You can’t imagine my joy when I opened up the new Illustrated Faith devotional kit to see it was designed and written by my beautiful friend, Stephanie Buice! Can I just tell you she is just one of my favorite people? I love her creativity and most of all, I love her Jesus loving heart!
Day 1 is entitled, “I Will Praise You.” I felt like I was reading a letter from a dear sister whose path is crossing over my own. Stephanie writes,
I started praying that He would totally remove the “me” from things and replace that with Himself…it was a struggle…But then I started seeing things in a whole new light, His light.
Oh how much beauty there is when we put everything, including ourselves, into His light. The only result can be Praise!
One of my breath prayers this year has been, Lord, let there be less of me and more of You. Let my life be a song to You. A praise response.
I want more of Him in everything I do. I want to listen more, like He does. I want my heart to be focused on others, like His. I don’t want to care so much what others think, and instead dwell more in how big His grace is. I want every word I write and every creative work that flows from my fingers to be a praise offering to Him.
My heart’s desire lines right up with Stephanie’s and it makes me feel not so alone.
What a gift.
Let’s journal.
Whenever I am working on a devotional kit, I love to step inside the author’s style and add my own flavor. For example, I usually keep their choice of colors and some manner of their artistic expression. These characteristics become the signature that carries me through the devotional journey and ties all of my Bible journal entries together.
I could not help but begin with the two texture stamps in the kit. I grabbed my rainbow of Illustrated Faith devotional kit stamp pads and did my best Stephanie Buice impression.
Because my favorite tools are usually acrylics and watercolors, I tried the technique on the devotional booklet first to be sure I liked the effect of using the stamps.
Once I was satisfied with the effect, I turned to Psalm 34:1 in my Journaling Bible. It was free of creative reflection but one of my favorite illustrations was on the other side and there was a shadow of colors and lines peeking through the page.
In order to give myself a cleaner more even surface to stamp on, I spread white acrylic paint in the margin with a card.
Once that was done, I went to town with the stamps. I flipped them this way and that and made sure I had overlapping areas.
Once I had my colorful background I started playing with the pieces in the kit and laid out a card and the circle sticker on a piece of clear plastic.
I loved the design and adhered the sticker and card into my Bible. I wanted to personalize the page with my own heart prayer so I grabbed my letter stickers.
I punched out more of the cute pieces from the kit.
I added the pieces to the tab area, underlined the verse, and grabbed one of the cute new Pom Pom Clips to finish off the page.
Oh Lord, let there be more of You and less of me. Let all that I do be a praise offering to You.
Amen.
Hugs,
Amy
ESV Leather Journaling Bible | Illustrated Faith by Bella Blvd Devotional Kit – How He Loves Us by Stephanie Buice | Illustrated Faith by Bella Blvd Be Bold Bible Journaling Mat | Illustrated Faith by Bella Blvd Paint Cards | Illustrated Faith by Bella Blvd Shanna’s Favorites Acrylic Paint Set – Titanium White | Illustrated Faith by Bella Blvd Genesis Collection – Big and Bold Black Eyed Pea Letter Stickers | Bella Blvd Black Tiny Text Letter Stickers
This page makes me happy!
hugs sister!