Bible Tip-In: Jesus' Commands

My pastor has just begun a sermon series on the commands of Jesus.  At the beginning he made a good point:  "How can we obey and teach others the commands of Jesus if we don't know what they are?"  Along with his sermon last Sunday was a handout with a list of the commands for us to remember.

I wanted to keep the list, so I copied it on vellum and attached it in my Bible as a tip-in.

I've added tip-in pages before, but after seeing a tutorial on the Illustrated Faith site I had a better method.   Using washi tape as a "hinge" works so well.  I copied the commands on vellum, colored on the back with 4 Copic colors, and added some splatters of Heidi Swapp gold spray and black Dylusions spray.  I love how you can add color to vellum!

Right at the end of Matthew and the beginning of Luke was the perfect spot for me to add my tip-in.  What a good reminder this will be for me!

A Custom Card & Teenagers

Have you ever had an idea for a card, or a special request for a certain type of card, and had no supplies to bring it to life?  If I could draw, I probably wouldn't have this dilemma as often as I do.

Thankfully, I have a daughter who can draw (yay!) and another who is learning (yay again!).

So when one daughter asked me for a card for a friend's 16th birthday with a pineapple on it, the other daughter came to the rescue.  I don't have anything pineapple-y, but with Microns she was able to draw the coolest one for me to watercolor.  There's nothing like having your own personal artist.

I love how it turned out.  Gotta love Distress inks for watercoloring.

Why the pineapple, you may ask?  Well, in the teenager world (maybe beyond, but I'd never heard of it) they call people who are brunette on the outside but blonde on the inside "pineapples."  Apparently this applies to my daughter's friend.  She's proud of the title and collects all things pineapple.  I remember back in the day being offended at blonde jokes, but maybe we're not supposed to be anymore?  I don't know, but I do love this little pineapple.

More No-Line Watercoloring!

I said I'd try this again soon, didn't I?

After a couple more attempts with my little doggie, I finally ended up with one I liked well enough to make into a card.

Man, no-line coloring is a challenge.  I stamped with Spun Sugar this time and was much happier with the results.  It was much lighter than the Tea Dye ink I used last time.  Using a darker color for the actual coloring gave a better result as well.  I'm still not satisfied, but I guess that's what practice is for, huh?

Cards like this are so much fun to make.  It will be fun to mail to just the right person, too!

No-Line Watercoloring

Watercolor is still one of my favorite mediums, and I finally decided to try (gulp) no-line watercolor.  After watching Kristina Werner in the Watercolor for Cardmakers Exploring Mediums class, I knew I wanted to try this technique.  It's a bit intimidating, though, to watch the best pull it off without a hitch!  I don't have the Distress color (Antique Linen) she recommends for the initial stamping, so I used Tea Dye and it seemed to be all right.  I've seen others use a pale blue as well, so I may try a different, paler color instead next time.  Spun Sugar, maybe.

Since I was working on Kristina's technique, it seems only right that I use her stamp as well.  I love this little dog.

After I finished I went back and watched the class videos again.  Now that I've tried this, I see some things I need to change to get a better result.  I love coloring animals but struggle with everything being the same color.  Her technique of putting the darkest color around the edges and pulling it in seems to keep that from happening, even when the majority of the image is all one color.

I'll be trying this again soon!

Receive, Find, and an Open Door

Today I was reading in Luke 11 about Jesus' teaching on prayer.   The first 15 verses are His response to His disciples' request to be taught to pray.  He gives a model prayer and then lays out prayer principles.  Verse 9 is a familiar one. "So I say to you:  Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."  My usual focus when I read this verse is on the words "ask," "seek," and "knock."  Today my thoughts went to the results of these actions, or what Jesus tells me to expect from my prayers.  If I ask, I will receive.  Seeking leads to finding.  Knocking ends with an open door.

Verse 10 says, "For everyone who asks, receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."  How I need what I can only receive from Jesus!  I'm seeking what only He has, whether I realize it or not.  And the only door worth walking through is the one He opens.

I found a little top of the page margin space and put this in my Bible:

I have to say this is the first time I've actually drawn in my Bible.  Stamped and colored, yes, but never a drawing of my own.  I don't draw well (ahem, at all, really) and the thought of trying in my Bible was unnerving.  I found an inspiration picture of an open door with beautiful golden light spilling out, and thought it was simple enough for me to recreate.  After a few practice tries, I managed to come up with what I was looking for.  No doubt a trained artist could find multiple flaws with it, but it conveys the image I was after.  A few watercolors and some Distress ink and it was done.

And isn't that the beauty of Bible journaling?  It's a joy to show my unique interaction with God's Word in a visual way. 

Hark the Herald Angels Sing...in October?

I recently arrived at the end of the Old Testament in my Bible reading, and found some notes from a past sermon my pastor preached at Christmas.  He was talking about Jesus as Messiah, about how He fulfilled prophecy, and generally the miracle that Christmas is.  Then he related how Charles Wesley used the last verses of Micah to write "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."  Just hearing that tune in my mind brought the verses to life, and I penciled them in my Bible.

When I came across that penciled verse in my reading, and realized I had a bunch of white space in my Bible (yay!) I decided to journal.  I added some paint and as much of the verse as I could fit in.

This is the first time I've painted in my Bible with anything other than Distress ink.  I have to admit it was nerve-wracking!  After putting down some gesso, I added the blue acrylic paint and used my heat tool to help it dry more quickly so it wouldn't curl too much.  My Micron pen wrote so well over the paint, and Versafine stamped just as well.  Then I glittered up the stars with a Gellyroll pen.  Can't skip the stars when you're thinking about Christmas!  Adding some color around the verses finished everything.

Just looking at this puts me in a Christmas mood.  I'm so thankful for Jesus!

So Blessed

Making cards is only half the fun, really.  The process of putting words, images and colors together is new every time I pull out my paper, and the adventure of seeing what the end product will be doesn't get old.  There's always a new technique to try and a different perspective to explore.  But this is only part of the fun, and really the least important part.

The more valuable part is when one of my creations leaves my hands and travels to someone else, either full of encouraging words or sold to raise money for a needy Indian child.  The real eternal value comes when a card is opened and Jesus comes spilling out, pouring love and joy and peace.

That's what I want from my cards.

I'm sending this one to a dear lady in our homeschool co-op who shines Jesus every week.  She's been such an encouragement to me.  I hope to give her back some of that encouragement when she opens this card.

This tutorial by Jennifer McGuire inspired my card, and the lovely sentiment is by Paper Smooches.

Let's all be an encouragement to someone else today!