Bible Journaling Part 1 .... My How, What, When and Where

Okay.... this is going to be a long one. 

Get your tea, coffee or soda and get comfy!

If you follow me or check in once and awhile, you will notice that I share my bible journalling with you occasionally.  (If you go on to my Instagram page you can see all the pages that I have done. I have a button on my sidebar that can take you directly to my page.) 

In the few posts that I have shared, there have been quite a few questions regarding the bible that I use, and how and why I do the journalling that I do.  

So here is that promised post that explains it all.

What is bible journaling? 

Bible journaling is a method that has been around for a long time but has become very popular in the last year, predominantly by these 2 ladies Stephanie Ackerman who started the Documented Faith plan, and Shanna Noel who created the Illustrated Faith method.  Both of their web sites have tons of tutorials and inspiration. It really is just a way to meditate on God's word through art journaling.  

Why do I bible journal and how did I get started? 

I have ALWAYS had an affinity for bibles. I LOVE them. I HOARD them and ADMIRE other people's bibles.  I am the same way with  journals. LOVE them! The problem is that I never use them. I never journal in journal.  Same with my bibles. I take my bible to church and bible study, but the truth of the matter is I didn't really open it in between.  It bothered me, but not enough to do anything about it. 

Then last May I hosted a table at the Ladies Tea at our church and the speaker was Pam Kanaly. Her theme or topic was "Love Letters". She shared how the bible is a love letter from God to us. Then she showed her bible. It was huge. It was old. The gilding on the paper's edge was gone. The spine of the book was cracked and the leather cover had worn marks from being carried and the pages were crinkly from being searched and thumbed through. There were copious notes in the margins.  She went on to tell that there were tear stains that were circled and dated where she had prayed and cried over her children and loved ones. Scripture was highlighted, underlined and dated where she had prayed God's promises into her life.

It was amazing and beautiful. 

It made me want a lifetime bible like that. 

Then when I was working on my planner, I came across some bible journaling images on Pinterest and Instagram. I was more than intrigued.  I went on line and every Journaling Bible was sold out and on wait lists. Then I remembered that my husband had used a journaling bible for a little while a few years ago.  He had set it aside because he wasn't crazy about the translation. I asked him if I could have it. He said "of course" and that is how I ended up with the journaling bible that I have. 

I watched a bunch of you tube videos on lettering and I also watched the videos on Stephanie Ackerman's web site for journaling. They are wonderful and I learned a ton and am still learning a ton.

So that is how I got started.

What is a Journaling Bible?

Simple! It is a bible with wide margins for notes and journaling. Lifeway has a great selection as 

does Amazon.  Lifeway even has a fun little video. 

How I bible journal. 

Bible journaling is just as individual as any journal can be. You make it your own. The biggest thing that I would want to convey is that you are really focusing on God's word and not the art. You absolutely don't have to have any artistic ability to bible journal. Ask yourself: What is it that spoke to me? What do I want to remember? Is there an image that I think of when I read the passage?  It's the learning and taking it into your heart that matters. 

When I am at bible study or listening to a sermon I use my study bible and a note book 

like this. Sometimes my daily devotion is an inspiration for more study too.

I still highlight and write in the margins of my study bible, but I also take extensive notes. I think about big ideas and small details. I write it all down. Then I go home, I pray about it, I review my notes and then I go to my journaling bible open it to that same passage.

I then use another little notebook for rough drafts and design.  It's a messy process but this is what works for me.  I am way to tentative do a rough draft right on the bible page.

I then transpose it onto the bible page with pencil.

Then I go ever it all with ink and color. 

It ends up something like this. 

"Prayer does not equip us for great works. Prayer is the greater work." Oswald Chambers

Trust me! I'm not an artist. I never took any art classes in high school or college. If I can do this, you can do this! And I hope you do!

In my next Bible Journaling post I will show you my favorite tools that I use for journaling. 

Bible Journaling Part 2 .... The Tools

Okay! You asked for it.... 

This is my post about the tools that I prefer for bible journaling. 

Before we get started: I just want to make it clear, I'm not

an expert, artist or theologian. These are just some insights 

into what I have tried that has worked. And a lot of what you see

in my journaling are concepts that I got from bible studies. So don't be thinking that 

I'm so exceptionally smart. I'm just making notes so that I can remember later.

You should know that I have had some epic fails to, trust me! 

To name a few:

The brush pen - LOTS of people use it but I can't figure it out to save my life. 

Watercolor paints - Bleed  through and cause the paper to wrinkle beyond belief.  

(My bible is not like the newer journal bibles that have the onion paper. Mine

are much thinner.)

Micron and Sharpie - bleed through

So these are techniques that I have gone back to and 

like best. 

Let's get started, shall we?

Here is a recent entry from a study that we are doing in Philippians at my 

church on Sunday mornings. 

Adopting a Christ-Like Attitude means Serving, Sacrificing and Glorifying God. 

You'll note that I misspelled glorifying in my bible (sigh). Oh well, it happens. 

By the time that I noticed it, I was in the ink stage. (ugh!)

Note to self: there is no spell check on the page. 

So that's the finished product.

Let's step back and have a reality check. Okay, NO JUDGING!

This is actually what my craft table looks like in mid project.

I think I saw a pin on pinterist "I craft, therefore, I hoard."

It applies.

It's true, I like having all my stuff out and available. 

I also like a work lamp. It makes seeing the pencil marks much easier as well as doing shading.

Here are the my favs:

a soft lead pencil (alway draw as lightly as you can)

a polymer eraser (because it seriously removes all pencil marks)
a Uni-ball Signo 207 ultra micro pen
a Uni-ball Signo 207 micro pen
a ruler
And
a pencil sharpener

Lined paper is handy to use under the page to keep your writing straight.

I also like to use color pencils alot. For me the Prismacolor brand is best but 

Crayola works well too. I have tons of them in as many colors as I can find.

I recently purchased some watercolor pencils and a blender that 

I'm anxious to try. It's supposed to give you the look of watercolor

with the convenience of a color pencil. We'll see. 

Washi tape is also a very fun element to add your page.

So I'm a beginner and I'm looking forward to learning more techniques.

I hope this has been helpful for you.

Let me know if you want to see more bible journaling.

And of course leave me questions... I'll try to answer as best I can. 

Have a great week!

Hello! 

Happy Friday to you!

I wanted to say something about bible journaling. 

I have already shared the why and how here.

Now, I want to talk about something else. 

Every time I chat with someone about my journaling, I always hear the same thing!

"But I'm not artsy." or "I could never learn to draw like you do."

And every time I hear that I say the same thing. "You don't have to

be able to draw." 

 I always mean it. 

While these are a few of my favorites, I didn't start out doing pages like these. 

Some of my first pages are very much "not pretty."

These are after some practice, and a lot of trial and error. And the truth of the matter is I have 

no art training, at all! Its just something that I discovered that I really enjoy. 

And obviously the more you practice the better you get.

But the reality is that, if you want to journal,  you have to start. And you need to start somewhere.

If I'm perfectly honest, I would tell you that I wish I didn't have those "experiment" pages in my 

bible. But then I wouldn't have spent that time with the Lord in his word and I truly believe that he has blessed my time that I spend in the bible. 

So let me show what I'm talking about.

Here are a few pages that I did using only my old scrapbook supplies. 

This page (which I love) is nothing but scrapbook paper, (cross) Stamp (the wood grain background) and stickers (crown, roses, and letters) 

This one has some simple lettering but the heart is a stamp, the parenthesis are scrapbook elements, and the black stripe with polkadots is washi tape. 

This one is the most simple one yet... a sticker and washi tape. 

I hope this helped to take some of the fear out of Bible Journaling.  Remember, we all want 

beautiful pages, but that isn't the reason that you start bible journaling. Its to study His word and life and to try to be more like Him.

BIBLE JOURNALING

Hey there!

Happy Sunday!

Just thought that I would pop in and show you some 

Bible Journaling that I did in Jonah.

I can't believe how often I have read the story of Jonah and the whale and missed the 

whole point! God wants everyone saved. YES! EVERYONE!

Whether we think they are qualified or not! 

That means that EVERYONE I see matters to Jesus!

I'll say it again...

YES! EVERYONE!

Jonah is little book with a lot to say! 

How I Decided to Use My 365 Faith Binder

SO! 

One of the fun things that I received from the Documented Faith crew was

this super cute binder. Since my Blessed Friends Ambassadorship is almost over, I feel like I need to share my thoughts on this product. I am actually excited to do so because it took me a while to decide how I want to use it. 

Here is a little overview on the binder. 

The cost is about $40.00 

You can pick one up here and here. 

It comes complete with dividers, blank monthly pages, and blank daily pages. All are designed by Stephanie Ackerman with her awesome art work. If you don't know her you can read more on her blog Homegrown Hospitality.

This a very nice 3-ring binder with reinforced corners and a lay-flat feature. The paper is card stock. I have used watercolor on the pages and they only slightly buckle and press out over time. The dividers are actually watercolor paper that you can color in as you wish. The dividers are labeled with the word of the month that Stephanie's weekly email focuses on.  

Now!  

Let me say something here. 

Don't let that be a deal breaker. If you want the binder to be used as an actual planner, you can. Just flip the dividers over and label them by month.  SUPER FLEXIBLE! Use it how you want to!

So the first couple of months I really did use it as a planner. 

What I ended up deciding was that this was not really useful for me. I have a lovely Filofax personal size Malden that I LOVE and carry every where. So that ended up not being the best use for me.

Here is a layout that I did with the word "serve" using the Serve Kit, which you can get here. By the way, this kit has my hands-down, absolute favorite stamp set .... EVER!

So after months of working with this binder, I have decided that this is one of the things in life that you don't know you need until you have it and use it. 

The way that I use it is that every week I download the Documented Faith devotion. I pray. I open my bible. I read the devotion and then I pray again.  I ask for clarity and a message. God always delivers.

This particular week Stephanie had an exercise to write scripture. So I did one daily. I also added one of her images from the Adornit ArtPlay coloring book. I just cut it out and glued in.  I also watercolored sections... just because, I'm all about watercolor now. 

I also washied the edge of the lesson download and hole punched so that I could place it in that week. 

Sometimes the devotions come with a really cute image like this one. You can do what you want with it. Use it in your binder or in your bible. 

You can see here, that I did nothing to decorate the binder other than put the weekly devotion in it.  I don't spend the time in the binder like I do in my bible journaling. I really am just Documenting my Faith. 

See?

If you would like to sign up for the Documented Faith weekly email here.

I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions. 

Oh! And if you ever want to see what I'm working on I post almost every day on Instagram. There is a link in my sidebar that will take you right to my Instagram Page. 

Sunday Morning....

What's not to love?

Hey Friends!

I hope you are getting ready for a great new week. 

 The ol' blog has been silent for a while. 

Funny because I have several blogs written and waiting to post.

Just not feeling it right now.

 .... I am spending a lot of time

on new interests that really don't translate well to blogging. 

One thing that I have started bible journaling... and I LOVE it! 

I might share more of this it you are interested... 

Let me know what you think. 

Okay?

Okay!