Rejoice: God’s Providence {Bible Journaling}

Sometimes when I do a page in my Journaling Bible, it seems too simple to photograph or “record” on my blog. Maybe instead of hand-lettering the words, I use stamps. Maybe instead of sketching flowers, I use a stamp. Recently it has come to my attention that many gals who are doing art in the margins of their Bibles (whom I have met online) are discouraged when they see mainly the beautiful semi-professional work of some. While I love seeing those pages, sometimes it can be intimidating and discouraging for those of us who are beginners at expressing our thoughts in art and who are not skilled at beautiful hand lettering. SO, I will post some of my “simple pages” because I want to be an encouragement.

I did this page a few weeks ago. I used stamps, even for the flowers. The background is paint. When I cover the words of the Bible, I do so with transparent colors, such as Prisma Colored Pencils, like I used here for the sun. This page was fun because it contains two of my favorite verses!

This page happens to be on the facing page of the picture at the top of this post. In the margin on the back side of the “Rejoice” art is a piece that bled through badly. So I had already painted this margin (gesso and yellow watercolor) a few weeks ago, to cover the bleed-through. Today, I stamped the word rejoice, hand sketched a vine and flower. I’ve always been challenged by the verse that says we should always rejoice. Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes I want to respond, “Really? Now? In this?”