Bible Journaling Class

Hello my crafty peeps!

Today I am going to talk about something that has been on my mind for 2 years and I am finally ready to start!  I confused some of my friends when I started talking about Bible Journaling and then going to bible study as well as attending church on Sundays.  It really wasn't something new as I have always had a fascination with God, Church and the strong community that goes along with it.

It had been about 10 years since I had attended church not that I didn't think about it, but one day I saw "Illustrated Faith"  and Stephanie Ackerman's bible journaling and I was hooked it was something I thought I could do, I went out bought a journal bible and there it sat for a year.  I even signed up for Stephanie's online class! (link above)

My lovely friend Deanne knew I needed to get back out in the community and also use my bible, so suggested I attend Women's Bible study with her.  What a great group of ladies and from there I started attending her community church "Southwinds".  I found a great support system and a calming influence on my life.

We all experience the word differently. For years I did not read my bible and really struggled to read it, and take away as much as those around me seemed too. For visual learners (like myself) the bible can seem very daunting, my hope is to give you and myself the tools to help bring it to life. 

The words are all there for us to learn from, take lessons in and experience...how are you doing that? 
For me a journaling bible was the answer.  On Sundays Deanne and I are teaching Bible Journaling to those individuals that are interested, even if just colouring a faith page we have printed off, for those more serious we hope to have maybe a evening get together.  I am hoping to have a online class by 2017, where I will show you my process and hopefully give you ideas on how to use your journaling bible.

My new large print Inspire Bible arrives around September 8th and I am super excited!!

I also bought the "Illustrated Words Jesus for Women Devotional Book" to help me dive into the word and also give me ideas for journaling.  It is really beautiful and I can see it making great Christmas presents for a few of my peeps.

We also have purchased a few things from Day Spring - Illustrated Faith - Lists By Faith & Blessings Or Lessons - Devotional Kit Set and a Illustrated Faith - Be Bold - Bible Mat.

The basic idea is that everyone takes away things differently when reading the bible or when you are hearing a song, or sermon.  We have had several questions that I want to address and do in one place that is easy to refer back to: 

1. What kind of journaling bible do you use? I first bought the ESV Journaling bible and I picked it up on Amazon.   I have since sold to another friend as I really need LARGE print lol.  Now they have come out with the Inspire bibles above and a few other church members have purchased them.
2. What types of pens do you use? I purchased the  Uniball Signo 207 Ultra Micro Black Pen, Uniball Signo Micro Black Pen, pencil, Aqua painters,  Zig Marker in Platinum (for shading), water colour crayons or pencils, and water colour paints, per Stephanie's class but really you can use what you have on hand.
3. What type of ink do you use and does it bleed through the thin pages? For me personally when using anything water colour I like to stamp with Jet Black Stazon Pad.   
   
4. How do you prep your page? The BIG question seems to be, “Will it bleed through"? I researched and from art journaling knew about Gesso.  What is Gesso? And why should you even use it at all? Gesso is a primer. If you paint a canvas or art journal page directly with paint and don’t use Gesso first, you’ll find that your surface just “soaks” up your paint. This is bad for two reasons. Firstly, it causes you to waste a lot of paint that could just as happily sat on the surface of your artwork instead of absorbing into your page. Secondly, in Bible journaling, that means your paints/inks/etc will be absorbing into your page and working their way toward bleeding through to show up on the back side of your Bible page. If you put Gesso onto your Bible page as a first step, all your creativity will sit on top of your Bible page, because the Gesso will be blocking it from absorbing (please note you will feel a bit of a gritty texture). I bought Golden Gesso (gritty) as well as Prima Gesso (not gritty).  For the purpose of Bible journaling, you want to use “clear” or “transparent” (non gritty) Gesso, which is thin for easy application. 
   

Now lets get started by recording personally inspiring scriptures in creative and artistic ways!

Stay tuned for more examples.

If I can give you just a little inspiration, where you can look at one of my cards and think I can do that, or I could tweak that and put my own spin on it, then I am achieving what I have set out to do! 

P.S. Please share. with your friends and leave me a comment below. I read them ALL!

Hugs,