Good Friday - Calvary Stamps and Pebbles Chalks by Deborah Gregg

In this Easter week, I'm just sharing this reflection on Calvary with you. At this time of year on Good Friday we especially remember all that Jesus suffered and did for us, to take our place, to bear our sins and burdens, and to bring us salvation and freedom through His precious blood that was shed as He died for us on the cross.

I wanted to create a page in my Bible using the stunning 'Calvary' stamps designed by Hannah at Creative Bea, based here in the UK. www.creativebea.co.uk

I have been reading the Gospel of Mark recently, but as I had already journaled this passage in Mark (see at the end of this blog post), and given that there are another three gospels that all describe the events of Jesus' death, I decided to read and journal this passage in Matthew Chapter 27 instead.

To create this page I first prepped the page with Art Basics Clear Gesso - I added two coats applied with an old store gift card (worked perfectly!) drying each layer with a craft heat gun. I prepped the page because I didn't want the stamped images to bleed through the thin Bible pages.

Then I chose the relevant stamps from my lovely Creative Bea 'Calvary' set, and planned a rough layout in my head!
I decided to use my set of Pebbles Chalks for the background. They are a set of different coloured chalks, in a pretty palette, with a crocodile clip 'pen' that you use to pinch a tiny pom pom which you use to apply the chalks and blend them. It's a lot of fun, a bit like applying eyeshadow or something! They are a bit fiddly to use, but not very messy, and are brilliant for adding a splash of colour, lovely to smudge and blend, and as they are dry there is no bleed-through in a Journaling Bible. I've found you can write over them or under them with a black Micron pen without any problems. 

If I'm honest, the Pebbles tray is a little bit of a gimmick, and probably not very good value compared to just buying a set of artist chalks, but they have lasted me for ages and I'm sure I've used them much more than I would have used a regular set of artist chalks. Because they are fun (did I mention that?)!
(One top tip - not a good idea to drop them on the floor - been there, done that.....they can crack and come out of their little palettes, and it's then very messy!)
Anyway here's a few photos of me applying the chalks:

So although I have all the lovely Pebbles colours that I would usually use, this time I wanted to use the greys and blacks to create a smudgy dark background to set the scene. I like to still be able to read all the printed words in my Bible if possible. Using black paint would have been very risky for this page, I definitely needed something lighter and more smudgy.

When the background was done, I added the stamps using a Versafine Onyx Black inkpad.

And as I had the stamps all inky, I decided to make a few tags too while I was at it!

I have found that if I prep the page with clear gesso, the Versafine Ink can take over 24 hours to dry fully! I think the ink just sits on the surface of the coated page, instead of sinking into the paper. However, once dry, it doesn't then bleed through the page. For me, it's totally worth the time involved in prepping and waiting. But if you're short of time or are more relaxed about bleed-through, just go for it! Let me know if you have any other tips or advice about this! I'm always learning....

When using chalks you need to fix them to the page otherwise they will smudge and the chalk may rub off on the opposite page. To do this, I sprayed a coating of 'Fixative spray' (which costs around £5 or so and is easy to buy from online or an art supplies shop). However I have heard that you can use hairspray - I've not tried this but intend to try it out at some point. 

The process of creating this page was fun, but most important to me was the time spent in God's Word, reading, thinking about it, and dwelling on all that Jesus has done for us. Praise Him! 

And as promised, here's the other page I created a couple of years ago, in Mark chapter 15:

Created using 'Forgiven' stamp by Time to Sow, white embossing powder, and scarlet Brusho. I had used white Gesso to prep the page, this was in the days before I discovered the wonders of clear gesso - you can see how the white gesso was starting to cover the words. 

This weekend, may you make time to reflect on the salvation of Jesus. And may your walk with Him draw you ever closer into His love, joy and grace. Happy Easter! 

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?