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.