Art Journaling Bibles

journaling bibles logo

So I just realized I left you hanging in my Bible Art Journaling post a few posts back 🙂  You may be wondering what a Journaling Bible is.  You can do art journaling in any Bible, but the preferred way is a Bible that’s specifically selected to just be your do art in-time with just me and God-not my big study Bible kind of Bible.  That’s usualy preferred to be a Bible that has a really wide margin to draw in, add stickers, stencil, washi, vellum overlay, you name it in.  The type that’s on the market right now is a two-inch wide margin.  That doesn’t seem to be really big, but it’s plenty big to do art worship in.  It’s not the biggest Bible anyway, and if you are like me and don’t want to color heavy over the words of the Bible  you can still color lightly enough over the text beyond the margin so you can still see the text underneath.  That’s my personal preference anyway.

This is my journaling Bible:

journaling bibles leaves ESV

It’s a beautiful Bible with chestnut leaves imprinted on the front. It’s imitation leather,but I prefer that over the hard backed versions because it lays flatter to allow you to work withGod with the art worship easier.  This one is the ESV version which I’ve learned to love over the past few years after reading it with my YouVersion app on my phone and I didn’t have an ESV Bible other than in digital form anyway, so it was a perfect one for me.  You can click on the image above or the linked text just below it to take a closer look at it.

There are several other versions of Journaling Bible and you can see those HERE. Basically they vary by cover design and quality and version. It’s all a matter of preference.

Now before you say you can’t draw, there are many ways to do your art without being a master artist 🙂  I’ll post about that in more detail in future posts, but off the top of my head, you can trace an image onto the page with a light pencil (Bible pages are very thin,remember) and then use colored pencils, watercolors, etc. to color it in, there are rub- ons you could use to transfer the image on, or just use stickers or stencils.  The main thing is the time you are spending with God.  The time you use to illustrate a page you can thinking about the verse the illustration is based on and it gets deep into your soul. It’s a great way to MEDITATE on the Word of God!

But for those still doubtful, never fear 🙂  There IS a Journaling Bible for you.  It’s a Bible that already has the drawings done and you can just color it in. (I’m planning on getting one of those too).

It’s called the INSPIRE BIBLE and it comes in the NLT version and both hard cover:

Inspire Hardback

or soft cover:

Inspire Softback

You can click on those images to see more information about them.

Now I just discovered one other type of Bible that would be awesome for art worship as well.  Just the other day I happened upon this one.  Instead of having a two-inch margin to do art worship in (and lightly over the text), this one is called the INTERLEAVED Bible.  It’s a Bible where every other page is a blank page.  You can do art work AND notes to your little heart’s content 🙂 It comes in various translations too.  Check those out HERE.  (I may work towards getting one of those down the road when my current journaling Bible starts filling up).

interleaved Bible

There is a lot more info to share with you that will wait for another post (I was up all night night trying to fix a snag on the underbelly of the blog and I really need to get to bed sooner tonight!) BUT there is one more thing I want to cover before ending this post.

As you know I reminded you how thin Bible pages are and you might think they are too thin to handle paint and pencil drawings and stickers and what not. Markers would probably bleed through.  Ordinarily that would be true.  BUT there’s this handy dandy substance called Gesso (that’s pronounced with a “J” -like jesso)  that you paint over the Bible page and it dries clear, matte, and quickly and puts a protective coat on it to protect your precious page.  After MUCH research, this is the kind I bought and I love how it works.

gesso

That’s enough for now 🙂 I leave you with a quote that came across a Bible journaling group I’m in and it’s appropriate as a reflection of spending quality time in God’s Word:

 

“It is time to be brave and strong. You must be dressed for battle and stand up for the truth of the Word that is in you. The more of the Word you have in your inward parts the stronger you will be in the day of battle. Remember your most significant spiritual battles are not fought against people but rather the enemy of your soul. Guard and protect your heart from the lies that enemy tries to use to define you. You are defined by who you are in Christ. Let His truth be the sword you yield when confronted with a devils lie. You are stronger than you know, especially when you forgive and are interceding behalf of those who have hurt you! You are brave! You are bold. You are brilliant!

Jayne Ferriss©01/12/16

“A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.”
Ephesians 6:10-18 NLT

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