Beginner Tips and Free Bible Journaling Workbook

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beginner tips bible journaling notebook

Yesterday I enjoyed spending most of the day at the Columbus West Lifeway Christian bookstore for their Bible Journaling event. We had so much fun that I wanted to share some tips, hints, and suggestions that we covered, as well as their free Bible Journaling Workbook

Getting Started

Getting started  on Bible journaling doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money. To begin, you can use an ordinary journal. Lifeway had some beautiful ones for only $5 and less. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy and you don’t have to purchase a journaling Bible right away. I really LOVE my Journaling Bible, but I began in a plain journal and used a lot of scratch paper before I started to try any handlettering or art in my Bible.

Try One Element at a Time

Everyone begins somewhere. One group of gals from the event last night was simply working on their handlettering. They weren’t drawing or painting or stenciling or stamping. They were choosing words to highlight and beginning to learn to offer their lettering as worship to the Lord.

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One of the women wasn’t doing any lettering at all, but had an older Bible that she wasn’t using as much since she got a newer one. So in her older Bible, she was using watercolor pencils. She inspired me to want to try watercolor pencils, even though I’ve stuck with colored pencils for months now.

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The Bibles pictured above were ones that folks brought along with them to the event.

My encouragement to you is that if you are not an artist and you’ve never really worked on drawing or painting or artistic work at all (like me!), then start with what you have and take it one step at a time. One of the ladies at the event is a beautiful artist and her suggestion was to purchase one art medium, whether watercolor pencils or paints, or colored pencils or a new box of crayons! Work with it until you are comfortable and need a new challenge.

Hand-Lettering Tips

Because I’ve become infatuated with beautiful hand-lettering over the past few months, I enjoy sharing the resources I’ve found for practical guidance and inspiration. I haven’t practiced the lettering alone nearly as much as I would like, but I’m hopeful that I can continue to build on what I’ve learned so far.

Lifeway Resource Suggestions

Lifeway has a fabulous sale on the Bible Journaling kit this month at $10 off the normal price. Check out my Periscope video below for the scoop on the art supplies included in the kit. This kit is only available in stores and not online, as far as I know.

Journaling Bibles & New Releases!

My analysis of journaling Bibles has not changed since this post where I chat about my favorites. However, there are some great new releases coming soon in the journaling Bible department.

The Inspire Bible includes wide margins like a journaling Bible, but the some of the margins already have black and white images that you can color, similar to an adult coloring book. The New Living Translation is releasing February 1, 2016 and currently is the #1 new release in Bibles on Amazon!

Inspire Bible- releasing soon!

It includes two cover styles:

Inspire Bible NLT: The Bible for Creative Journaling

Inspire Bible NLT: The Bible for Creative Journaling

The release date on the above two Bibles is February 1.

Yesterday Lifeway also offered a sample packet of this beautiful new Bible pictured below, releasing February 2, 2016.

NIV, Beautiful Word Bible, Hardcover

beautiful word art

If you love art, but prefer to enjoy it visually rather than creating it, then this Beautiful Word NIV Bible is for you! With 500 verses illustrated to help you see the rich diversity of stories, characters, prophecies, rewards, and hope contained within Scripture, you will discover wisdom to sustain you in every season, drawing you deeper into God’s life-changing and inspired Word.

LifeWay Price Matching Policy

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Lifeway Christian Bookstores will price match to any online or retail store for exact product codes!! And don’t forget they offer fabulous coupons at 30% and 40% off at various times!! So be sure you are receiving their emails to take advantage of these fabulous savings!!

If you have some items you’re wishing for from the above suggestions, then this is a great way to fit those into your budget.

Bible Journaling Notebook

IMG_3121Lifeway offered a free Bible Journaling notebook and graciously they are offering this as a free pdf download! So you can head over to the Facebook page of the Columbus West store where I was and download the notebook to get you started on your Bible journaling journey!

I also passed out copies of my How-To Bible Journal Guide and of course, signed copies of my latest release, One More Step: Finding Strength When You Feel Like Giving Up.

And that is a wrap-up of what we discovered together at the Bible Journaling Session at Lifeway yesterday! It really was fun and I’m hopeful they will offer more sessions in the future.

Bible Journaling Coaching

I recently updated my speaking page and if you’d like to include a beginner Bible journaling coaching session with hands-on Bible study and art supply testing, just make a note in the comment section of the request form!

UPDATE GET YOUR FREE Bible Journaling Workbook

You’ll find the Bible Journaling templates I used to teach the Spring 2016 Bible Journaling Workshop here.

Hope you enjoy and we’ll chat soon!

By his grace,

Rachel

More Resources:

What is a Journaling Bible?

Bible Journaling 101

My Favorite Bible Journaling Tools

Post includes affiliate links; site may be compensated if purchase is made. See full disclose policy.

22 Comments

  1. Hello,

    I can’t find the link for the workbook, and I’m very interested. Please email me 🙂
    Thank you & God Bless

  2. Rachel, I am so blessed to find your site and see all the helps you have here. I really want the free Beginner Tips and Free Bible Journaling Workbook but I can’t even find the link. Help.

    1. Just emailed you, Mary Ellen! Let me know if you need anything else! 🙂

      1. Didn’t come through. Even checked my spam mail. 🙁

  3. Rachel, I can’t get the link to work to download the free bible journaling notebook.
    Thank you for any help. It says this is blocked.

    Lisa

    1. I’ve emailed you, Lisa. Let me know if you have any more problems!

  4. Hello Ms. Rachel,
    Not sure if you were able to read my note, but I wanted to share with you again, since you do such great work and provide wonderful resources on journaling.
    I was so excited about all the great information you presented about bible journaling that I mentioned it to my Pastor here in NJ and she talked about it yesterday (1/15/16) at our Ladies night worship gathering 🙂 You are awesome and God has given you a beautiful talent to reach many heart and souls. God Bless and I look forward to all your future challenges and projects 🙂
    Janet

    1. How fun, Janet! Thank you for sharing! I hope many in your area will enjoy God’s Word in a new, fresh and exciting way! 🙂 Blessings to you!

  5. Hi Rachel! I do not see a link for the Bible workbook…can you kindly email it to me? I also want to say I LOVE your blog! And you do such beautiful journaling! 🙂

    Jennifer

    1. Thanks, Jennifer!! You’re so kind. God is good. Emailing you now!!

  6. Except that the HCSB Journaling is no longer available only the notetaking one. I’m hoping they are just revising it.

    1. Holly- I noticed there was a change in the label and so I compared my “Journaling Bible” to the “Notetaking Bible” Exact same layout! I think they just realized that it is a great Bible for either and so they thought “Notetaking” would make sense to anyone who wanted to take sermon notes or use it for their Bible study notes.

  7. Hello Ms. Rachel,
    I was so excited about all the great information you presented about bible journaling that I mentioned it to my Pastor here in NJ and she talked about it yesterday at our Ladies night worship gathering 🙂 You are awesome and God has given you a beautiful talent to reach many heart and souls. God Bless and I look forward to all your future challenges and projects 🙂
    Janet

  8. Hi Rachel,

    I am so thankful to see how God has been using this artsy way of devotion and worship time! I love Bible Journaling and this is my second year doing it. God is totally amazing! Also, my daughters learn to journal in this way 🙂

    I wish we have Life Way in the area where we live. We only have 1 local Christian bookstores. Praise God for you and Life Way to open doors for the people who wants to learn more about this Bible Art Journaling.

    NLT is my most favorite Bible ever! And super excited to get my hands on their new Inspire Bible Art Journaling soon!

    Blessings!

  9. Eileen Davies says:

    Hi Rachel, I cannot get the link to open for the free Lifeway Workbook, can you help please?
    in the K does that make a difference? Many thanks
    Eileen

  10. Marcia Glase says:

    I can’t draw a rock nor do I have a very good handwriting. When I looked at the handwriting workbooks I felt overwhelmed. I have tried to do all this but this is not one of my talents. So I will just use a pretty notebook or journal and do my doodling and hen scratching, lol 🙂

    1. And God will look down and say “Well done, my good and faithful servant!” Keep going, Girl.

  11. Rachel, I can’t get the link to work to download the free bible journaling notebook.
    Thank you for any help. It says this is blocked.

    1. I can’t get it either…

Comments are closed.