Walk in Love - by Deborah Gregg

Following on from Sarah Anderson's fantastic blog last week about 'Love' I thought I'd share some photos on how I put together this colourful page in my Journaling Bible - using watercolour smooshing, gelato stamping, and washi tape ripping! :-) 

It's only as I write this, that I've realised that I think I've learned all these techniques from Sarah Anderson - so thanks for your inspiration, Sarah!  

This tiny book of 2 John contains some real gems of encouragement and exhortation. We are to love one another, to walk in obedience to God's commands, and to walk in love. This will help us to stay the course with our faith.

I love the way John ends this letter (and in fact 3 John aswell) so personally, saying, 'I've so much to tell you but don't want to use paper and ink, I hope to visit and tell you face to face!' Part of me wishes he had written a longer letter about all this so we could learn more from him. But equally, that's often how I feel when sending little comments and words of encouragement on Facebook to many of you in the Bible Art Journaling UK Facebook group! It was so good to be able to meet some of you at the DEN Retreat in Winsford last weekend, and I'm so looking forward to meeting up with more of you at New Wine (week 2) this summer! And at other events no doubt. And in the meantime we have the beauty of sharing our faith together via Facebook! :-D

So, back to the page...first I prepped the Bible page with 2 coats of Art Basics Clear Gesso, dried each coat with a heat tool. I've recently found that applying clear gesso with an old store card (working gently from the centre out to the edges) it goes on really smooth! Also the short edge of the old store card fits straight in the pot so actually no need for a brush at all and less waste/mess. 

 Then I chose two colours - orange and lemon (citrus theme here!) and used a waterbrush to paint splodges of colour straight onto the page randomly. I did make it fairly wet for this (which is why I prepped the page first with 2 coats!)

 Next I took a piece of very cheap kids tracing paper (it's a bit like deli paper but not waxy) and laid it on top of the page, smoothing it down with my fingers and moving some of the liquid paint around a little, in the layer underneath.

 Then I very gently lifted the paper up and separated it from the Bible page. (And took a photo with one hand!!!)

 As you can see, it printed a lovely image on both the Bible page and the paper. Then I repeated the process using some red paint splodges.

 Tracing paper over the page, smooshed it around with my finger tips, and lifted it off again!

 Then dried with a heat tool.

This tracing paper is now ready for use elsewhere, to cut up, rip up etc. so will be added to my rummage box for future projects.
Now for some stamping! I used a 'Love' word stamp from Time to Sow, which I had mounted onto some EZfoam. I decided to use a bright red gelato stick, and made a gelato scribble on a craft sheet (you can use an old plastic folder for that, or a laminated A4 sheet, etc)

 Using a waterbrush, I added a little water to the gelato colour, and dipped the stamp into it to coat the word.

 I then totally copied Sarah Anderson's technique and stamped repeatedly all over the page, using up the fading colour as I went along, topping up with more colour now and then.

I quickly dried the page with a heat tool, and then used a Versafine Onyx Black ink pad to stamp the same word 'Love' once in the big space below 2 John. To mix up the lettering a little, I used a Dovecraft mini alphabet stamps with the black ink for the word 'IN' and simple silver stickers for the word 'Walk'. I quite often add my words in reverse order, it sometimes helps to get the positioning right on the page, to start with the key word and then fit the other words around it.

I finished off this page with some ripped sections of washi tape. Another Sarah inspiration (!) tearing off small pieces, you can also rip them lengthwise to create little softly ripped edges and dot them around the page.
I then left this page open to dry fully for at least 24 hours - I have found that stamps on top of Art Basics clear gesso can smudge unless completely dried. (In truth, the Versafine ink did feather a little but I think that's because the page was still slightly damp). So I left it open on my dining room table for a day or so, and actually that was a great reminder of this passage and verse to me.
This verse is a great encouragement to us all to walk in Love.

Watercolours in my Journaling Bible - Part 2! by Deborah Gregg

I do love using watercolour paints in my NIV Journaling Bible (I have the lovely mint polka-dot one), so I thought I'd share another page with you all. For this one I used drips and deliberately ran colours together across the page to create a vibrant background for the words.
The passage is from 1 Samuel chapter 3, where one night, the young boy Samuel kept hearing God calling his name. I love this story, and was thinking about how God can speak to us in so many ways - but are we really available, paying attention and listening? I love how God constantly shows us something new from His Word, and even from very familiar passages, when we simply ask Him - 'Speak Lord, for your servant is listening' is something we can pray every time we pick up our Bibles!

To create this page I first prepped the page with a coat of clear gesso (see my previous post Part 1!). Once dry, I outlined the lettering very lightly with pencil. Pencil does usually show through watercolours, so I try to go very lightly....

Next I placed a piece of scrap paper behind the page, ready for the fun to begin! I used a fat brush and painted fairly wet watercolour paint splodges on the edge of the page margin, with the colours overlapping slightly. I used just the primary colours red, yellow and blue and where each colour met the next one you can see they blended to make the secondary colours of green and orange. I didn't scrub the colours onto the page, just added plenty of paint very gently.

Next I lifted the page up, and let the colours run down the page towards a rolled up piece of kitchen towel in the centre. If the colours were slow to run, I either added a little more coloured paint at the top, or spritzed with my water spritzer just to help them flow. It was tricky and I didn't quite have enough hands - yet still managed this photo with one hand....

And this is where I dropped the edge of the paper and it folded over onto itself - I'm not entirely sure how or why I managed to get a photo of this before I panicked ;-) but here you go: 

Thankfully no harm done, I very gently peeled the page back and it was mostly fine. Phew! The page is really delicate when wet, even with gesso prep, so I was quite relieved! There was a small rip in the bottom corner - more on that later....

Then I dabbed the excess paint with the kitchen paper, and dried the page with my heat tool. 

One of the best things about using watercolours in my Bible is that my Micron pens work really well over the top, with no risk of damaging the pen nibs. I simply outlined the lettering in a Pigma Micron 05 black pen. 

 I decided to leave the lettering quite simple for this page. You can see the rip in the bottom corner....which I decided to repair with washi tape!

Ages ago I bought a very cheap set of rainbow coloured washi tapes online (from Amazon cost less than £2 I think!). They have lasted for ages, and the narrow tapes have proved to be really useful for Bible Art Journaling - there's always a colour to match what I need!
So I used a small section of washi tape to repair the corner, and trimmed the corner into a curve with a sharp pair of scissors.

 Lastly I wanted to create a page tab for the top of the page. I liked the look of a watercolour smudge on my scrap paper that was under the page earlier on. So I added my key word, ripped it out, and stuck it to the top of the page so that the word 'Listen' was sticking up as a tab. That will help me easily find the page when I next need to look for it.

So the finished page to me contains a colourful, visual reminder to me, that God is wanting to call us, and speak to us, and he will keep on calling until we get the message and respond - here I am Lord, I'm ready, I'm listening....
I wonder what God may be trying to say to you today? Why not ask Him?

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 

Gelatos Bible Art Journaling - by Claire Graham

In this week's post Claire Graham shows us some of the ways you can use Gelatos in your Bible Art Journaling. Thank you Claire!

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Gelatos are probably the material I use most often in my Bible Art Journaling. I love the variety of vibrant colours and the fact that you can still read the words of your Bible passage even if you cover it. They are great for making a colourful background quickly or for painting details. This page was nearly entirely created with gelatos!!

First I prepped my page with Liquitex Matt Gel Medium and a sponge applicator.. I ALWAYS prep my pages, although you don't need to with gelatos, I'm always worried that my pens will bleed or shadow through and I don't like that! I use a heat tool to make sure the prep is completely dry. Then I sketch out my design with a pencil.

Once happy I drew over my design with a black pen. 

Then I coloured in my flamingos. I used a wet paintbrush to pick up colour straight from the gelato and painted onto the page.

For the background I added colour straight to the page by scribbling with the gelato...and then used a wet paint brush to blend the colour and cover a larger area. I used a mixture of my Faber-Castell gelatos and my smiggle water colour crayons which have a beautiful metallic shimmer.

To finish off I added some white gel pen, redrew some of the outlines and added some details.

I also added a strip of washi tape at the bottom and a tab made from washi at the side - my children think I'm addicted to washi tape - they may have a point!

Gelatos can also be blended with a baby wipe or makeup sponge...made into a paint by scribbling on an acrylic block and then using a wet paintbrush... you can stamp with them and lots... lots more.