Hi there! Thank you for joining me today! One of my favorite “must haves” for when I am working in my journaling bible is colored pencils. To be honest before I started using a journaling bible I rarely ever used colored pencils, but with these thin pages they really are the PERFECT way to add color to your pages! My favorite way to use them is to highlight verses so that is how I will demo them for you today.
Let me start off by saying there are MANY other pencils out there, and I am sure they are all amazing. These are just what I have on hand and the ones I use and love!
Crayola Twistables | Easy right? We all have them, if you don’t have them go dig them out of your son’s desk drawer or grab a bunch from the Target stationary section. They come in GREAT colors, are priced AMAZINGLY!!! I love their cute little cases, and let’s face it… the fact that they twist up makes them even that much more fun! The only downside to these is that they don’t blend well, if blending isn’t your thing or you want to keep the price down these are PERFECT for you! I also love to travel with these because if I lose them, break them etc they are easily replaceable!
Faber-Castell Mix & Match Art Grip | (heres another color option) I love these! They were my first watercolor pencils, they have a FUN grip on them, they blend well and I love that they come in packs of ombre colors. I really like working in pinks and oranges or greens and blues, and so I am not forced to buy the greys, browns etc since I won’t use them.
Faber-Castell Watercolor Pencils | These are the bees knees. I could end it there. I saved up to buy these “big girl” pencils and I am SO glad I did. They blend BEAUTIFULLY, put down beautiful bold color and just draw like buttah!! When you add water to them the pigment picks up and it looks a lot more like actually watercolor than any of the other watercolor pencils I have used. The down side to these is they are expensive, and I wouldn’t travel with them because of that.
When blending colored pencils on these thin pages you are going to want to add as little water as possible OR use a blending tool. I personally like the Prisma blender. This going to give you a very gentle effect, while still smoothing your colors together.
I wanted to show you how the watercolor pencils worked once you added color. So the ideas is that you can either smooth it together while still staying in your original place or you can take that color, pick it up on your brush and spread it on the page. As you can see the art grip pencils blend nice but don’t move on the page as well, while the regular faber-castell picked up on the page and was able to move that pigment down the whole margin! I love how these pencils work so beautifully!!
I hope that gives you some ideas on how to use your colored pencils in your journaling bibles! If you have any questions please let me know!
xo- Shanna
Thank you so much for sharing! I also have found my prisma pencils and gamsol don’t bleed through either and work wonderfully.
I am really enjoying these what’s the difference Wednesdays! Thanks for sharing Shanna!
I have to say I love “what’s the difference Wednesdays”. I am new to Bible journaling and these posts really help me locate the right tools! It also removes the “trial and error” aspect of the process saving me time and money!
Thank you!
Thank you! That was the idea :) There we so many topics to cover, I thought it would be easier just to break it down into smaller chunks :)
Excellent report … Very helpful!
And many thanks for sharing your wisdom and experience.
great information and so useful-thanks
Thank you for this. I tend to use water colour pencils as they colour evenly without having to press the thin pages too hard! Going to have to see if I can get a blending tool…I’ve never thought of that!
Thank you Shanna for sharing about colored pencils..I also like the green-blue colors..after work tomorrow..a shopping I will go..
Have a beautiful evening since I’m writing this at 9:00pm..
Keep all the great ideas coming..
Sending hugs to you…
Thank you for this! I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to figure out what to buy. I was really hoping to see a side by side between brands though. I’ve been dying to get watercolor pencils, but can NOT decide between Faber castell, prismacolor, or derwent. I’m also curious about the derwent inktense watercolor vs. regular, or even the derwent aquatone woodless (so much more product without the wasteful, and sometimes splintering, wood)… I’m dying to know which are best and really worth the $$$. Or should I stick to the Caran d’ ache Neocolor watercolor pastels? Also, have you ever tried gelatos??? I’d really love to know.
Hi there! :) I really like the faber-castell pencils the best. the prima color have been known to crack more, and there just isn’t time for all that! :) That being said I love the watercolor crayons as well!!!! GELATOs are ALWAYS FUN!
Thanks so much for this. I was wondering if color pencils would be best. Mine look nothing as bright as yours do though.
Can you tell me what the name is the watercolour “swatches” that I see you use in your videos? Love your ideas and posts! So inspiring!