I have been wanting to write this post for awhile now. My last Masterpiece Monday (#226) linky party was on May 1, 2015. I stopped hosting it because it became a time burden. I felt rushed to crank out a new craft, recipe or decor vignette every week. I felt that the quality of my material was suffering. Writing doesn't come naturally to me, and many times I'd struggle to write something. I love reading other people's blogs. It seems like many people have a real knack for creativity when it comes to original idea's and writing about them in an interesting and informative way. It also seems to me that a great many people know how to update the look of their blogs like master web designers while I struggle to figure out how to add the simplest of things like social media buttons. It felt like I didn't have enough time to research how to do these things. If it weren't for the kindness of Robin Gleason of Simply Fresh Dinners my social media buttons still wouldn't be working right. Thank you Robin, you are beyond kind! Check out her stunning looking blog for some really delicious recipes!)
How do people find the time to figure all of this stuff out? I know that I have a job and a family and a home to take care of, but so does everyone else who blogs or lives on this planet.
I'm not intending that this post be a negative rant. My intention for my blog has always been that it be a creative, welcoming and positive place for other bloggers and non-bloggers to visit. That's why I've never mentioned my feelings before. Who wants to listen to a whiner? Unless the whiner has long and carefully considered what they should do, and share it with others in case there's someone else out there struggling in the same way?
Well in the past almost year of not hosting my blog party and just plain only posting when I felt like it, whether I added anything to say or not and only shared photos, I feel refreshed and can now see the right direction for me.
I'm sure you've all heard of the famous Mark Twain quote; "Sing like no one is listening,
love like you’ve never been hurt, dance like nobody’s watching,and live like it’s heaven on earth"?
I've decided to post like no one is reading.
In other words, just for the joy of it. To post things that mean something to me and my life. And to not worry so much about how often I can crank out a post. To make living and experiencing life take preference over posting about it. My blog will never be a big mega blog and I'm O. K. with that. I will leave that job to those of you who are talented at that. I will still blog, because I enjoy it and it's kind of like making a life diary, in a way.
Lately I've been enjoying reading other peoples blogs more. I've been finding a lot of inspiring people on You Tube. I have more time to enjoy my own Pinterest board instead of just pinning to it and then forgetting about it. I've been actually making recipes off of my "Healthy Eats" board, which had gone untried for a long time.
I've even taken up a new hobby that I'm so excited about, I have started "Bible Art Journaling"!!!! I have many inspiration examples pinned to my "Jesus" Pinterest board, if you're interested. With all of the past blog party hosting, I have felt that I had started distancing myself from reading God's word and my prayer life in general. I had really reduced the amount of time focused on Jesus and replaced it with crafts and decorating. There is nothing wrong with crafts and decorating, I just don't want those things to dominate my time. I want Jesus to dominate my time.
I am going to express and share more of my love for Jesus and Christian faith on my blog. I have added a scripture verse to my blog header and I will share photo's of my Bible Journaling process and fellowships with other believer's.
What won't change are posts about decor, crafts and recipes. I will always be a model home junkie! And I love to cook and create.
I'm sharing my first Bible Art page with you today. This design is my own. I wanted the first page in my Bible journal to be about my journey and desire to reconnect and draw closer to God.
My next Bible Journaling project I will share is from Rebekah R Jones. She hosts a Bible art journaling challenge series entitled "Heaven Is Calling". Her once a month video devotional creative tutorials come out every first Thursday of the month.
Additionally, she having a really great Bible Journal giveaway and you can enter to win one of three bundles! You can go here to enter: http://giveaway.rebekahrjones.com
First of all I prepared my page with Gesso. This is an important first step to prevent bleed thru of your art mediums. I bought mine on amazon thru Rebekah's recommendation on her blog. You can apply this carefully with your fingers or a foam brush. I purchased a bag of cosmetic sponges from the Dollar Store and they worked fine. I applied two coats, after allowing the first coat to dry completely. I used wax paper underneath the page and on top of the page next to it for protection.
I drew out my designs using crayola twistable colored pencils. I love these and I was able to match the colors pretty well with my watercolor paints.
I found the scripture that I wanted to highlight and the shape that I wanted to use and drew out a simple sketch using a twistable closest to the paint color I was planning on using.
I love using masking fluid. I couldn't find it at Michael's which I found a little odd because they seem to carry everything. I actually found it at Walmart of all places. I was surprised because they have a very limited arts and crafts area. I went with this brand because it was the only one offered. It was only around 6 dollars and a little goes a long way. I have lots of plans for this!
Now typically, you apply masking fluid to "mask off" what ever you do not want to get paint on. It is usually applied with a brush. After using a brush though, I found it to be difficult to clean the brush. masking fluid is a rubbery substance when dry. I decided that a frugal solution to ruining paint brushes, would be to try Q-tips. They worked beautifully and I purchased a humongous bag at the Dollar Store.
Starting with the bright yellow, pictured right below the color my brush is pointing to, I painted all around my heart shape. Now, in the picture the photo makes it look like I got paint on the next page, but it's just a reflection of the color. I kept my sheet of wax paper underneath the page I was working on and I was also careful to keep the adjoining page covered with a sheet of wax paper as well.
There are heat guns you can purchase to speed up the drying process or you can just allow it to dry naturally. I used an old hair drier. You'll want to be careful of how fragile wet Bible pages can be.
I chose a light pink and a dark pink for the heart.
I used a dark orange for the rays of purity bursting out from the heart.
Once the painting portion was complete and dry, it was time to add some large lettering and some definition lines with my micron pen. I learned from Pinterst that Bible journaler's use micron pens because they don't bleed thru to the back of the page. I found mine at JoAnne's Crafts. I bought a pack of five colors and they were originally $9.99. I used a 50% off coupon and got them for $5.00.
I don't own any rubber stamps and ink pads, so I decided to use Picmonkey and print out my saying. I transferred the lettering to my Bible page using a sheet of graphite. If you use regular tracing paper, it will smear, Graphite paper won't smear and it's erasable. I had a hard time finding it in stores. Rebekah suggests Amazon and it was inexpensive and there were many colors to choose by.
I removed the dried masking fluid gently, using a pencil eraser. It was pretty easy to remove. I used my twistable pencils to fill in "GOD" and define the rays.
Here is the finished product. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. The point to Bible Art Journaling is finding a creative way to spend time with the Lord. I was able to concentrate longer on this scripture as I was painting and drawing. One of my favorite praise songs has these words to it and I can hear that song as I read these words. Thank you Lord, for letting me think of this scripture! Amen.
