Mixed Media Bible Journaling 101 – “Scraping” Paint

Hi friends! I realize that in my previous mixed media tutorials, I say to “scrape paint onto your Bible” and it’s a hard thing to show just using photos. So today, I’m sharing a short little video clip on what I mean by it. I’m thinking this might be a series because there are really so many things you can do with paint and a paint-it card besides just scraping paint onto your page.

This week’s Persevere devotional really hit me hard… like really really hard. I honestly was thinking I was coming out of the hard stuff and then my husband and I got an anniversary card in the mail from my Dad. It was hard to see only his signature and not Mom’s. Then I read the devotional for Week 3! Talk about speaking directly to me!!! It was time for me to truly lay it all down at the foot of the cross… my health, my grieving, my feeling like a homeschool mom failure, etc… I could go on and on the slump that I was in. Don’t get me wrong, my eyes were always fixed on Jesus but everything was wearing thin on me and I really did want to have a part in getting though all of this and didn’t want to give it ALL to Him.

I just started writing my prayer in the margin of my Bible. I knew that this was something I wanted to hide in my heart between myself and God. I thought it was the perfect chance to do some hidden journaling. So once I finished up writing, I dated it and added some washi tape and stamps knowing that I was going to cover it all up with paint like I’ve done in previous tutorials. I wanted to add some extra color too so I added some watercolor. I play with acrylic paints so much, I forgot how much I love playing with watercolors and letting it just kind of do it’s own thing. I found it to be an awesome example of letting go and the freedom that comes when we pick up our cross and follow God.

Here’s where the fun comes in and base of all my posts. I scraped paint over the top of it. I’m a huge fan of white so that was my first color… as you can see in the video, I take the edge of my card and add just a small dab on the edge. I then swipe it down the page. The harder you swipe the thinner the paint which makes it still transparent. When you make short and light handed scrapes it is more opaque and takes longer to dry. I then like going over it with another color. To tone down the color I added both a dab of blue and white and just let them mix together as I swiped. I did short little scrapes with a light hand.

I then added a pink layer on top as well as another white later. Then I added a “title”, some more washi tape, and some of the stickers from the kit. To finish the page, I outlined the title and some of the stickers to make them stand out. It felt so good to let it out to God and lay it down at the foot of the cross… then to remind myself that things are going to still happen around me and it’s a daily/hourly/every moment thing for us to “pick up the cross and follow Jesus”.