For the wings of a dove! by Claire Graham

Life's quite stressful at the moment, juggling my children having different Easter holidays, stress at work, new responsibilities at Church, a poorly child, not enough sleep and a whole lot of negative self talk has honestly left me feeling like I want to run away... and don't even get me started on politics and the scary state of the world.  My best friend and I often joke about wanting to run away and join the circus, but frankly it's quite an appealing option at the moment!

I came across this verse earlier, whilst wallowing in my self pity. "Oh that I had the wings of a dove! That I would fly away and be at rest" (Psalm 55:6) and it was perfect! I loved the idea that I'm not the only one who's ever wanted to run away from it all. King David, super important, amazingly spiritual King David wanted to run away from it all too!!

So... first I used my trusty liquitex matt gel medium and a foam brush to prep the page (the yellow and red are bleed through from the next page.) And blasted it with my heat gun - it only takes a few minutes and for me is well worth it! 

Then I watered down some acrylic paint with liquitex matte medium, it makes it more translucent, but as I added more and more layers with a makeup sponge the text became harder to read anyway. I don't mind too much if I can't read the text, I have lots of other Bibles and phone apps that I can read an obscured passage in! I added some patterns through a stencil as well. 

Then I drew a little bird - i used my pigma graphic pen as it draws well on top of acrylic- and painted that in contrasting colours... the dots were added using the wrong end of a paintbrush! 

and lastly I added the text of the passage...

I found it amazingly comforting to dwell on the fact that I'm not alone with how I'm feeling, that it's OK to want to run away but also that like God walked with King David in his stressful times with him he's walking with me (and you) too.

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!  

You're Very Good! By Claire Graham

Over the summer I finally 'got' something that God has been trying to tell me for years! 

I've never felt quite good enough, at anything really, I don't look right, I'm not as good a Mum/wife/daughter/friend/Christian as I 'should' be. I listen too much to the voices in my head that say I'm not enough. I'm an introvert and an over thinker. I constantly compare myself to other people and to the 'ideal' unattainable superhero me that I've created in my mind. 

It was while I was away in my caravan that I finally got it. I'd set myself a holiday project of drawing a self-portrait in my Bible (using my amazing inktense pencils and having watched a Rebecca Jones tutorial before we set off - http://www.rebekahrjones.com/bible-art-journaling-challenge-week-17/ ) and God really spoke to me as I was doing it. 

I literally spent hours, over several days working on this page. 

As I kept going back to it, adding layers of colour and details God started speaking to me, really clearly. 

It started as a whisper... "when I said that all I'd created was very good... I meant you, not just good, very good!" and grew and grew... parts of my appearance and personality that I've always struggled with I felt God saying "I made you that way, I love you that way... and I don't make mistakes". So I wrote down what God was saying, and once I was back I wrote it out on tracing paper and stuck it in my Bible with washi tape.

You're not a mistake either, you know, God carefully created and designed you. And once He'd made you He said "you're very good!" Not just good, not oh dear, I messed that up, very good. And God doesn't make mistakes.

Bible Art Journaling UK Admin team - thank you so much Claire for sharing this personal testimony of what God has been showing you over the summer. Going by the comments and conversation this has generated within the Facebook Group, we think this is something we can all identify with! So thanks for sharing this encouraging word.

Lessons from a Very Special Creative Cafe Church by Jane Butcher

I’m certain many of you have seen the pictures I have posted from time to time of our lovely friends from Creative Cafe Church.

We have met together on the second Sunday of every month for the last six years and as our name suggests we are a very creative group!

Each of our special friends comes along with their family a friend or a carer as it is important to us that Cafe Church is a time of family worship and fellowship, a time when we can just relax, be ourselves, as God intended, without worrying about others!

As you can no doubt imagine our worship, prayer times and teaching times can be noisy, exuberant, funny and sometimes amazingly quiet and spirit filled. We share news, worries, hopes and achievements, and we spend time in the Word together. We  use a variety of approaches, picture boards, puppets, musical instruments, drama and powerpoint presentations.

A very important part of worship time is our craft time, we have young (and slightly older) people with profound and multiple disabilities, Down’s Syndrome, Autism, general learning disabilities and cerebral palsy. Many of them need a multi sensory approach to consolidate their understanding and learning and the craft time offers a very visual reminder of the theme for the day.

Very often we produce a piece of art to share with someone else, particularly when we have been thinking of God’s love for us, being kind, making good choices. At the beginning the craft was very much for our special friends but over the years I have had to make sure that I prepare enough materials for everyone to take part, friends, family members and carers!

The art we produce is, of necessity, fairly simple but as in Bible journaling sometimes profound truth can be revealed in very simple imagery.  Cafe Church journaling is always a time of fun and chatter. We use paints, collage, Bible verses, photographs, model making and have made little books to share with friends. Tori, our first member has saved every craft/art piece since the very beginning; they go all around the walls of her bedroom and have overflowed into the spare bedroom!

I just love this picture!  It sums up the whole ethos behind Creative Cafe Church so very beautifully.

It is also so  relevant to us as Bible Journalers; how many of us still measure our efforts against those of others?

One thing that I have learned from my Cafe Church friends, when they bring me their finished pictures they are so proud, they know it’s just perfect, they don’t compare their work to that of anyone else, they celebrate and praise each other.

Art doesn’t have to be “perfect”, art doesn’t have to be a “masterpiece”, colouring doesn’t have to stay in the lines. When a child or a loved one offers you the gift of their efforts you love it, you are blessed by it, you are touched by it, you accept it joyfully and delightedly. Does this make you think of someone else?

Our Bible Journaling endeavours are an act of worship and a love offering to our God, I can’t wait to see the fridge door in Heaven!

Prayer Journaling by Jane Butcher

I haven’t contributed anything for quite a while and have really enjoyed seeing some of the amazing blogs shared by some lovely ladies.

Today I’m going to be thinking about prayer journaling, same techniques, same skills, just coming from a slightly different point of inspiration.

Prayer is our opportunity to spend time in direct, one to one
conversation with our Lord.Time to share, time to listen, time to be quiet.

I love to pray and I love to hear those people who just have such a special way of expressing themselves in prayer. My friend Jean Craven is one of the most beautiful pray-ers I know, I could listen to her for hours, her heart just pours forth love, faith and hope. I am no longer unnerved by the request to pray out loud, or even more scary,  to pray in a group without previous warning but personally I find I express myself better when I write my prayers down.

Prayer cannot be measured against anyone else.
We can all pray, we just need to find our own voice!

As I pray I like to draw, create a picture, find little phrases which support or enlarge my thoughts. I may write a poem or a letter to God or I may simply write down whatever God has laid on my heart.

Prayer is an act of worship.
It is beautiful.
It is love.

I can so easily fall into the shopping list trap, my prayer time becoming nothing more than a recitation of needs, personal or otherwise, sprinkled with an occasional thank you. When I journal my prayers although I still share my hopes, fears and requests with my Lord I also find myself becoming more focused on Him, more focused on worship, praise, thankfulness and hope in abundance.

As with Bible Journaling, Prayer Journaling is a way of engaging with and relating to our Heavenly Father in a manner which allows us to be entirely ourselves, expressing ourselves according to His divine and perfect plan for us. There is no right or wrong, there is no good or bad, there is only faith, love, hope and joy.

Claire Graham - my Bible Art Journaling Journey

This week's fabulous blog post has been written for us by Claire Graham - it's so exciting to see her Bible Art Journaling journey over the last six months! 

New Wine 2015 is when my Bible journaling journey began - less than 6 months ago! I arrived at New Wine exhausted; desperately seeking healing from past hurts which still had a huge grip on my life and eager to rejuvenate my relationship with God. While I was there I was definitely restored and healed from those past hurts, finally able to move forwards after nearly 18 years and my relationship with God was kick-started as through various meetings and workshops at the arts venue I realised that it was OK to be arty, in fact, better than that, being arty was part of what God made me to be. I'd never really thought of how arty God is before.. but He created the world and it's a beautiful place... think rainbows, autumn leaves and dew on spiders webs just for starters. He also created me, a creative being!

I remember going to a Bible Art Journaling workshop, focusing on lettering and tangling (2 things which I am now completely in love with!) I produced my first official page and experimented with some simple tangles:-

I knew that I wanted to do more and soon I was addicted, journaling some of my favourite verses, picking themes out of the Bible to follow (I officially love stars!) and creatively responding to issues both in the world and at a more personal level.

Then while searching for which journaling Bible to put on my Christmas list I stumbled (definite Godincidence!) upon Advent Illustrated... a book, Facebook group and Instagram tag that gave prompts throughout Advent for journaling. I've officially loved having guidance verses for what to journal each day and a plan which guided my thoughts from Creation to Christmas, I've also loved the discipline of journaling and therefore studying the Bible every day and having to carve time out for that and I've been able to see my skills develop over that time. Here are a few of my favourite entries from the plan.

I'm really looking forwards to continuing my Bible journaling adventure, I'm going to carry on with Seasons and Advent Illustrated (the new name for Advent Illustrated) following the weekly prompts through the book of Esther and beyond, to learning new techniques, to playing with my Christmas presents (Journaling Bible, stamps, chameleon pens, etc!!), to growing new friendships through a mutual love of Bible journaling and to growing my relationship with God as I journal, doodle and draw.

Many thanks for sharing with us this week Claire - such a blessing to hear your Art Journaling story - and looking forward to hearing much more from you!
If anyone else would like to share your Bible Art Journaling journey with us on this blog, or if you have something on your heart to share, please do get in touch with Deborah Gregg, Sarah Anderson, Jane Butcher or Sharon King - we'd love to hear from you! 

Barns and Barntangles! - by Deborah Gregg

Hi everyone, it's Deborah again this week. I thought I'd just share a little bit about 'Barntangles' today, as they are such a lot of fun and are great to incorporate into Bible Art Journaling!

For those who might not already know about this, Barntangles are simply doodles and patterns, like in the header at the top of this blog and the Bible Art Journaling UK Facebook Group page. They are usually done in black ink on white background but really, there are no rules, so feel free to use colours and whatever pens or other art and craft mediums you like! Some patterns are very easy, others more intricate, but they are usually easy to learn and really fun to do.

So why do some of us call them 'Barntangles'? They are fashionably and more commonly known as Zentangles (TM). However - I personally don't like the restrictions and 'rules' around official Zentangles (TM). And as a Christian I'm wary of anything 'zen' due to Buddhist and Far Eastern philosophy connotations. But doodling - well I'm afraid I can't see how anyone can trademark that! People have been doodling and drawing patterns since cave paintings and pyramids...

So, it was at the very first Bible Art Journaling for Beginners Workshop that I ran from my home, that I asked my lovely bunch of new Journalers for ideas of what we could call it, when a group of Christians get together to Bible Art Journal together? As a scrapbooker, I would sometimes go along to a 'Crop' to meet up and craft with friends, and I thought that 'Bible Art Journaling Gathering' just wasn't punchy enough!

The group chose the name 'BARN', and the acronym stands for: 

Bible 

Art 

Reflective 

Nourishment

I love that so much! Isn't that exactly what Bible Art Journaling is all about, reflective nourishment of our souls, along with relaxation of our minds and bodies, and encouragement in our spirits, especially as we share with one another. So we can go along to a BARN event. If there isn't already a group near you, why not invite a friend over and BARN together, and start a little BARN group?

*Please feel free not to use 'BARN' if you prefer another name! I just wanted to explain what it is, and where it comes from and what it means, in case you hear some of us talking about BARNs or Barntangles*

So to finally get to the point (thank you if you are still reading....!) - that's why some of us like to call our Zentangle style doodles when used in Bible Art Journaling: 'Barntangles'.

And here's some Barntangles I drew at a BARN!

I find that they can be a great way to think about a verse, as you doodle while praying and dwelling on something that God has shown you from His Word, it really helps you to relax and reflect on the passage. It sinks in.

You can learn Barntangle patterns from the internet, sites like Pinterest or www.tanglepatterns.com have hundreds of patterns and step by step instructions to try them out. By the way, the official patterns all have funny names (like Mooka and Cadent!), it doesn't really matter but it can sometimes help you to find them. I have a little notebook with squared paper, that I use to practice new patterns and copy out the instructions, then I can refer to this when Barntangling a verse or page in my journal or Journaling Bible.

Be free to create however you like. It can be great to Barntangle the backgrounds around lettering, like in the group header 'JESUS', which is one of my journal pages.

Or you could Barntangle the letters themselves, like this page:


Or shapes and line drawings can be filled with Barntangle patterns to use as decorations.

I personally like the black on white or coloured background, but I have seen beautiful artwork from some of you using coloured pens in your Barntangling - please just have a go however you want to, and post pictures in the group!

I'll close with a challenge:
If anyone feels inspired, please try to come up with some 'Christian/Bible themed' Barntangle patterns and post instructions on how to draw them in the group! I know that would really bless us in our Bible Art Journaling, as we spend time reflecting and being nourished by God's Word.

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Love in Christ,
Deborah

Enjoy the Journey! - by Jane Butcher

Dear friends, I’m trusting this finds you all well. I’m sure some of you are full of

joy at this time, relishing the mountain tops, others are close to despair trapped

in the valley, and probably the majority of you are, like me, somewhere in the

middle.

On those difficult days when we seem to be walking through treacle it often

seems to trigger the “negativity” response.  We become self deprecating and

hyper critical, losing sight of anything about ourselves that is good; but, for

every single negative thing we can say about ourselves God has a positive

answer. The following is a list I came across of God’s responses to our

negativity.

You say: It’s impossible.
God says: All things are possible.  (Luke 18:27)
You say: I’m too tired.
God says: I will give you rest.  (Matthew 11:28-30)
You say: I can’t go on.
God says: My grace is sufficient.  (2 Corinthians 12:9; Psalm 91:15)

There is a verse specific to our every need in the Bible. Sometimes we just need

a little help to locate it. There is nothing we can feel, fear or experience that

God does not know about, or care about.

You say: I can’t figure things out.
God says: I will direct your steps.  (Proverbs 3:5-6)
You say: I can’t manage.
God says: I will supply all your needs. (Philippians 4:19)
You say: I’m afraid.
God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear.  (2 Timothy 1:7)

As Bible Journalers we have a ready resource to turn to when we need a little

nudge or reminder of God’s love and plans and purposes for our lives. As we

focus on a verse, or verses that touch our hearts and draw, trace, paint or write

our response we are drawn closer into the presence of God, we are lifted out of

the darkness towards the Light.

You say: I am always worried and frustrated.
God says: Cast all your cares on me.  (1 Peter:5-7)
You say: I don’t have enough faith.
God says: I’ve given everyone a measure of faith. (Romans 12:3)
You say: I feel all alone.
God says: I will never leave you or forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)

For me Bible Journaling helps me push through mere words to the heart of

things, it simplifies the message and reveals and reminds me of God’s

omnipotence. I don’t need to have a deep theological understanding of every

nuance, I need to be able to turn to my Heavenly Father with every ounce of my

simple, childlike faith, knowing that He created me, He knows me, He loves me

and He has my life in His hands.

Proverbs 3:6 says “Seek His will in all you do and He will direct your paths.”

George Muller said “It is comforting to know that not only the steps but also

the stops of a good person are ordered by the Lord.” Our route master guides

our paths in the light of eternity, He knows our every step and He’s always

there, leading, guiding, redirecting, picking us up and dusting us off when

required. Let’s enjoy the journey!