Bible Art Journaling Ideas: Drawing Beautiful Pictures In Your Bible

Are you interested in Bible journaling ideas? Learn the basics of Bible art journaling with these beautiful examples and tips for beginners.

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By Crystal Wallace

Bible Art Journaling (BAJ) is a new craze that I have fallen in love with. My husband and our two daughters are artistically gifted, but alas, I am not. That gift seemed to pass right on by me.

For as long as I can remember, I have loved to color, so you can imagine how excited I was when I first discovered BAJ on Pinterest. At first, I was intimidated and thought, “I can’t do that. I can’t even draw good looking stick people!”

Then I discovered coloring Bibles! I used my birthday money last year and bought myself Inspire, The Bible for Creative Journaling. Each page of my Bible has a 2-inch margin down the side where you can journal and write notes, or you can create artwork. But the coolest thing about this Bible is that it has many pictures already printed in the margins. That means that for less artistic people like me, I could make beautiful Scriptural artwork just by coloring:

BAJ is one of those artsy things you can do without spending a ton money. You can spend a lot of money if you want to, but I started out very frugally with my Coloring Bible, colored pencils (I use these by Prismacolor) and some glitter gel pens. I’ve added a few things to my supplies but have still kept it to a minimum. (Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and WalMart are also economic places to buy supplies.)

Here are more Bible journaling ideas from my Bible:

On this page, I used Prismacolor Premier colored pencils and a Sakura gel pen to outline (please note the gel pen does bleed through the page a little):

This is a favorite as it speaks to our Missions assignment. I used washi tape as a border. It can also be purchased at a craft store and even dollar stores. I used a stencil to draw the globe then did the rest freehand:

If you, like me, do not consider yourself an artist, don’t be intimidated to branch out and do more than just coloring pre-printed pages. As I learned more about BAJ, I realized a lot of people buy tracing stencils, or they find a picture on the internet, print it, then trace it in their Bibles. There are tons of inspirational ideas on Pinterest. Also, I discovered the YouTube channel of Rebekah R. Jones. She has a ton of Bible journaling ideas available, ranging from what tools to use, to prepping your Bible pages should you decide to be brave and try watercolors or markers on your pages. Check out her website at www.rebekahrjones.com. Also check out www.illustratedfaith.com. There are also some great Facebook groups for BAJ lovers.

This is a picture of my Inspire Bible, my little carrying case (from Hobby Lobby or Michaels), and my favorite pencils crayons…Prismacolor Premier:

Some would ask, “Why would you color in your Bible?” In fact, some people feel it is disrespectful to color in God’s Word. Since I am a visual learner, I have found Scriptures stand out in my mind now because of the coloring/artwork I have done for those Scriptures. I literally picture the Scripture in my mind.

If you would prefer to not color in your Bible, you might consider doing BAJ in a regular art journal. I’ve even seen some beginners just use a regular school notebook to get started.

I hope this article might have inspired you to look into BAJ. Better still, I hope you’ll ask for a Journaling Bible and some pencil crayons for your next birthday, or for Christmas! Happy coloring!

 

Crystal Wallace is wife to Kevin, mother to Rachelle (and Daniel), Chantal (and Jarrod), and Nana to Maleah and Jude (who will be making his entrance into this world any day now.) She loves scrapbooking, coloring, reading, puppies, Pinterest, and French macarons. She and her husband are newly appointed missionaries on their way to the Republic of France.