My Bible Art Journaling Journey by Rachel Blundell

Hi lovely people!

I’m Rachel, a Christian, wife, mother, friend and owner of EllieBeth Designs UK Ltd. (www.elliebethdesignsuk.com) I began Bible journaling in March 2016, and can honestly say it has completely changed my prayer life and relationship with the Lord, as well as lead to a lot of lessons He’s wanted to teach me being learned!

A friend sent me a link to Illustrated Faith, and I was immediately drawn to all the colour and gorgeousness that I saw – all there to honour and worship God. As someone who loves colour – I find it makes me so happy! – I wanted to have a try. BUT. I was a bit nervous – because, you see, I’m not artistic. My whole life I have believed that I can’t draw, I can’t paint, I can’t do beautiful lettering and I’m no good at it.

What a wake up call.

Because God doesn’t say I can’t draw. He doesn’t say I can’t ‘do’ art, or be artistic. He says that I can do all things through Christ; He says I am fearfully and wonderfully made; He says I am given gifts with which to honour and glorify Him – and it’s He who chooses what they are, not me. No, I’m not capable of drawing in the same way as others, or painting what I perceive to be ‘art’ – but I can use the creativity He’s placed within me to worship and to praise Him. That’s my gift and it’s become an absolute joy to use it to create.

I’m a planner girl first and foremost, and I’ll let you into a secret – I REALLY like stickers. So much so I have an entire God-given and God-driven business around them! So I figured that stickers were a good starting point – I don’t have to be able to do amazingly beautiful brush lettering because I have a sticker for that (and stamps!) Finding things that I could do meant that the anxiety and fear of ‘what if it all looks awful and I hate it?’ went away. Plus – it’s not about whether I like it or not – God will like it, just as I love every picture my daughters bring home from school for me. I love those early messy, occasionally almost identifiable pictures from my littlest one because she did them for me, with love. We are God’s children, and He loves what we have to bring Him because of who He is – our Father – not because of what we bring Him. He just wants us to spend time with Him, and I tell you, for me, there is no better place to be than in the Word, surrounded by colour and sticking stickers, or slapping paint down.

Colourful page tabs! 

Test page in the back of my Bible

Cover page – I love this verse

My first ever entry – looking at gifts and being creative 

I love rainbows and colour – it’s great to incorporate it into my journaling

First two page spread – paint on one side, simple highlighting and a tip-in on the other

In April 2016, God clearly spoke and gave me a direction for my business. It was to bring Illustrated Faith products over into the UK and to share more about Bible Journaling. He used the description in Proverbs 31 of the woman who plants a vineyard out of her profits to show me that I was to invest my profits into things that would lead to people being helped towards a deeper relationship with Jesus. I went with it – His plans are always better than mine! – and I’ve been so blessed and humbled to see how it’s impacted other people’s journeys. There is no better email than the one which describes how taking that step (because in small business, it was a BIG investment!) has changed their relationship with the Lord.

I tried out using journaling cards for extra space to write – or for hidden journaling as here!

I recently filmed a full flipthrough of my Bible, which you can see here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi-4khVqHME

More rainbows and paint! 

I also order the Illustrated Faith Devotional Kits each month, which are available at retail price only, so I operate this on a non profit basis, simply covering costs. If you’re interested, drop me an email at hello@elliebethdesignsuk.com with details of the kit(s) you’re after.

As a thank you to the Bible journaling community, I’ve also got some Get It Together Zipper Pouches which are free in the month of November with all orders containing over £40 of Illustrated Faith items (excludes anything ordered especially from Dayspring )

Bible journaling has truly changed my life – and I hope that by sharing some of my journey, it may help you to identify the lies that you can’t be creative, and have a go anyway, or, give you some new ideas to try out!

God bless,

Rachel xxx

Watercolour over gesso – and a reminder to pause, breathe and rest in Him

I’ve been experimenting with full page tip-ins – great for creating lots of space to be creative in.

Keeping it Simple - by Karen Herrick

I would love to have the time to spend lots of time with a Bible, coloured pencils and paints but the truth is…I don’t. I love to see other people’s beautiful work…and that in turn inspires and speaks to me -but that doesn’t work for me.

So rather than not dwell on God’s Word at all, I try to keep it simple...REALLY simple.

I don’t journal every day. I don’t journal in one place. Sometimes I journal first thing in the morning before I get up; more often in my studio before I start work, sometimes on the settee, or even in the car…

What? You have a studio…and you don’t take advantage of all those materials you have there?

Well, no actually…because if I got the coloured pencils and paints out I probably wouldn’t start work!

So I asked myself what I could actually maintain as a creative practice whilst exploring God’s Word. What would I actually transport; use wherever I am? I have journaled using the written word for many years now, so always have a pencil or pen and my journal, so I decided to stay simple.

I use this….

And these…

Yup, that’s it!

I could get complicated- but for me, it works like this. The simplicity of the materials stops me from being afraid to make mistakes. In fact, when I recently visited the Treasures Room in the British Library in London, I was really struck by the fact that many famous songs, pieces of music and ideas for books were conceived on the back of envelopes, programmes, serviettes! This is how I work!

Many of the doodles that I have done, end up eventually (and by eventually, I mean several years later!) as completed textile pieces. Many don’t…and never will. It is when I go back to the drawing that more reflections occur and as I stitch detail into the work, I meet with God again as He teaches me, encourages me, admonishes me gently and enables me to share His Word with others.

What is important, is that whatever creative practice we choose HELPS us draw closer to God, and doesn’t hinder us. God loves us to spend time with Him. He doesn’t mind how we do that. We don’t need the fanciest art materials, just a willing heart to be with Him and to sit at His feet and listen.

So, I would like to encourage you to be able to journal well with a style that suits YOU. If that is with coloured paints, pencil crayons, gesso…the whole works… then brilliant! Go for it! If it’s in your Bible: great; in a notebook-that’s fine too. If you like to journal creatively with words, pictures, collage, stitch, whatever it might be, then “Hallelujah!” Our Creator God created us all differently and it is amazing that we can each express and explore our relationship with God through our individual creativity.

What are you waiting for? Pencil? Paper? Back of an envelope? Chalk & pavement? Go for It! Put the kettle on…grab your Bible…God’s waiting for you!

My Bible Art Journaling Journey - by Lori Weeden

This week's blog post is by the lovely Lori Weeden, who is sharing about how she got started with Bible Art Journaling, and what it means to her. Enjoy and be blessed by some of her lovely artwork! 

About a year ago whilst studying my Bible, I wanted to write down scriptures on love in a way that was easy to remember and that helped me to meditate on them. I wanted to make the scriptures more memorable by decorating each one on different pages. Not long after I started to decorate some pages, I spoke to Deborah Gregg at a Come Closer meeting and she shared her Bible Art Journal with me which gave me more inspiration to continue being creative with the scriptures. She held a workshop at her house and explained what Bible Art Journaling was all about and tips about how to use different mediums to create your art work.

By doing Bible Art Journaling, it has helped me enjoy studying the scriptures in a different way and be more focused on them. It has also drawn me closer to the Lord. There has been many times where my artwork has helped minister to others, so it is doesn't just bless me but helps bless others too.

Thank you so much, Lori, for sharing this with us! If anyone else would like to contribute to our shared blog, do get in touch with Deborah Gregg, Sarah Anderson, Jane Butcher or Sharon King - we'd love to hear from you! 

Claire Graham - my Bible Art Journaling Journey

This week's fabulous blog post has been written for us by Claire Graham - it's so exciting to see her Bible Art Journaling journey over the last six months! 

New Wine 2015 is when my Bible journaling journey began - less than 6 months ago! I arrived at New Wine exhausted; desperately seeking healing from past hurts which still had a huge grip on my life and eager to rejuvenate my relationship with God. While I was there I was definitely restored and healed from those past hurts, finally able to move forwards after nearly 18 years and my relationship with God was kick-started as through various meetings and workshops at the arts venue I realised that it was OK to be arty, in fact, better than that, being arty was part of what God made me to be. I'd never really thought of how arty God is before.. but He created the world and it's a beautiful place... think rainbows, autumn leaves and dew on spiders webs just for starters. He also created me, a creative being!

I remember going to a Bible Art Journaling workshop, focusing on lettering and tangling (2 things which I am now completely in love with!) I produced my first official page and experimented with some simple tangles:-

I knew that I wanted to do more and soon I was addicted, journaling some of my favourite verses, picking themes out of the Bible to follow (I officially love stars!) and creatively responding to issues both in the world and at a more personal level.

Then while searching for which journaling Bible to put on my Christmas list I stumbled (definite Godincidence!) upon Advent Illustrated... a book, Facebook group and Instagram tag that gave prompts throughout Advent for journaling. I've officially loved having guidance verses for what to journal each day and a plan which guided my thoughts from Creation to Christmas, I've also loved the discipline of journaling and therefore studying the Bible every day and having to carve time out for that and I've been able to see my skills develop over that time. Here are a few of my favourite entries from the plan.

I'm really looking forwards to continuing my Bible journaling adventure, I'm going to carry on with Seasons and Advent Illustrated (the new name for Advent Illustrated) following the weekly prompts through the book of Esther and beyond, to learning new techniques, to playing with my Christmas presents (Journaling Bible, stamps, chameleon pens, etc!!), to growing new friendships through a mutual love of Bible journaling and to growing my relationship with God as I journal, doodle and draw.

Many thanks for sharing with us this week Claire - such a blessing to hear your Art Journaling story - and looking forward to hearing much more from you!
If anyone else would like to share your Bible Art Journaling journey with us on this blog, or if you have something on your heart to share, please do get in touch with Deborah Gregg, Sarah Anderson, Jane Butcher or Sharon King - we'd love to hear from you!