Love Your Neighbor -

Mark 12:31

I spent a rainy Saturday morning in my Studio/Girl Cave with the windows open, drinking coffee, listening to rain and thunder, and journaling in my Bible.  It was wonderful -- just what I needed after a hectic few weeks. 
So here is what I created today in my Bible based on Mark 12:31. (But you can't read this without reading 28-35!) I concentrated on the "love your neighbor" theme, trying to think about which "neighbors" I don't like; I'm not kind to; I make judgements on, I ignore, I gossip about. There are way too many, and I am ashamed. I am going to do better. 

I didn't put any fences in this design as I originally intended. I didn't want any barriers so I create walkways and roads linking everyone together. I'm hoping and praying that this one inspires me to be kinder and gentler to everyone. The verse doesn't say I have to like them (loving and liking are two different things) , but I do have to treat them the way I want to be treated. I used one of those "watercolor" pans that are more like tempera or gouache, micron pens 005 and 01, and a white gel pen.

Are you a Sheep, or are you a Goat?

Matthew 25: 31-46

I am posting this very late since it was last week's lesson, but I know many  of you haven't seen it. And if you were not in class last Wednesday, we will be doing the sheep page this week. When I was in San Antonio visiting my daughter at Easter we Bible journaled together.  She designed these two pages. and I put my spin on it.   The scripture says that when the Son of Man comes in His glory He will separate the sheep and the goats.  The goats will be on His left and the sheep on His right. The rest of the passage describes how He will determine who (the sheep) have eternal life, and who will have eternal punishment (the goats).

Because I was in Texas I had Texas Hill Country images in my head - cactus, lots of rocks, sticker bushes, sticker plants, sticker everything, scorpions, and rattlesnakes.  So the goats had to be in the rocks and miserable stuff.  But also in the ruggedness of the Texas Hill Country there are beautiful wildflowers blooming in the spring - Indian Paintbrushes, Mexican Blankets, Evening Primrose, and the most beautiful and breathtaking Texas Bluebonnets. So I put the sheep in the bluebonnets.  It was Erica's idea to use the radiating design and add the spirals in gray on the goat side to make it look story. We used white spirals on the sheep side with Wink of Stella on top, but they do not show up in the photo.  I painted the animals with watercolors and added some white gel pen dots. Erica used Stampin' Up ink instead of watercolors.  I outlined the letters and the figures with an 01 Micron.

I made a mistake.  I meant for my words to say Goat and Sheep, but I put Goats. I wanted it to say, "Are You a Goat"  and "Are You a Sheep". But it ended up saying Don't Hang with the Goats... Be a Sheep.

We finished it off with silver Washi tape that we cut in half to make the line more narrow.  Confession:  I do not like Washi tape.  Just sayin'....  I hope I haven't offended anyone.......

See Erica's post about her journal here.

Saved!

Wow, this one was a total mess up, but I think it is saved - just like me!!! I have wanted to incorporate some art from my travel photos for a long time. This is from a photo I took in Santorini, Greece. I first painted it on some nice white drawing paper with Inktense pencils and I was very pleased. HOWEVER, when I painted it in my Bible I did not take into consideration how the creamy colored pages would affect the colors. Duh! It was a mess and I stopped long before it was finished, Cried, prayed, adjusted my attitude (thank you God!) and glued my original painting over the mess up. Not perfect, but saved. There is a metaphor here. God covers up the mess ups in our life with his mercy and grace.

Here I am Lord, Send me

Isaiah 6:8 is God's calling to Isaiah and his beautiful and enthusiastic response.

I spent Easter with my daughter in San Antonio, Texas.  She is a Stampin' Up demonstrator and has a beautiful new studio in her home.  We spent many hours in there journaling in our Bibles. Her blog is www.pinkbuckaroodesigns.blogspot.com. (Visit her blog to see her beautiful new studio!)

I played with some of her stamps and found this adorable set "Beautiful Ride." I stamped with SU Archival black ink.  I added the driver and the heart and all of the background with Inktense watercolor pencils and an 01Black Micron pen.

Stained Glass on Vellum

I just spent Easter with my daughter and her family in San Antionio.  We have been wanting to do Bible journaling together for a long time.  Erica is a Stampin' Up demonstrator and is extremely creative and energetic.  She is braver and more spontaneous than I am, so she was an inspiration to me in many ways.  Here is her blog:

 pinkbuckaroodesign.blogspot.com 

She has a new studio that her hubby created by putting up some walls and adding a lot of Ikea cabinetry. It is very near the hustle and bustle of her family's life which makes it possible to dash in for a few minutes and do a little creative work.

Here are some pics of me with 2 of my granddaughters working on our journals and you can see a piece of Erica's beautiful new studio:

The lesson we are going to do this week in journaling class is Erica's design.  She wanted a stained glass look.  She painted her directly on the Bible page and used Stampin' Up ink with an aqua painter.  It bled through the Bible page, but she did not mind at all. I did mine on vellum with Prang watercolor and outlined with a Micron.  I did the words directly on the Bible margin.

Two Women in the Bible

I've been trying out some cling stamps by Jamie Dougherty at Creating in Faith.  She has created 4 women in the Bible stamps (Ruth, Esther, Mary, and Eve) that  are perfect for the 2" margins in our journaling Bibles.  In the pictures below you can see that I added and enhanced two of them for my journaling class this week. There are students of all abilitites in my class, so I am giving them choices. Most of my students are courageous and sometimes experimental and give my lessons their own spin.  (These stamps are sold all over the Internet.  Just google and they will pop up. I even saw them at Walmart.com.  They were very inexpensive and stamp beautifully.)

The Ruth design is done in Prisma colored pencil (face and hair) and gel pens (clothes and flowers.)  I also shaded with colored pencils over the gel pens and it worked! I first stamped the original design.  Then hand drew the additional parts with a 2H pencil.  My students will be able to trace that part if they want.  I went over the pencil lines with a 01 Micron pen.  After coloring with the gel pens I had to go over some of those lines again.

I stamped the Esther design, added the additions with the 2H pencil, painted all parts with watercolor, went over lines with the 01 Micron.  I added the white dots with a white gel pen.  I went over the roses and the gold with a Stampin' Up Wink of Stella pen.  Warning - the Esther design with the words in the middle is a little too long for the Bible margin.  I don't know what I was thinking.  It will have to be shortened. That one was really a rough drawing to work out the design.