Natalie Elphinstone | Audacious Faith

Studio Calico stamps, Staz On black ink, Peerless Watercolour Papers, alpha stickers, die cut shapes, washi tape, Precision Pen

There are plenty of long words in the Christian language that I want to use when making an entry into my journaling bible. Words like Immanual, Jehovah, salvation, provision and so forth. I have to stop and think each time about how I want to make them fit into that 2 inch margin. Potential solutions are to use a small font in my chosen medium and jam it all in, spread the word over two or even three lines (ie. break it up so it reads Imm – an – ual), or have it cover up the words in the Bible. Personally I’m not a big fan of covering up the Word, at least, not so I can no longer read it. But sometimes I just don’t want to chose one of the first two options. So this is what I’ve come up with for those times.

The trick is to stamp the word using a font that’s just an outline. You can still even use black ink and stamp those letters right over the top of the verse and you can still read what’s underneath.

However, then sometimes you can run into the problem that it’s now difficult to read the word that you’ve stamped. I’ve got a solution for that too!

I use my watercolour paints to paint around the word. Watercolours are transparent enough that you can see the printed Word underneath, as well as now making that stamped word stand out ever so clearly.

To match the length of the stamped ‘audacious’ I now wanted to add another element of similar size to balance it out a little. I use these journal tags a lot in my Bible so I have a stash all ready to go. When I found this yellow one I knew it would match the length, and it allowed me to add a reasonable amount of journaling on it too. I wrote out the definition of my word which is ‘bold, risky, daring, brave, fool-hardy’. Instead of sticking it directly down and covering up a fair chunk of the Word I adhered it with a transparent-ish washi tape which allows me to flip it up to read what’s there.

You might by now be wondering what this entry is all about? It comes from a sermon my Pastor was preaching a couple of weeks ago about having an audacious faith, and whilst it spoke to me at the time I hadn’t journalled it out before now. But the recent events of the two young Australian men who were executed in Indonesia this week had bought it to the forefront of my mind again. I’m certainly not going to start a debate about the justice system and the death sentence as there are a thousand different views on that. What I know is that these two Christian men faced their executioners bravely whilst singing hymns and joyfully waited to meet their God, and that has become a testimony to the thousands of people who have heard their story around the world. I have no idea how I would respond should I ever be in a similar situation but it’s unlikely I will ever be tested in this. However, that shouldn’t stop me from wanting to have an audacious faith in the gentle quite life that I’m living. A faith that’s not afraid to speak out the truth no matter what the consequences. I’m praying for that kind of faith.

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Studio Calico stamps |  Staz On black ink | Peerless Watercolour Papers, | alpha stickers | die cut shapes | washi tape | Precision Pen 

– Natalie