Non Wide Margin Bible or Book of Mormon Journaling Part 1- Colored Pencils

I am a huge fan of all of the Bible Journaling going on all over Pinterest. I love the idea of adding artwork to the sacred scriptures to show how important they are to me and how much I treasure them. Plus it makes studying them really REALLY fun to me. 

I am LDS and so a lot of my studying is from the Bible, and also the Book Of Mormon. The Internet FINALLY came out with a Kings James Version Wide Margin Bibles on Amazon so I can jump on that bandwagon if I want, wahoo! However, the Book of Mormon does not have a wide margin copy available at this time unless you print it out yourself. I actually have done this and will post about it at a later time. But as for a regular sized BOM that you can easily carry around with you like to church, there is none. This makes it hard to do artistic works with such little margin space without going on top of the words. 

Although I love the beautiful artwork in the Bible Journaling wide margin pictures, there are a few things that I have to and like to do differently. I am ok with this book having imperfections in it. I've never been a fan of my handwriting, but its a part of me and so is this book. It's real life. I like to try to keep all artwork light enough that you can always read the words underneath. I don't want my artwork to become more important than the sacred scriptures themselves. I also don't limit my pages to only the artwork- I still add comments, word definitions, clarifications, etc. in my scriptures. Only artwork definitely looks better, but because I am studying them it's important for me to understand what I am reading. So my scriptures may look different than all the great ones on Pinterest, but thats ok because what I do works for me, helps me to learn, and motivates me to continue studying. Julie B. Beck said, "I like to think of my scriptures as a workbook." and I like to do the same.

If you are curious about the different colors I use for my general markings, here is a picture of my color legend. I have this in one of the front pages of my book. Everyone likes to make their own. I have used this long enough now that I don't need the legend and so I tend to stick with these colors in all my studies.

I like to use all sorts of craft supplies in my scriptures- colored pencils, stickers, glitter glue, washi tape, ink pads and sprays, gessos, paints, etc. Later I would like to do a post on more complicated pages using more art supplies.

If you are interested in what pens I like the best that won't bleed through your thin scripture pages you can view those in an earlier post here.

One of the easiest ways to decorate your scriptures are with colored pencils. Get a little crazy and you can even use watercolored pencils. Combined with a black fine tip pen, you are good to go. No page prepping needed or fancy painting materials. Here are some examples of using colored pencils in my Book of Mormon. 

Also like I said earlier I still have lots of notes in the margins and in the verses in addition to the drawings. 

With such small margin space sometimes just paying special attention to your lettering can make a big difference. Even if its just one special word.

One of my favorite pages is 1 Nephi Chapter 8- Lehi's Dream. I took the same images I used in my scripture journal page and put them in my scriptures. I did use some Stickles glitter glue on these pages to highlight the fruit on the tree, fruit, and building. I got mine at the local Hobby Lobby. (I have to give credit to my amazing sister Tamara who I copied her awesome seed drawing and used some of her awesome skills to improve what I had already done.) Its really fun doing this with someone else and sharing/comparing what you have come up with. 

Its hard to get good lighting of a book layout with all the shadows. I'm going to try to get a better picture another day. So I took another image so you can see the glitter glue I used on the tree, fruit, and building.

Watercolored pencils are really fun and easy. You just blend them with water. You can get a paintbrush and dip it in water or get a water brush. Here are a few examples:

The background isn't water brushed but the feather is.

I LOVE to add inserts to my scriptures. This next page is an insert where I simply used watercolor colored pencils and blended it with a water brush. I added stars with a gold metallic pen. (it looks brown in the pic but its actually shiny gold)

Just so you know if you use water of any kind the page will wrinkle on the backside. When it dries it will flatten back out a bit but there is still a little bit of wrinkles. I don't mind because I feel it just gives the book that well worn look.

Have you ever tried doing anything like this? I would love to see pictures in the comments section. I'm referring to Non Wide Margin Scriptures- BOM or Bible. I hope you get some inspiration from these pictures, and hopefully I will have more up soon!

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