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.

Creating Postcards - by Sharon King

I am privileged to be on a Sabbatical at the moment. This is giving me time to enjoy new experiences. To think, to listen and to pray. A little while ago a friend challenged me to have a go at designing my own postcards.

I decided to take this further and develop a Bible Study on which I could base the postcards upon.

So far I have prepared two studies, the first one being on Grace. These are the cards I have designed. The format will be that we will study God's Word which will lead us to a deeper meaning of what grace means for us personally.  Then there will be opportunity to create some Bible Journaling of our own, or use the cards I have designed. I will encourage those taking part to colour in the card and as they do, to pray for somebody specifically and if they fill led, to write a short message on the card and then send it to the person concerned.

I am in no ways an artist and I definitely don't draw very well but these are the cards I have designed for the study on Grace.

I have also prepared some cards for a study on Psalm 23.

I hope this encourages you to have a go at something different, and allow God to use you through what you do for Him.

Bible Journaling and Prophecy - by Gill Shaw

I have been painting prophetic pictures for a few years now and last summer learnt about Bible Journaling. Soon I became keen to use art journaling in my own Bible as I continued to paint prophetic pictures too.

As I have never been very neat at writing, but love to paint, my Bible now reflects this and many pages in my Journaling Bible have freehand paintings on them, some with sticker lettering and some with drawn or painted words too.

This is one example. I did the picture of eagles first (from Isaiah 40 ) and then painted it afterwards in my Bibles to remind me of all that God had said to me about waiting, trusting and hoping in Him.

A couple of weeks ago God gave me a picture of galloping horses and this word - 

"When you find things impossible, there I will make things possible. 

When you feel weak I will give you strength. 

Then you will find I take over and struggle becomes victory

 and I take you beyond the reality of can't, 

and to places you never dreamt of before.

 The end of your strength becomes my beginning 

as I lift you up and we run together. 

The waves will not stop us, run through them,

 free with the wind behind us. 

Keep going! Keep going! I am with you,

 your strength, your help, 

all that you need."

I painted the picture first, which is currently hanging on the wall in our church prophetic art gallery. After that I painted a similar picture using acrylic paint into my Bible in Philippians 4, later adding the words, 'I press on towards the goal in Christ'.

I am, along with many others a visual learner, and I find prophetic painting and Bible Journaling are helpful to remember the good things of God, whereas the words on their own may be more easily forgotten. One aspect of prophetic art is a reflection of God speaking in the Bible, displaying the Word and bringing it to life.

I have found it works both ways: I have been inspired by scripture and journaled in my Bible then gone on to paint a prophetic picture for it to speak to others. Or sometime it has been the other way round, I have heard from God and painted a prophetic picture and then gone on to journal it in my Bible. The two examples below show both the Bible Journaling and prophetic pictures for freedom in Christ and the Peace of Christ.

Brusho, Bleach and Pressed Flowers in my Bible! by Deborah Gregg

Hi again, this is more of a 'technique' blog post to tell you about my experiment with using bleach (yes bleach!) with Brusho, in my Bible (yes - in my Bible!). Yes really! And pressed flowers too. I've had so much fun I had to share it with you! First - here's a photo of the finished pages:



While doing a little online research about Brusho techniques, I came across some instructions about using bleach to lift the colour from your Brusho work.

(In case you don't know, Brusho is basically pigments of beautiful colour crystals in powder form, which you can sprinkle onto a page spritzed with water, or mix with water, to produce amazing vibrant colours and effects).

This sounded a bit exciting so I just had to try it!

I like to live dangerously....now and then!

First - I prepped my Bible pages REALLY WELL. Two coats of clear gesso, the first applied with my fingertips (which gives a nice smooth finish by the way), dried with hairdryer, applied the second coat with a paintbrush (as it was quicker I took a shortcut), and made sure it was completely dry.

I went for a double spread in my Bible, as I wanted to test out Art Basics Clear Gesso (left hand side) and Dina Wakley Clear Gesso (right hand side).

On went the disposable gloves, then I put paper beneath each page, and spritzed the pages with a little water, and sprinkled Brusho in two shades on each page, spritzing a bit more and allowing the colours to blend. I moved the Bible around a bit to help the colours to run over the page. Dabbed with kitchen towel to absorb the excess (especially when it all pooled in the centre!). Dried with hairdryer.

Then I put a tiny bit of thin bleach in a pot, and using an old small paintbrush (with synthetic bristles) I painted a little bleach circle on a scrap page:

As this worked well, I painted a little bleach over a couple of key verses in my Bible (Psalm 25v1 and Psalm 27v1) To my surprise it worked really well and the colour lifted - it wasn't left completely white but enough to stand out.

I also brushed a little bleach onto the tiny bits of bleed-through on the other side of the pages, where the paint had seeped over the page edges, this helped to neaten it up a bit. In retrospect, I should have prepped the underside of each page with gesso too, and will do that next time I use Brusho in my Bible.

(tiny bit of Brusho seeped over the edge of the page)

Back of the Dina Wakely Clear Gesso prepped page, after a tiny brush with bleach on the page edges!

Back of the Art Basics Clear Gesso prepped page, after a quick dab of bleach to tidy the edges.

I was a bit concerned my Bible would smell of bleach but it doesn't!

I left the Bible closed tight to flatten the pages a bit and completed the pages the next day, When I changed my mind about which verses I was going to add as hand lettering! That's fine!

So to complete these pages I used some pressed flowers that I had gathered in the Spring, and had left between sheets of kitchen paper under a pile of books for a couple of months!

To attach these delicate flowers to the page, I used some clear sticky backed plastic book covering. It was a bit tricky to position as I had to get it right first time but it seemed to work well.

I added the lettering using my Micron 03 and 01 pens.

In case you were wondering - both gesso's performed about the same re bleedthrough, very little between them both. I think the Dina Wakely Clear Gesso'd page feels a little bit more chalky than the Art Basics Clear Gesso'd page, which feels a bit smoother to me. But really not much in it at all! Both are great.

Psalm 23 is an amazing Psalm, one that we can all identify with. One that I keep coming back to, and I journaled this as it came up on my daily readings this week, and I've been praying for a family in our church, who have just lost a loved one this week.

In the summer at New Wine, I had a great conversation with one of the ladies who came to one of my Journaling workshops, she shared with me that Psalm 23 contains many of the Hebrew names of God. Which fascinated me as I've been studying the names of God recently - He really is everything we need. So I really enjoyed this opportunity to add these into my journaled page.

As this is a double spread page, on the other page I hand-lettered Psalm 25v15(a) 'My eyes are ever on the LORD' as I love this reminder to keep my eyes always fixed on Jesus. This tied in well with some dried forget-me-nots, which I've re-named as 'Forget-Him-Nots'!

I really enjoyed the process of creating these pages, of trying some new techniques and most importantly spending time thinking and praying over these beautiful verses in the Psalms.

Why not try something new today? Be inspired, be brave, and enjoy some creative time with your Bible!  

Covered with His Feathers - by Sarah Anderson

Something heart warming comes out of illustrating this verse.  Time cutting out feathers and positioning them on a page in order to surround the text brings out the meaning of the words and fires the imagination.

s o o t h e d - p r o t e c t e d - c o m f o r t e d - s u r r o u n d e d - s a f e - l o v e d

Wow!

It is in the time adding colour to the page, cutting out elements etc, planning what to do, that I think about the verse, over and over.  Meditating, submerging myself in the word, allowing the words to sink deep and 'be', and through this, the words speak to my heart.  I've been taking part in a challenge over on Instagram to #letterthepromises which can be as simple as just writing out the suggested verses (one for each day).  There are lots of this type of challenge on the internet and it's a great way to refresh your bible art journaling.

I am working in an A5 sketchbook available from Hobbycraft/the Range.  Today I used my gelatos by dabbing the end with a baby wipe ...

... then smooshing the colour onto the page.  I used a range of pinks and blues.

I then rubbed the gelato through a stencil...

... then rubbed the baby wipe across to ensure the colour went through the 'holes'.

Again I used pinks and blues which make a beautiful purple when they overlap.

Before I go any further, I must just let you know how pleased I am with this photo!  I have the paintbrush in my right hand and am tapping it with my left  - little things I know but I successfully mounted my iphone on a stand AnD used the timer :) :) :) 

Anyway, I got some watery watercolour paint and tapped my paintbrush over the page for some lovely paint splatters.

Whilst perusing wallpaper in John Lewis recently I came across some beautiful paper featuring these gorgeous painty feathers.  Using a sample of paper I cut out a range of different feather shapes ...

... and glued them to the page using a Pritt Stick.  I left some overlapping and when I trimmed them ...

... I placed the cut ends elsewhere on the page.

Finally I added the writing.  

May you know that Almighty God, our Father, covers you with His feathers and shelters you with His wings.  He is your shield.