Illustrated Faith turns 3 today! To celebrate this milestone, Dayspring is hosting a giveaway for one lucky winner to receive ALL 19 of the devotional kits that Illustrated Faith and Dayspring have done together. So yes, that means even the retired kits like the original Created to Create. For your chance to win, enter the giveaway here between now and September 5th.
I am so grateful for discovering this wonderful community of Bible Journaling! I started officially Bible Journaling on January 1, 2016 after a very difficult and painful church experience that had left me broken and distant. But God sought me and brought me back into his word so that he could heal my heart. Expressing my worship and prayers creatively through illustrating in my Bible has brought such a renewal to my crushed spirit and healed me in many ways. The community of creatives illustrating in their Bibles gave me a chance to interact with other Christians again without worry of being hurt again.
I’ve also never shared so much of my faith before publicly, and I love that my illustrated Bible pages have given me that opportunity! I’ve had the opportunity to lead a Bible journaling night with my friends, and this month I’ll be starting a monthly gathering at my home to share Bible journaling with friends on an ongoing basis. I’ve also just recently become a Dayspring affiliate and part of the Illustrated Faith launch team, which means I get to share products that I already use and love!
I can’t wait to see where Illustrated Faith will take me in the years ahead, but I know one thing: God is faithful and he never leaves me. He has created me to be passionate about creativity! I’d love to hear your story of how you got started Bible journaling, so feel free to share in a comment below! If you want to get started Bible journaling for the first time, feel free to ask me questions in a comment. Here are some tips from Illustrated Faith for getting started:
Don’t forget you also have until September 5th to shop the big Illustrated Faith sale here. And grab the New Created to Create 2 kit here.
Please note that this post contains some affiliate links. This just means I receive a small commission when you shop through the links at no additional cost to you.
I finally made it through all 14 entries of the Illustrated Faith “Through Christ” devotional. It’s taken me since January, but I’m so proud of myself for actually finishing a devotional all the way through. I tend to lose interest before finishing, so it’s nice to know I can actually finish. 
I really enjoyed using a different color for each entry and also trying new techniques with acrylic paint on some of the last few entries. I also spent a lot more time writing out prayers in my Bible to go along with many of the entries. I felt God drawing me back over and over again to His word. That’s the beauty of Bible journaling to me: it’s not just about the art, it’s about how God is working on and speaking to my heart. 
I’m now working my way through the How He Loves Us Devotional from last year, and I will have an exciting new kit to show you in a couple of days. Make sure you are following my blog so you can receive an email every time I post. 
New crochet pattern now available on Ravelry and in my shop: the Woodland Fox Baby Blanket! A great addition to any woodland or rustic themed nursery, and makes a great baby shower gift.
I’ve had the idea for this blanket in my head for awhile but struggled to figure out how to make it work. Finally late one night as I was going to bed, it finally came to me. So I got to work, and the Fox blanket was born.
Pattern includes written instructions and a color chart for the fox face. This would be a great introductions to crochet colorwork. Basic knowledge of how to change colors needed for this blanket pattern.
To purchase, visit my shop 
One of my gifts for Mother’s Day this year was the new 
Here’s the description from the publisher: “The THRIVE journaling devotional Bible is for every woman who wants to know God more deeply and follow Him more closely. God’s design for His children is that they live flourishing, fulfilling, joy-filled lives in Christ. Bestselling author and beloved conference speaker Sheri Rose Shepherd has devoted over 30 years of her ministry to helping women learn how to thrive in Christ, reflect God’s glory, and gain an eternal perspective. Sheri Rose invites women to join her on a year-long journey through the Bible in the THRIVE. The daily devotionals capture the very heart of her ministry by helping women discover their identity in Christ, God’s purpose and plan for their lives, and how to flourish in a faith that is pure, genuine, and life-giving. Each day’s devotional reading contains a key Scripture, a love letter from God, a reflection from Sheri Rose, a treasure of truth, and a special prayer for the reader. Sheri Rose encourages women to leave all of their concerns and struggles at the foot of the cross so they can truly thrive as the women God created them to be. This beautiful women’s journaling devotional Bible features a natural shabby chic fabric with decorative blue stitching, a THRIVE tag stitched to the front, round corners, cream page edges, and a matching ribbon marker.“
In order to accommodate the extra content while still maintaining a portable size, it is slightly wider than most journaling Bibles. It also has the Biblical text organized as double column instead of single column. However the wider size also means wider margins for more journaling on some pages, especially the devotional pages. The margins are lightly lined to help guide notetaking and written out prayers.
The New Living Translation is quickly becoming my favorite, and I like how geneologies are listed as a list for easier reading. The daily prayers, book introductions, “treasures of truth,” and character profiles help enhance the text while reading in between the devotionals. I especially like that the devotionals are numbered 1-365, rather than dated (Jan-Dec) so you can start and stop any time of year without feeling guilty to follow a specific date. Each devotional also gives the page number at the bottom for the next devotional, since the placement of the devotionals vary from book to book.
The supplemental material at the front includes a letter from Sheri Rose Shepherd, as well as tips on how to use and study this Bible. A Bible reading plan is included with a convenient checklist to help mark your progress. It is dated, but this is the only section that includes dates and obviously you can ignore that and follow your own pace. Since the focus of this Bible is to guide women through a yearlong journey to Thrive through Bible reading and devotions, there aren’t maps or concordance included in the back. The purpose of this Bible is to speak to a woman’s heart through the various tasks and trials she may face.
Overall, I highly recommend this Bible for women looking to Journal their way through a yearlong journey of Bible reading and devotions directed towards the thriving heart of a woman. I can’t wait to use this Bible and add my writing and art, as well as my heart, to the margins.
“May the Fourth be with you.” Yes it may be silly, but it’s fun! I decided to do a Star Wars page in my Inspire Bible. Yes that’s right. The iconic line from “A New Hope” when Princess Leia is asking for help stuck out to me and reminded me of Psalm 121:1-2 “I look to the mountains–does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.” 
I didn’t have the time to paint a galaxy page, which is what I had in mind, so instead I started searching on Pinterest for ideas. The first thing that popped up was a link to 
I did a quick watercolor background in the margin with my Neocolor II and a waterbrush. I glued down the printable pieces and then added some Alpha stickers. The BB8 and Storm Trooper patches were leftover from an embroidery project I did last year and made the perfect page marker. I may do another Star Wars themed page on the other side to go with the Storm Trooper. That tiny light saber just makes me ridiculously happy. I don’t think I will forget this Psalm anytime soon. 
You can follow me on my new separate Bible journaling account on Instagram to see more pages, and to find out if I do another Star Wars one. Happy Star Wars day, and happy Bible journaling!
I am slowly making progress on crocheting one of my old patterns in order to update it. I’m loving these bright cheery squares! These colors together make me so happy. 
For a project like this, I would normally wait until all the squares are made to see them together. However I needed to be able to visualize what they would look like in a row as well as take some measurements, so I’ll be assembling them as I go. It will be fun to see this blanket take shape one row at a time. 
Introducing the newly revised Scrappy Squares Blanket Pattern. Knit up all your scrap and leftover yarn into this fun and whimsical blanket. Easy to follow instructions with tips on how to create your own fun Scrappy Squares Blanket.
Available to download from Ravelry 
I had the privilege of winning a copy of 
This is the description from the publisher: “Center your heart and mind on the story of God with The Canvas Bible as you color nearly 300 hand-drawn illustrations, including 150 hand-lettered Bible verses. Using The Message’s creative language and vivid metaphors, your imagination will be bursting with ideas for crafting, coloring, and drawing. Meditate on the very words of Scripture, and hear God’s voice speaking to your heart. Make this Bible one of a kind by adding your own beauty and style. Fill the extra space with your own illustrations and prayers. Immerse yourself in the words of Scripture. Decorate this Bible as a gift for someone you love. Slow down as you color and enjoy a more relaxed pace. Let the story of God paint the canvas of your imagination!“
I really like the style of illustrations in this Bible. It reminds me of an adult coloring book the most out of all the illustrated Bibles I’ve seen. I feel like it would be appealing to both men and women, despite the cover being on the more feminine side (the hardcover watercolor cover version would be a more gender neutral option). The illustrations are more geometric with lots of lines and inner repeating patterns that would make for many hours of meditative coloring while reading scripture.
This is also my first introduction to The Message translation, which is a modern paraphrase of the Bible. I wouldn’t use this translation for a deep Bible study, which is not its intended purpose anyway. It’s intended to be read like a story to make it easier to understand in today’s language.
One thing to note about The Message is that it only has numbered chapters and the verses are left unnumbered. This is to allow for easier reading, but makes it harder to find a specific verse in a traditional sense of looking up chapter:verse.
The softcover is slightly larger than my 
I spent some time coloring the Old and New Testament pages, and I was happy to find them not too small to color with a colored pencil. I know in my Inspire Bible that some of the illustrations have parts that are too small to color easily, so I found the Canvas Bible slightly easier to color. I’m excited to spend many more hours reading such a unique translation and coloring the many beautiful pages.
It’s been awhile since I’ve journaled in my Inspire Bible, and I recently started using it again. I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I won my copy in the contest right before it was released! I also can’t believe that I’ve been Bible journaling for almost a year and a half now. I haven’t yet “finished” a Bible since I seem to journal in multiple Bibles at once, but I’m hoping this year to retire one or two as I continue my creative art worship.
I’ve also started coloring with my oldest daughter. I gave her a composition notebook to “journal” in as I read Bible verse to her. She may be young (almost 3) but her journal is the first coloring book she reaches for when it’s time to color. I think she likes the blank pages that she can color however she wants. 
It’s our special activity to do together since adding baby sister to the family. My days are often very long and very full juggling the needs of two young children. However it’s become a priority for me to set aside some time for myself every day to journal or crochet. These activities help me to cope on days when it’s hard and to keep some identity of myself separate from my children. I love them more than I can ever describe, and taking just a little bit of time for myself helps me to be a better mom for them. 
Bible journaling also helps me focus on my word for the year “grace.” To give grace to myself during this time of transition and adjustment. To give grace to others when my fuse is short and my frustration is high. And to remember that when I fail at all of this, God has given me the ultimate gift of grace through his son Jesus, and He is the one who saves me and sustains me. 
The reason why April 20 is significant to me is because that is the day my sister Heather died 8 years ago. I had originally started knitting a blanket for her with this yarn to give her for what would end up being her last Christmas, but unfortunately I never finished it in time. The project sat in a bag for many years and several moves before last year I finally decided to repurpose the yarn into a different blanket for myself. The original pattern I picked wasn’t a good fit for this yarn, but for 6 years I didn’t have the heart to undo my work, even if it never made it to my sister. 
Kountingsheep 