Where do I start?
At the beginning of 2017, I was in the middle of one my darkest, hardest seasons of life which was honestly leading to a crossroads of whether I choose to continue to follow God in this epic journey He’s put before me, or if I walk away. I’ve written about how it hit me that I was in the place where my future was either going to be “wow, she trusted God, “ or “how does someone fall so far?”
In the midst of it all I was searching for ways to feel connected with God. In that searching I bought a Bible with some big margins and started to try and journal in it creatively. Well, like most of my art, it got off to an ugly beginning.
I would see all these great Bible journal pages online and try to copy their process of water colors or stamps but honestly, it wasn’t beautiful and it wasn’t fun. But God in His faithfulness was taking me on a journey that has merged my prayer, study and creativity as I spend my morning time with Him. (I am a morning person and for me, if I start my day hanging with Him, it helps keep my mind focused on Him throughout the day.)
But it took me a while to get to where I have found my style and what supplies work best for me. I see a lot of beautiful bible journaling online, but to be honest, none of it or the resources available ring true to who I am. I’m just not a cutesy kind of gal and so much of the Bible journaling ideas available had bubble letters and bold pictures that just don’t fit me.
If you're like me and have loved the idea of Bible journaling but haven't known where to start, check back here on Monday for a quick starter kit for $4.99 that may help your find your style. The kit includes some beautiful paper and washi tape, which were the first two things I found most helpful in my bible journaling.
If you're in need of a new journal, click HERE to check out some hand inked journals or click HERE for a journaling starter kit.
Click on the images in the gallery above for some more journaling ideas.
I started to create and add tabs to books I read. They’re easy to make and I visually beautiful. I used one of Johanna Clough’s videos to figure it out. Although I don’t reinforce them with staples, instead I just use my handy dandy glue stick. Her videos are so fun and make me feel empowered to create beautiful things.
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I love taking bits of paper and writing on the backs of them and taping them in my Bible with some beautiful tape. I started off by wanting to make notes that were too big for the margins, and then it turned into a way for me to “hide” my prayers. If anyone, like the kids I nanny, want to look through or read my Bible, they know not to read what’s written on the back of paper because it is personal between God and I. What I do is underline the scripture speaking to me and then on the back of p
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I then stumbled upon this great washi tape by Jane Davenport that when combined makes faces. I use the eyes to mark in my Bible when something strikes me and and causes me to ask God to effect how I see things. There is also tapes of beautifully drawn moths I use awhen God is moving in my heart in how I speak. It’s become such a powerful visual for me.
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I also have a lot of random supplies built up over the years so keep them near me when I’m reading so I can pull out a letter here or a tag there to add to my Bible.
For Christmas I got a Tim Holtz Distress kit, which led me to playing around with distress inks and paints. It is what I’ve been using to create my latest journals and bookmarks which are for sale here on the site. The smaller ink cubes aren’t as wet which I don’t love for big projects but are perfect for Bible journaling because they don’t bleed through.
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Over time my Bible has become a collage of prayers, questions, ink and paper
I have 2 hat boxes full of paper, ink, stencils and stamps which help me easily create during my Bible study time.
Using the backs of tags and washi tape is also a fun idea