Sparrows and Tip-Ins - by Deborah Gregg

One of the beautiful things with Bible Art Journaling is that God can use it to remind us of words He has already spoken to us previously. Because God's Word is living and active, it still continues to speak to us, on an ongoing basis, no matter how long ago it was that we first heard...or journaled!

I wanted to share a little testimony with you, that I hope may encourage you! Earlier this week I asked Father to encourage me. Simple prayer. (If you need encouragement - try it - and wait to see how He answers!)

On Thursday morning, I felt God reminded me of this encouraging verse, which I'd put into some artwork a little while ago:

'So don't be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.' Matthew 10v31

I remembered that I'd also completed a little watercolour sketch of this other verse in my Bible Art Journal, some time ago:

I was then reminded of the lovely song 'Sparrows' by Jason Gray (look it up on YouTube!), which I hadn't heard for months but played on repeat on Thursday morning while getting ready, the song stayed with me all day!

God loves to surprise us, and delight us, and so many times He confirms His Word to us, out of His infinite goodness to us. 

On Friday evening, at our Come Closer ladies evening in MK, in her talk our lovely speaker shared this very same verse, and even played the song 'Sparrows' by Jason Gray! I was so incredibly blessed and encouraged! 

So I decided to quickly journal some of the lyrics to the song 'Sparrow', and add them as a tip-in to my old journal, which is a spiral bound A5 Sketch book. 

Note: A 'Tip-In' is an extra page, it could be a piece or scrap of paper, vellum, tracing paper, envelope etc that you attach to a page in your journal or Bible, usually anchored on one side only so that the page can be 'tipped' or flipped over. I'll put a few photos of examples of 'Tip-Ins' using Washi tape at the end of this blog post for you! :-)

These are the same A5 spiral bound journals that I use at Bible Art Journaling for Beginners Workshops, so there may be a few of you out there who might be interested to learn how to add in extra pages/cards/envelopes etc into your spiral-bound journals. It's a bit fiddly but quite straightforward when you know how! 

First I chose the paper I wanted to use as the tip-in. I decided to use a page from a retro 1980s notepad I still had lurking, and thought I'd keep it really simple and just write the lyrics using black Micron pens (05 and 02).

Then I placed it in position, and put small pencil marks next to the centre of each bit of wire spiral binding. I hope you can just about see the marks in this photo:

Then I punched a hole at every pencil mark, at the same depth. To do this I used a 'Crop-A-Dile' craft punch that I have. You can use an ordinary hole punch, though it may be a little bit trickier to see where you are punching (tip - try taking the back off, turn it upside down and punch one hole at a time!).

 Then I took a pair of scissors and carefully cut through each pencil line through to each punched circle:

(this was a tricky photo to take!)

Then I simply slipped the page into position, gently working the paper around each wire section of the spiral binding.

All done!

 And as you can see, it flips over easily to show the other side!

(Anyone else have retro notepaper like this?)

I hope this might be helpful to some of you. You can also use this technique to add pages, envelopes, cards, bookmarks, business cards, notes etc into a filofax, hole-punched binder, or spiral bound diary.

And of course, there's the more usual way of adding in tip-ins, using Washi tape! This is really versatile and with so many lovely Washi's available you can always find one to match your pages! 

You can always go back and add more, even to a 'finished' page, by using Tip-Ins. They are especially useful if you've already journaled a page in your Bible, but want to journal a different verse from the same page. 

After all, God always continues to speak through His living, active Word - we just need to pay attention and listen....

I've just added a few examples below of different types of Tip-Ins in my Bible, that may hopefully encourage and inspire you to have a go!

(cue 'Take Hart Gallery' music!)

Tip - In using Washi-tape, used to add an extra 'Psalm' into my Bible

Tip-In using Washi tape, attached a small pretty envelope

Tip-In using patterned Washi tape, to add this extra artwork I had prepared on some deli paper, with acrylic background and calligraphy pen & ink (that I'd never be able to use directly in my Bible due to bleed through!)

Different sort of Tip In, using a simple paperclip with a little piece of narrow ribbon attached. 

Tip-In attached with Washi tape, artwork is simple watercolours splodged on tracing paper, with Micron Pens to do the lettering

You might like to know that framed prints of my 'Sparrow' Picture (in the first photo) are available from www.faithtreasury.com  

And 'Sparrow' prints - mounted but without frames - are also available, but not yet on Etsy, so please message me for details if interested!  deborah@faithtreasury.com