Bind my wandering heart to you

Hello! I’m Lucinde, a new name on the blog :). I’m bible journaling for a year now and I really love to spend my time in the word of God and to get creative in my bible. I love to use stamps, I design stamp sets for Sweet ’n Sassy stamps but I’m stil hesitating to illustrate in my bible without stamps. For some reason I’m afraid that it won’t turn out the way I imagined it, and that’s a worry I can let go of when I use stamps. I think everyone over here is so right to say that this is a beautiful way of worship. I’m not the best singer, so I’m glad I can worship this way too. But, while I might not be recording my own songs, a lot of times worship music is my inspiration for a page.

That’s enough about me, let’s continue with my page and the word of God. My first page starts with a worship song, I told you it was one of my biggest resources of inspiration ;). Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of older hymns. The messages are so beautiful and especially ‘Come Thou fount of Every blessing’ really resonated with me. For this page I focused on the part ‘Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.’ I really want to give the Lord my praise but I feel like I’m still wandering a lot. That God deserves so much more praise than what I’m giving Him.

I journaled this in Psalm 119 (verse 9-16) where the writer tells about his love for the Lord and his commandments. I thought this passage was really matching the feelings I had when listening to the hymn.
‘With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.’

I prepared my page with matte medium (the bible I’m using has very thin pages, thinner than most English journaling bibles. You can see in the close up that it does add some texture to the page but I don’t really mind. When I’m not using it the stamps will be three times darker on the back of my pages than on the front side haha) and I stamped my images and messages with black ink. I colored the images with colored pencils and made the background with distress inks. I journaled some of my thoughts on the right side of the page (it tells about the writer, how he loves the commandments of the Lord and that he doesn’t look at them as something that’s holding him back in life but that he sees them as rules to make his life better).

I used the Songs of Praise stamp set for all the words, the bird and the feathers. The banner underneath the bird is from the Decorative Banner stamp set.

 

p.s. I use a Dutch journaling bible, so if you see some ‘weird margins’ or another language, it’s because of that.

To Know Him Is To Love Him...and JOY JOY JOY

Hi there!

My name is Tifany and you can generally find me blogging over at Ink Blots by TRD. Back when I "officially" started my adventures in Bible art & journaling I knew I wanted to keep things simple. In general, that's just how I roll.

Using things like pens and colored pencils come naturally to me - I've been drawing and coloring for as long as I can remember. As someone who has also been papercrafting and stamping for a long time, it just feels right to incorporate some stamps and basic papercrafting supplies as well. I don't intend for the "craft" to take over the focus on what I am reading/creating/journaling about, so I want to keep working with methods and media that feel natural to me. 

Most often for my Bible art & journaling I start with something I have read or heard (in a sermon) and a picture or idea just comes to mind. But other times, I hear a song or think of an idea and want to incorporate it into my Bible. For one of my recent entries, I was looking at the Seek Him stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and the phrase "to know Him is to love Him" just popped out at me. (No, there is no "is" in the set, but the rest of the words are there. The "is" that I used is from The Lord Is Risen.)

1 John 2:3&5 just seemed like the place to put this. It says (NIV):

3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.

5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them.

When I was younger, my obedience to God was generally based in fear, but as I have come to know more about Him I have seen how good and loving He is - and I love that. The stamps here said what I wanted to say, and I didn't want to add a bunch of fuss - just a hint of color with the hearts.

Another of my recent Bible entries came from a thought that came to mind - a song, actually. 

"I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart." 

(Where?)

I wanted to create something in the margins that felt joyful, so I picked two colors (for the dots) that bring me joy and just went to stamping "joy" all over. (The dots are actually created by using the back side of the "o" stamp from the Cold Coffee Alphabet.) The "joy" words are from a stamp set (coming soon!) called Choose Faith and I added a few dots and other accents with a white Sharpie paint pen.

Philippians 4:4 (NIV) says:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Repeat stamping is soothing for me and it was fun to just sing a joyful song as I was stamping away.

May you have a joyful day today!

You can find a list of all the supplies I used and more of my Bible journaling posts over on my blog.

Humility & Wisdom

Good Morning- Jamie here!
Have you ever been in a "creative funk" (for lack of a better phrase)?  Who has two thumbs and just experienced her first?  This girl! Right here!  What a strange place to be.  I seriously hadn't completed a Bible page in the month of March, up until Monday.  For me, something wasn't connecting or "clicking"- I can't explain it better than that.  I was in a dry place and questioning where I fit into God's plan.  That was until I had lunch with a new friend. 

We met at bible study this year and she is someone I was instantly drawn to by her sheer abundance of faith and how she lives her life on that alone.  This is the first time we have connected outside of our weekly Bible study and sadly, this was a going away lunch, as she is making an unexpected move to Texas.  We came to lunch both armed with books, her book worn and well loved, mine brand spankin' new.  Both of these books were to be gifts to one another- completely unplanned.  The beautifully worn book she was gifting to me was a devotional that had helped her through the decision to follow God and his plan for her in Texas.  As we spoke over lunch, I talked to her about this funk I was in and shared that recently, I had been mailed a stamp set from Korin and was finally feeling inspired.  I also shared with her that I was worried about a post I made expressing my excitement about the new stamps and how it may have been against the rules in the group where I posted.  (If you've read my last post you will know that I suffer from depression and anxiety- along with this comes a pretty low self esteem and I tend to beat myself up if I make mistakes.)  I am beating myself up at this point as I  am explaining to my friend that I would never intentionally post something to "promote" it.  I simply was excited to have some some new inspiration.  I also told her that the pages I do are how God speaks through me- I would never want it to be anything other than that.  Our conversation went in a few other directions from there and we never really circled back to this discussion.  We said our good-byes and assured one another we will indeed be friends for life.  


I returned home from lunch and immediately opened the devotional she had given me, on the inside cover was a note from her, and one sentence in that note made my heart sing: "Your incredible gift in art will be a far reaching ministry God will use to touch many."  How could she have possibly known this was something I desperately needed to hear?  Or that our conversation at lunch would have gone in that direction?  I turn to the first devotional in the book and it speaks to what seems small in our own world- where visions are big but our reality isn't.  How we really need to look and see what is hidden in the smallness.  Recognizing that this smallness is a gift and in it,  is a wisdom you cannot receive any other way.  What seems small in our world can have a bigger impact- if the acts are done in humility.   James 3:13 "Who is wise and understanding among you?  Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom ."


Light bulb moment!!!  Here is my inspiration!!!  My little post, that I was stressing over- was in fact that, little!  This isn't about me.  This isn't about stamps.  This isn't about Facebook posts, Instagram posts or blog posts.  This is about GOD!  This is about my walk with him.  This is about finding myself in him and HIS plan for me.  The little pages I do may speak to someone and help them connect with our Lord in a way they may not have otherwise.  That is the BIG picture in all of this.  I know my intentions, I know what I do and why I do it.  I know that this is HIS plan for me- not mine.  If I can touch one person on this big journey- fantastic!  More importantly though, is how God is touching my life and that I'm living it the way he intends.  The rest is all icing on the cake!  

I've said this before; I am humbled and honored to be a member of of this Creative Worship team.  In this humility I have found a new wisdom- for that I am forever thankful.  This page was humbly created with "Note This" by Rebecca Rios designs. 

Blessings,
Jamie

Supplies I used:  Note This- Creative Worship Stamps Neocolor II,  Gelly Roll Pens, Faber-Castell PITT artist pen White, Wink of Stella Brush Clear, Uniball Signo Gel pen White

His Banner Over Me

Hello, this is Diane.  I'm thrilled to be joining the Creative Worship team at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps with my first post.  I was amazed that Korin invited me since I'm so new to Bible art-journaling.  Perhaps she knew me well enough to know I'd fall in love with this art form because it takes me to the Word of God...one of my favorite places to be. There is so much I have to learn, but perhaps those of you who are new to Bible journaling too will come to realize like I have, that you quickly lose yourself in the worship part of this experience.  There is no one right style or level of expertise required to make art-journaling work for you.  Just dive in, let God wash over you with more and more of who He is, and the art is personal to YOU.  It certainly helps to have a variety of wonderful stamps from Korin's new line...just for Bible journaling...Creative Worship. Isn't that the perfect name, because that's exactly what we do.  We express our worship through a fun, uplifting and personally creative form of art.  

Since my husband and I will celebrate another anniversary next month, April 2, I decided to design something in Song of Solomon.  David and I wrote our own vows using verses from this book, so it made a great canvas for art-journaling. Korin had the perfect stamp set in the Creative Worship section of her store...

 Worship the Lord

 

 
Here is the two page spread I designed.  I wanted an old, splashy antique watercolor look to it. (I'm still very much in the experimenting stages, determining how art mediums interact with the thin pages of my Bible.  I'd read about practicing on some of the back pages in your Bible which I thought was a great idea.)  I depicted SS 2:4, 16 in the margin of the left page..."my page" and the verse David referenced (SS 4:9) in his vows on the right page.  I feel very sheltered in our marriage.  Thinking of David's love being over me like a protective banner so aptly describes the safety I feel.  Husbands are to nurture their wives, bringing them to a banquet table of all that delights a woman's heart and soul.

I brushed over the entire surface of both pages with brown watercolor and added more distressing by sponging with brown ink and creating some darker splatters.  I taped off the two verses I wanted to highlight later with red.

David's vows were amazing.  But when he got to his paraphrased version of SS 4:9, I melted.  All he did was to insert my name in the verse! I was already David's sister in Christ. That is a deep bond that makes the marriage relationship, being his bride, even deeper, stronger, more resilient through the storms of life and love.

To design "his page" I used the heart from the set and colored with watercolor paints again. I hand-lettered on both pages---ugh, still lots of practicing to do on that!  Since the theme is about banners, I thought it would be fun to add the washi tape banner.  I've spent years designing greeting cards and could just never get the hang of washi tape.  Bible journaling is MADE for it!  I've used it more in the time I've been journaling (weeks) than in all my years making cards!  It made a perfect little banner and that added some color to my page.

I'm so looking forward to this journey with Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, with Korin, and all the precious ladies here.  And I'm looking forward to the journey with YOU.  We are so glad you are here, so thankful that you might find a little inspiration from our projects.  We know will love all the new sets coming out that will be perfect for your art journaling.  So come back and visit the Creative Worship section of the store often. 

Blessings on your day, and thank you so much for stopping in.   

For We Walk By Faith - by Audrey

Hello there!  Audrey here!  Today I have a Bible Journaling page to share with you!  I recently started my Bible Journaling journey, and I am thrilled to see so many products hitting the market with Bible Journaling in mind!  I just love that the Creative Worship line is filled with such a variety of designs!  My favorite alphabet set is part of the He is Risen Bible Journaling Kit. The "Love Ya Like a Sister" alpha is the perfect size for bible margins, and it's fun, whimsical style is perfect for a variety of themes!

I chose to journal 2 Corinthians 5:7 - "for we walk by faith, not by sight".  I started off by scraping several colors of heavy body acrylic paint on to my page with an old credit card.  After the paint was dry, I stamped the verse with Versafine Onyx Black ink.  It required A LOT of drying time, even using a heat tool.  The ink was sitting on top of the acrylic paint, and because of that, it stayed wet longer.  (Don't look too closely as my little fingerprint smudges *wink*).    I added a few cardstock stickers, and some hand drawn doodles to finish off my page.

Here you can see how I chose to highlight the verse I was journaling.  A swipe of acrylic paint really draws the eye to the bottom of the page.

That's all for me today!  Thanks so much for stopping by! :)

Introduction & Testimony

Good Morning!  My name is Jamie McNamara and WOW what a humbling experience this has been, being asked by Korin to guest create for Creative Worship.  I am truly honored.  A little bit about me- I am a stay at home mom of 3 kiddos, Regan is 14 a freshman and a swimmer, Brenna is 11 and a competitive cheerleader and my son Everett is 10 plays competitive soccer and LOVES yo yo's!  My husband and I just celebrated our 15 year anniversary!!! Praise God!

My Bible journaling journey began in August 2015 when I committed to an organized Bible study.  I had recently been through one of the lowest points in my life and was coming up on the year anniversary of hitting rock bottom.  I suffer from severe depression and anxiety and in Sept. 2014,  I was hospitalized for wanting to take my own life.  Fast forward to August 2015, the Bible study I finally said YES to had been recommended by a friend 2 previous times/ years prior, this was the 3rd.  I believe in all my heart this was God reaching out to me & I was finally listening!  To familiarize myself with the Bible, I started looking into Bible journaling.  This has been the greatest gift God has given me, on this journey of faith.  Bible journaling has strengthened my faith & brought me closer to God than I ever have been.

I recently met a member of this community, she happens to live here in Denver, we got together to journal.  She strongly felt I should get my story out there and share- I now believe God speaks to us in ways we may not understand but we need to LISTEN.  I am listening and putting it all out there!!!

The two pages I am posting today were completed using Creative Worship stamp sets: His Book & Perfect Faith (also pieces of Amazing God & Decorative Banners). 

I am at a point in my life that I want to follow God blindly in faith and truly accept that His plan is infinitely bigger than mine could ever be. That being said- this journey I am on is a new one and I have A LOT to learn! Who better to teach me than the Lord himself? This page started out COMPLETELY different than how it turned out- this was such a frustrating page for me. What I learned is when in doubt: use acrylics to cover up mistakes 😊 I also learned that perfection is impossible, sometimes you have to go to plan B and even though this isn't my favorite page I can still find things I love about it! The tab is my fave! So with all of that said- I believe God lead me & taught me a thing or two.
His Book

When you're examining your conscious it can be a pretty fearful place to be.  During this time of Lent it is what I am doing- the thing is, I shouldn't be afraid.  Fear takes us to places that God does not want us to be.  God wants us to know we are loved unconditionally and forgiven- even when we have a hard time forgiving ourselves.  My depression and anxiety is the scariest place for me to be, I carry a lot of guilt with it and I can get sucked in and feel trapped.  When you've suffered for so long it's easy to let fear take over.  It is during these times I have learned to look to scripture.  How wonderful is it that God has our back and that we can trust that our Faith can be bigger than our fear?
Perfect Faith

If this post speaks to one of you, and touches you in a way to inspire & uplift you- I am doing God's will.  Much peace and love be with you all!

Love,
Jamie

Faithful God & alpha stamps!!

I'm super excited to share my love for the new alphabet stamp sets in our shop! I've got a great collection of alpha stamps and this Cold Coffee Alphabet is perfect for Bible journaling. The size allows you to get a 3-4 letter word in the margins and these chunky letters will make your words stand out on the page!

This creative worship page was done in Deuteronomy chapter 7. I invited a small group of friends over & we all made this page together. We each used acrylic paints for a fun, bright background and personalized our margins using hand-lettering and lots of clear stamps. (Our What's Up? set made an appearance in a few of the pages!) Acrylic paint makes for a great background because it helps prevent bleed through by serving as a buffer between your pen or ink and the other side of the page.

And my finished piece of creative worship......