I wanted to share the journaling pages I did for Gratitude Documented. I didn’t journal all 30 days, and I wasn’t planning to, so I’m happy with the amount of time I was able to spend in thankfulness this month.
I did my gratitude journaling in both my Inspire Praise Bible and my Documented Faith Binder. Not every page had a “fall” theme to the art, since an attitude of thankfulness should be something I try to have year-round. I also got to try out my new Documented Faith products that I received as part of my Blessed Friend ambassadorship. I think my favorite new item is the Bible sticky notes that are great for adding prayer journaling to the margin.
I have been loving my new Inspire Praise Bible as well. I tried to use a combo of blank margins and illustrated margins as I did my Gratitude journaling. I noticed that when I kept the entries simple or just colored, I was able to focus on the gratitude prompt a little more than on the pages where I was trying out some different techniques.
It’s been a lot of fun to see how different people interpret the same prompt in different ways in the margins of their Bible. That’s why I love being part of the Bible journaling community, because even though I’m mostly experiencing this community online, it still feels like a tight-knit group of people sharing their heart through their art. And that’s something to be thankful for.
In total, I journaled 10 pages in my Bible and 4 pages in my Documented Faith Binder for Gratitude documented. It was fun to have a bunch of supplies to choose from, but at times it was overwhelming to have all the different pieces. My plan for Advent is to keep it a little simpler when it comes to supplies, since I will be trying to journal every day in December. If you journaled for Gratitude Documented, how many entries were you able to finish? What was your favorite prompt? I’d love to hear from you, so leave a comment below.
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The newest Advent devotional kit is here! Advent is my favorite time of year for Bible journaling, and this little kit is packed with an explosion of color as you explore the reason for the season.
The style of this kit is such a cute vintage handmade vibe. Plus add in some cute Christmas mugs washi tape, and you can’t help but get into the Christmas spirit. The biggest difference to the kit this month is that the 8 cards all include devotional material. I do wish that there had been more scripture references included with the kit, because the devotionals only include 4 verses. However there are so many other resources for Advent studies this time of year, so having a simpler kit is appealing to supplement other studies or for those who want a simpler study in the rush of the holidays and not feel pressured to journal every day.
I’m happy to see that the stamp set has more smaller stamps this month to give you more options for stamping cuteness onto your page. However as with past months, I just wish there was more variety. There are two stars and 4 bows, so I would have liked to see maybe a little tree or a little ornament. But the great thing about the Advent kit is that it coordinates with the entire line of Illustrated Faith Advent products on Dayspring, and there is a stand-alone Advent stamp set with more stamps that would be a great add-on to use with this kit. The die cut pieces are a mix of blank vintage style ornaments and a few ornaments with words on them. It would be so cute to use some of the icons from the stamp set to embellish the blank ornaments.
The devotional cards are the perfect size to fit into a traveler’s notebook. I’ve decided that I wanted to work in a traveler’s notebook in December so that I would have room for writing as well as adding in other sources and studies as I work through this season. I’ve been having fun getting it set up in anticipation of December as well as using a bunch of fun pieces from my stash in addition to the Advent kit to decorate my notebook.
It seems like just yesterday I was writing my very first Bible review on this blog with the original Inspire Bible by Tyndale that released March 2016, and now here I am again reviewing the newest addition to the Inspire line, the Inspire Praise Bible, which releases December 5, 2017. You can preorder a copy of the Inspire Praise Bible with purple butterfly softcover from Amazon 
My biggest question when I heard that they were releasing an all-new Bible was will it have the same art or new art? Answer: all new art! And not only that, the Inspire Praise has new features as well. Here is the description from the publisher: “The new Inspire PRAISE Bible has even more beautiful line-art illustrations to color, with nearly 500 all-new full- and partial-page Scripture illustrations attractively displayed throughout the Bible! Bonus features of Inspire PRAISE include even thicker Bible paper; thirty-two colorful, transparent, praise-themed journaling pages to enhance your coloring and creative journaling journey through the Bible; plus, three sheets of PRAISE-themed stickers and a purple pocket in the back of the Bible for storing journaling embellishments. Leave traces of faith―and PRAISE―throughout the Bible for a treasure that will truly inspire! The lightly-ruled, two-inch-wide margins offer additional space to write notes and reflections or to draw and create. The 8.65-point font is larger than most full-size journaling Bibles, and the high-quality Bible paper makes it a great choice for creatively responding to God’s Word right on the pages of the Bible.“
NEW INSPIRE PRAISE BONUS FEATURES
Tyndale listened to what journalers like, and this new Inspire Praise is a response to that. My favorite new feature of this Bible is the thicker pages. I was skeptical at first whether “thicker pages” would truly make any difference when it comes to using paints and wet mediums, and let me tell you that it does! Typically the pages of my original Inspire Bible get super wrinkled if I use watercolor of any kind. The wrinkles don’t bother me, per se, but they do make me hesitant to journal on the back of a page in which I used a wet medium since it’s so wrinkled. When I used watercolors for the first time in my Inspire Praise, I was shocked at how smooth the page stayed. There is still slight wrinkling, but it is a noticeable difference how much smoother the pages in the Praise remain.
Thicker pages also means less bleed through and shadowing. The pages of the Inspire Praise Bible are still thin compared to watercolor paper or other art papers/journals, but so far I have been very pleased to see how well these pages are handling paint, watercolor pencil, stamping, and black ink pens.
The style of the illustrations in the Inspire Praise are a bit more whimsical than the original Inspire, and I love them! I definitely think the new illustrations will appeal to younger girls wanting to get started Bible journaling, as well as women who want a bit less “formal” floral style of illustrations.
The purple cover and endpapers are absolutely beautiful! I love the colors they chose this time. The partially-colored transparency pages sprinkled throughout are a fun new addition. Each one can be journaled on or left as-is (I may leave mine as-is because they are so pretty already), and highlights a verse of Praise. The page behind each transparency has a blank margin so as not to compete with the design on the transparency page.
Another new feature of the Inspire Praise is the 4-page welcome message at the beginning of the Bible that invites the reader to praise God through the reading and coloring of this Bible. This would be a great place to start if you are new to Bible journaling and hesitant to get started, as there are beautiful illustrations alongside the welcome message. It would also be a good place to test out different mediums to see how they perform on the pages if you’re concerned about bleed through.
On the back inside cover is a purple pocket containing 3 sticker sheets that you can color and add to your pages. These match the illustration style of the Inspire Praise. One of the sheets is blank tabs that you can color and/or write on and then fold over as you adhere them to the top or side of your page. The pocket can also be used to store a few smaller supplies that you might want to keep and carry along with your bible.
I am very pleased with the new Inspire Praise Bible, and I would highly recommend it! This new Bible would make a great Christmas gift for both new and experienced bible journalers young and old. The release date has been pushed up to November 30 (originally set for release December 5), and Bibles have already started shipping! To order the Inspire Praise hardcover solid purple on Amazon, click 
Also, for those wondering if this comes in Large Print, the answer is not yet. Tyndale typically releases regular size versions of their bibles first and then as demand dictates, they add a large print edition. There is no new information about the release of the Praise in a Large Print edition at this time. To order the original Inspire Bible blue hardcover in Large Print on Amazon, click 
Kountingsheep 