to hold that pen right because I always end up with ink all over my fingers.

Highlighters: I actually bought these Zebra Mildliners for my bullet journal but I’ve been using them in my sketchbooks too. I mostly like these because of the colours, why do highlighters always have to come in fluorescent yellow and pink. I’m probably going to buy more of these because they come in a bunch more colours.

Cutting and Sticking Things: We do a lot of sticking things into sketchbooks so I usually have a stick of glue with me. I also have two pairs of scissors, a regular pair and a set of non stick scissors. The problem with cutting tape is it gunks up regular scissors making them difficult to use so you can buy scissors with a non-stick coating to stop that from happening. Also these were only £1 on Amazon so I bought a few pairs of them.

Pen Drives: I do graphic design so most of the work is computer based. I have server space to save files however since some can be quite large, especially things like my animation project, it is always best to have a pen drive handy. In my first year I used a 16gb pen drive but I now use a 128gb for storage.

A fork: Yeah I needed this for a project and just haven’t taken it out yet.

Other things in my pencil case

Tweezers: Yeah I have no idea how they ended up in my pencil case. I think at some point they were going to be used for a project but I forget what that project was.

Copic Marker: I think I was going to try using this for brush lettering at one point but I didn’t because the Copics bleed quite badly.

X-Acto Blades: I’ve bought cutting blades from a number of different art shops and I’ve found that the X-Acto blades are the best. The only place I’ve found them in the UK is at Hobbycraft, but it really is worth the extra effort to get them, they cut paper so much easier than any other blade I’ve tried.

Headphones: These usually live in my rucksack so I have no idea how they migrated to my pencil case.

Ruler: This is an essential tool in my pencil case. I usually have a longer metal ruler in my bag to use with cutting paper. But I will also keep a smaller ruler in my pencil case for drawing straight lines.

Depending on the project I will also bring along a cutting mat, masking tape and double sided tape. Occasionally I will bring my little watercolour kit too but I really use that more for personal projects.

And since everyone complained last time I did one of these because it wasn’t realistic, yes I also had little bits of paper and crumbs at the bottom.

Thanks for reading.
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