Mistakes and Treasures! by Claire Graham

I remember a dear friend of mine saying to me that she could never get a Journaling Bible because she'd be so scared of getting a page wrong and then she'd want to rip it out... you can't do that in a Bible  (but you can in a sketch book!). 

That comment stuck with me, I know there's pages in my Bible that I like a lot less than some of the others and would possibly have ripped out if I could! This page was one of them... it was done in a rush, as part of a challenge I was following and as soon as I'd finished it I knew I didn't like it!! 

So a few days ago I gave it a makeover! 

I started by covering the margin in  white acrylic... it took several layers as the paint picked up the colour from the felt pen I'd used originally and went a beautiful shade of pink!! 

Then I drew some pots... I wanted to change the focus verse to "we have this treasure in jars of clay" and reference it to the Japanese tradition of kintsugi where broken pots are repaired with gold... adding to their strength and beauty. 

I painted those with acrylic too and outlined with black pen, I used gel pens to add the sparkle.
I also added a tip in flap explaining kintsugi...

... so sometimes mistakes can be covered over and a fear of making mistakes is no reason not to try!

Watercolours in my Journaling Bible Part 1 - by Deborah Gregg

I do enjoy using watercolour paints, there's something really relaxing about dabbing, washing, dripping, flicking and moving the paint over the pages, sometimes drying the page between layers, and sometimes allowing the colours to blend together (trying to avoid accidentally mixing 'mud' brown). 

I thought I'd share a step-by-step for a few of my watercolour pages, perhaps over a series of blog posts over the coming few months.

The biggest challenge when using watercolour paints in my Bible is of course the extremely thin paper - almost the opposite to the heavy, thick, crinkle-resistant watercolour papers that would normally be used for these paints. So to help with this, I (usually) try to use the minimum amount of water necessary, and (usually) prepare the page first with a coat of clear gesso. I use Art Basics or Dina Wakely Clear Gesso (not much difference in my opinion, both are great). I first put a craft sheet (made from silicone) or an old piece of A4 scrap paper under the page. I use a cut up cheap kitchen sponge to apply the clear gesso in single strokes working from the centre out to the edges of the pages. Gently, gently, don't rush!

I also use a really useful heat tool to help dry gesso and paint in between layers. It's like a hairdryer but with very little air! A hairdryer works well too, on low speed, just watch that the page doesn't flap too much in the breeze or it might stick to itself! (yep - been there, done that).

I was blessed to receive a beautiful set of Japanese watercolour paints - Kuretake Gansai Tambi - as a birthday present a while back. The colours are rich and vibrant, and come with a few shimmery metallics too which are gorgeous. I also have a small pocket-box of 12 half-pan watercolours in my Bible Art Journaling 2Go bag that I can take out and about with me, I use these with waterbrushes - maybe I'll talk about them another time! 

The passage I've chosen is from Lamentations 3v21-26. This is a familiar passage that kept cropping up in different ways, I felt God was speaking to me recently and showing me something new I hadn't seen before. 

In Emily P Freeman's book 'Simply Tuesday', she talks about how we can often become so overwhelmed by our busy daily lives:

If I were a robot, I would need a re-boot. Let's start this girl over, she's overheating. I wonder if the Lord had that in mind when Jeremiah made his lamentation: "The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease; for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lam 3:22-23

I've felt challenged lately to try to make a little adjustments to my day to day routine, to hopefully make a big overall difference, and sleep is one of these areas. As a night-owl, I struggle with the concept of going to bed at a reasonable time, when I'm wide awake and enjoying the peace of a quiet evening. I am blessed that I do usually sleep well, but am definitely not a morning person. (Ask my husband!).

I may never become a natural morning person, but God has been showing me that change is possible, and a bit more balance would benefit me and my family! And my morning prayer time...

I've been encouraged to consider that sleep and rest is a good thing, a blessing and a gift. Sleep resets my soul, mind and body, and leads me into God's great faithfulness and new mercies for me every single morning.

So, to journal this passage in my Bible, I decided to use my lovely Kuretake watercolours to try to do some sunrise-coloured paint dabs. That's the best description I can come up with for the rough idea that was in my mind...! Which looked like this:

You can see that as the page was wet, it crinkled. I don't mind the crinkle at all, but it is a warning that the page is very weak and vulnerable and will rip easily at that stage. So I tried to dab excess water with an old rag as I went along, and was just painting very gently. Then I dried the page with my heat tool.

After deciding what words I wanted to use, I thought I'd use a Versafine inkpad and a small alphabet stamp set. 

Which is when I discovered two things: firstly that although the page was dry, the ink still bled really badly and the crisp outline of the stamps went all fuzzy after a couple of minutes!!! Uh Oh.

 The second thing I discovered was that my best friend Baby Wipe worked wonders - I am convinced this is because the page was prepped with clear gesso - the smudgy ink just wiped off! Yay!!!

As some of the background was now looking a bit sorry, I decided to go for a collage effect in order to still use the little stamps, and to re-direct the eye away from the dodgy background. I just used some cheap printer paper, stamped each word, and ripped them up.

They looked a bit too crisp, so I scrunched them up....

Then unfolded and brushed the edges with some raspberry pink Tim Holtz Distress Ink (you can use this technique with any ink pads, just allow them to dry)

I then stuck them down with Pritt Stick. I added a few quotes underneath to remind me of what God had been showing me recently.

I hope this blog post has helped encourage you to have a play with watercolours, mistakes can be worked around, or collaged over if you need to, just have a go! This process was really fun, a bit of a fiddle, but really helped me to join together some of the thoughts and quotes and verses that God has been speaking to me about lately. 

I wonder what He is speaking to you about?

What if I make a mistake? - by Michaela Turpin

What if I make a mistake?

Hi, I am Michaela, I am a joyful wife and mum of 7 children, 5 of whom are at home and I also home educate and I am also a recovering perfectionist (you will learn the significance of this statement shortly). Today I am delighted to be a guest blogger for the Bible Art Journaling UK blog and I am going to be answering the question which often gets asked, usually a bit like this – “I would love to do Bible Journaling, but I’m really worried about drawing and writing in my Bible – what if I make a mistake?”

I love to keep things real, so I’d like to begin this blog post by rephrasing that question in the way we should ask it – what happens ‘when’ I make a mistake?! I would so love to be perfect, but we live in a world that is marred by sin and perfection is currently unattainable. So, first of all we all need to let go of that unreal expectation that we are ever going to create something that is perfect– maybe you find that easy, but I still don’t. However, I take great comfort from Philippians 1:6 – “Being confident in this that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. “ In the meantime, we can aim for excellence – excellence is achievable, with practice and perseverance.

Once we choose this starting point, it already makes things easier. We can be relaxed, free and have more fun because we know that we are going to make mistakes and that we can use those mistakes to learn and take us further on that path to excellence. Also, there are some techniques and tips that can help us in making changes or adaptations, so we can still create something in the present moment that we find pleasing and brings us joy. The best bit is that in time we will get to look back on some of our past efforts and see how far we have come in our creativity and in our walk with God.

My Top tips for Dealing with Mistakes:

1. Silence the inner critic: Yup, we all have one and we have to learn to silence and ignore it. This is a time when we need to take those thoughts captive to Christ. Try and look at what you are creating as if you were going to help a friend improve their journaling. You would point out what you loved and liked best, and maybe if they pressed you, you might suggest a little something they could do differently next time… in a kind way! So remember to pick something you love and something you can learn from for next time. It is rare to have a total disaster with nothing you like, but if that happens, don’t worry, read on and we can fix even that…

2. Try starting off by Barntangling on pages: I love the concept of Barntangling (zentangling or doodling, but using a Bible verse to meditate) because there can be no mistakes. Even if you do something unintended it is an element of the process of meditating on the scripture and it forms part of the piece. What is not to love about that?!

3. Pencil and paper rock: The pencil is a most important piece of equipment, as it can be used to make sweeping strokes and sketch out our ideas, before we commit with pen and we can also use an eraser to rub it out too*. Press lightly and don’t be in too much of a hurry to rub out. It can be helpful to leave a crooked line in, to show where the proper line should be. Also, be careful with rubbing out on Bible pages, as it can be easy to crease the page (but creases smooth out, anyway, so no worries).

If something goes terribly wrong and you really hate it, or you have done a painting or pen design which has bled through, then you can cut a piece of paper to size and simply cover it up! This is also another way of journaling. Prepare your artwork and then stick it in. Obviously, you need to be careful not to stick your pages together and careful not to get glue on your journaling ￿

4. Embrace the mistake and make it part of the piece or do a mini cover up: You can just leave the mistake, if you want to and it works ok (see Sarah’s blog post on how she used a bleed-through as the beginning of her next piece). And, remember that you don’t have to point it out to anyone or apologise for it either. Alternatively, I have covered up bloops with little flowers or hearts, added words in creative ways – put a sticker over something unwanted, changed a letter into another letter etc. Remember, we are not aiming for perfect we are aiming for pleasing – for us. We don’t have to show it to anyone if we don’t want to. It’s great if you share your work to encourage others, but you don’t have to. Sometimes if I feel less than happy with a piece I’ve done, I just close up the Bible and leave it be. Most often, when I come back to look at it later, I can appreciate it much more and even start to like it. After all, for me, Bible Journaling is about the verse I’ve illustrated or written out and my ultimate goal is to deepen my walk with God, although it is pleasing to create a little bit of beauty to behold.

5. Practice builds confidence: I really would encourage you just to have a go in your Bible and use your actual journaling as your practice for improving. However, I came across a really neat idea recently whilst learning knitting and I thought it would translate well for Bible journaling. I have been doing a DVD knitting tutorial by Lucy Neatby and as part of that we actually DELIBERATELY make mistakes and practice correcting them. One of my big fears in knitting was dropping stitches. Well, when I started deliberately dropping them and practising picking them back up again, I realised that dropped stitches were no big deal. Most Bibles have a few spare pages, well why not make some deliberate mistakes and practice correcting them? Hopefully that will give you the confidence, that it really is no big deal to make a mistake.

I hope that I have given you confidence to have a go at Bible journaling and to find joy in creating and even in making mistakes! Just like in life, sometimes we can get our best learning from our errors and embracing our brokenness. Papa God has endless grace for us, which enables us to live guilt-free and ultimately joy-filled lives. My hope is that you can apply that concept of grace and mercy to your own creative process and enjoy having fun with your Bible.

Be encouraged 

*NB: if you are going to do a design with coloured pencils you have 2 choices –1) go over the graphite pencil with pen and then rub out the pencil outline before you use colouring pencils or alternatively, 2) use a light coloured colour pencil to sketch in the first place. If you use a light colour with light pressure, you can usually rub out the line. Unfortunately, graphite and coloured pencils don’t mix well together, I think it’s something to do with the different leads.