Hey guys, Masha here from Masha Plans.

In July we have a world emoji day, so it makes sense that we would talk about emojis; how to draw them, and how to use them in your Bullet Journal.

First, let me run through some of the supplies I used in this post.

SUPPLIES

Notebooks - most of the creative things I do in my B5 Archer and Olive notebook. But in this post, my A5 Archer and Olive journal will also make an appearance. I use the A5 one as my memory journal.

Fineliners - as always, it’s my favorite Pitt Artist fineliner pens by Faber Castell.

Color - I’m still with my Zebra Mildliners. I think yellow (which is my favorite color of Zebra Mildliners) is just so perfect for emoji that there is no need to try anything else!

EMOJI

For us, the young generation (ok maybe not so young here, but you get what I mean) emojis are a part of our world.

But then I had to explain it to my grandma the other day and ended up doing some research about them, and found some pretty interesting and cool facts that I’ll share with you now!

Ok to get this out of the way, emoji is a  small pictogram or a digital image used to convey an idea or a feeling in an electronic message. But you probably already knew that, 'cause you’re a pretty smart cookie.

But here are a few facts about emojis you might not have known:

1. The word Emoji comes from Japanese  e (絵, "picture") + moji (文字, "character")
2. 95% of Internet users use emoji. The other 5% are probably the older generations like my grandma who uses the Internet but can’t quite grasp the meaning of emoji, or just pretty boring people. This is totally my guess though.
3. There are over 3000 official emojis 
4. There is actually such a thing as World Emoji Award
5. Emojis are pretty new and were invented and popularized in Japan in 1999. Which now that I do the math means they have been around for more than 20 years…. Am I the only one who thinks the 90s were just a few years ago?!
6. The emoji movie was pretty bad… but hey, if you liked it, don’t let my opinion ruin your day!

HOW TO DRAW EMOJI

We all use them in our electronic conversations, but you also can easily move them to real-life with your Bullet Journal.

Drawing emoji is really pretty simple.

Start from a colored circle - that’s the original shape. You can also use different shapes, like Facebook emojis for example.

I think that, technically, if you use other forms they aren’t called emoji, but by now the definition means any kind of reaction stickers you can use on the internet, so don’t let it limit yourself!

Next step - pick an expression you want it to have. This is what emotion you want to communicate and it will help you pick the right expression. I have a few ideas in my image below. 

Once you picked it - just add it to your emoji shape and you’re done!

It’s very very simple, but can be a cute little add-on to your BuJo pages.

And speaking of…

HOW TO USE EMOJI IN YOUR BULLET JOURNAL

Finally, here are a few ideas on how you can use emoji in your Bullet Journal.

Emoji symbolize emotions, so pretty much every time when you need to express an emotion - try using emoji instead!

• Mood Tracker

The first and most obvious thing that comes into mind is to use emoji for your mood tracker as I did in my July setup.

This is a great way to add tons of different emotions you have in your tracker without running out of the colors.

Plus with emoji it will be more clear what’s happening when you look at your mood tracker, you almost don’t need a key to figure out what means what.

• In Any Other Tracker

Think about it - you can use sleeping and wide awake emojis in your sleep tracker to see how you feel in the morning.

You can use tired and cool emoji to see how productive you are during the day in your productivity tracker.

You can use emojis to track how your menstrual cycle affects your moods and feelings.

Finally, you can use an eggplant emoji if you want to discreetly track your intimate relations.

• In Weekly Spreads

Want to quickly jot down your mood during the day? Just add an emoji to your daily box.

Or maybe your mail never arrived and they claim your package was lost and you’re angry because you really wanted that amazing book. Just add an angry emoji so, in the future, you’ll know how important and infuriating this moment was for you.

• In Your Memory Pages

I’ve been absolutely obsessed with creating memory pages, and often I want to commemorate not only the events that happened but also how I felt about them.

A great way to do so is to draw emoji, or use emoji type stickers that would express your feelings as I did on the page below.

How I managed to convince you to give a try and use emoji in your journal.

If you do be sure to share it on Instagram and tag me (@mashaplans) and @archerandolive, we’d love to see your pages!

And remember: Keep Bullet Journaling and it’s ok to be a blob if you need to!