Confess and Purify

Mike and I took a few days off and traveled to Texas this past weekend. Stayed with some friends the first night in Houston and then went on to Austin for a night. We relaxed and enjoyed our time away. It's always nice to get a refresher.

A scripture that I memorized as a child: 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." And today's inspiration for my latest Bible Journal entry. It was a part of my daily devotion before I left for Texas and this idea was swimming around in my mind over my trip. I decided to let it marinade a bit before getting started. When we got back from Texas, I was ready to begin this page.

Christ Set Us Free

There are so many wonderful scriptures that talk about our freedom in Christ, the chains being broken from our lives through Christ, and Christ setting us free. Every time I hear those scriptures I imagine handcuffs or chains literally falling away from me. I opted for a set of handcuffs for this entry and toyed with several ideas on how I wanted to incorporate them into the page and ultimately settled for just a simple pair of handcuffs. Christ's love for us is simple yet awe-inspiring.

I always draw my entries in pencil first giving myself the freedom to erase, start over, draw, and erase some more. Once I'm happy with the pencil outline, I move to more permanent overlays.

I chose the banner for the word "FREE," as I can just imagine the word flying in the freedom of the wind and thought it was a good representation for the word. I used my trusty Micron 08 pen for the black outline, and my Stampin' Up! Stampin' Write markers to add the color (Pool Party, Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight, Hello Honey, Sahara Sand). You can see the darker blue on the backside of the page, but the lighter colors do not show through.

Create a Clean Heart

Pastor Steve preached about repentance Sunday and spent a lot of time talking about David and Psalm 51. This Psalm has been one of my go-to scriptures throughout the years, and has always meant so much to me. I knew immediately as I sat in service Sunday that I wanted to journal this scripture and this is the image that kept coming to mind as I thought about the scripture.

I know that "Break my heart for what breaks Yours" isn't part of this scripture text, but it's always a prayer that I've prayed coinciding with this scripture, so I knew I wanted to incorporate it into my page. I'm glad I did...I like the page with both hearts. It's very clear that David's heart is broken as he cries out to God in desperation to make him whole again. I have been in that state of brokenness before (many times), and this page and the scripture that stemmed its inspiration reminds me from where I've come, and I am thankful. :)

For the hearts, I used my Prismacolor red pencil to color in the image. I then used my Stampin' Up! blender pen to blend the color and make it a richer red. You can see the difference in the first image of just the colored pencil in the top heart and where I've blended it in the second heart.

I then used my Certainly Celery (retired) and Pool Party markers to highlight some of the words with some color.

Blessed is she...

During the time I was waiting for my new Journal Bible to arrive, I came across this scripture and it really stayed with me. I wrote it down in my journal and saved the scripture as the screen saver on my phone to remind me every day. "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished." Luke 1:45 I read it at just the right time in my life--the Lord always knows what we need.

To create this page, I penciled in the lettering and then went over them again with my Micron 08 black pen. I love this marker because it doesn't bleed through the thin Bible pages. I have been using these pens (in many colors) in my other Bible for a long time for this very reason! For the colored background, I drew inspiration and the technique from Artsy Faith (though I have used the masking technique in my Stampin' Up! classes for years). I loved her color combo too and knew immediately when I saw it that I wanted to use it for this entry (and the "Lord" stamp she used, though I free-handed mine).

Simply take some Post-It notes and mask off the area that you want to color in. I then used Stampin' Up!'s Lucky Limeade (retired) and Pool Party ink pads and a sponge to fill in the color shading of my scripture and journaling. Then pull away the Post-Its to reveal a beautiful outlined image with prefect, crisp lines! Easy peasy!

Power of Your Words

I've found so much inspiration for Bible Journaling online-Pinterest mostly--there's just SO many impressive pages out there. Back when I first started stamping, I was overwhelmed with where to begin. I didn't feel like I had the creative capacity to come up with something good on my own. I'm so thankful for a stamping community where pulling inspiration from other people was (and still is) so strongly encouraged. I probably would've quit long ago if I hadn't had the silent permission from other stampers to copy ideas. The one thing that I DID learn right away is that it's okay to copy someone's idea--just make sure to give them credit for it. That's what the stamping community calls CASEing (Copy And Share Everything).

All that to say, I couldn't help but feel inspired and a little overwhelmed when I first started researching Bible Journaling. There were so many talented people with amazing work. But, after 7 years as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator I feel like my creativity has grown enough that I knew I could come up with my first Bible Journaling page on my own. I was glad I gave myself the challenge, because I'm really pleased with the end result.

My Pastor did a message series on the "Power of Your Words." I wrote something in my regular Bible that he said in his message and it's always stayed with me: Words kill, words bring life; they're either poison or fruit-you choose!" This stemmed from the scripture Proverbs 18:21. When I came across it again when trying to decide what to make my first Bible Journaling entry, I knew that was what I wanted to use.

I decided I wanted pictures to represent the main words in the quote and then googled images of those items that represented what I had in my mind and used them for inspiration for my entry.

I started with a simple pencil outline drawing my interpretation of the images (not Bible Journal entries-just pictures of items), then traced over the pencil with a Micron 8 pen. After that I added color with my Prismacolor Colored Pencils. I am very pleased with the durability of the Bible pages. I erased a LOT and felt like the pages held up pretty well for the amount of erasing that I did. I was worried about that when trying to pick a Bible. :)

Here she is in all her glory. Pretty proud of it, especially being my very first entry!

Bible Journaling-an Introduction

I discovered something new. I discovered Bible Journaling. Up until a month ago I didn't know it existed. So, I've spent the last month researching and researching and Pinning and Pinning until at last! My brand new journal bible arrived at my door step! For those that are new to Bible Journaling, like me, and don't know what it is: it's another creative outlet in the form of drawing, crafting, creating, being inspired through the Word of God and journaling through what I have now heard called "Art Worship." I love that. Art Worship.

Some of you know I am a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and previously posted my card making and craft making projects right here on this very blog. Three years ago I finally realized something had to give in my schedule, and the blog was the thing in my life that took a fatal hit. I essentially quit blogging three years ago, though I'm still very active with Stampin' Up! Some of the things I use for Bible Journaling will be Stampin' Up! products, others will not. I'm simply going to use the best medium for the journaling page, the idea, and the preservation of the pages in the Bible.

So, for all of you who have followed my blog and check in on it frequently, or even occasionally, I applaud you! For everyone that is new, welcome!

To get started, what Bible did I end up with? This one right here-and it's currently on sale at Lifeway! Isn't she pretty?

In all of the research I did, everyone made the same recommendation: If you're going to decorate the edges of your Bible, do it first. As you start to create on your pages, they will swell, bunch, gather, etc and it will no longer be easy to color in a flat area on the edges. So, I pondered for a while about what to do on the sides of mine and decided to go with a "Go out into all the world" theme and used Stampin' Up!'s "Let's Get Away" stamp set for inspiration.

I used StazOn black ink to stamp the images, and this photopolymer stamp set made it easy to press the image down firmly onto the page edges. I used a table to press all of the pages tightly together while working. Some of the images needed to be touched up with my Basic Black Stampin' Write marker to make the black image crisp. Then I slowly added color using my Stampin' Write markers: Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Lucky Limeade, Coastal Cabana, and Tempting Turquoise (some of these are retired).

I was very happy with the end result, and after I finished the edges I was very anxious to crack it open and get started on some things on the inside.

I'll be adding more of my Bible Journaling experience as I set out on this new adventure, so feel free to follow along as we go and ask any questions below. Have an awesome day!