Hi Friend!
Today I am getting back to the “Bible journaling with me” tutorials! I’m stepping a little bit out of the norm, as if you have been following me for a while, you know I love watercolors! However, today I am braving acrylics!
First things first, I want to point out that I have a free cactus printable for you! No sign-ups necessary, just CLICK HERE or on the image below to download!
Acrylics are really fun to use in Bible journaling. I think the biggest benefit is that acrylics don’t bleed-through the page. They also create a great barrier if you want to use a medium that does bleed-through; such as stamps, most markers, or other inky pens. It basically acts the same as prepping your page with gesso (learn more about gesso here).
I also love acrylics because if you mess up, it is generally pretty easy to cover up the mistake. They also are pretty easy to blend, as you will see when I fill in the background of my page in the video below.
One common question I get about painting in my Bible (whether with acrylic or watercolor) is if my page crinkles. The answer is yes, but I find my page crinkles a lot less with acrylics than watercolor, and truthfully, either way, after a couple weeks being closed in your Bible, the page flattens back out considerably.
Now, for this tutorial, I used my ESV Interleaved Bible- which has full blank pages to work on, so I was able to make this whole design without covering the scripture. But, if you don’t have an Interleaved Bible, that is totally fine! There are still many ways to create a page similar to mine. One way is to use the free printable I provided, cut it to the size of your Bible, and make a tip-in out of it! (More on tip-ins here.)
You can also just paint a section of the cactus in the margin of your Bible, or use a different medium that is more see-through than acrylics are, such as colored pencils or watercolors. I encourage you to be creative and do what feels right for you!
Of course, this tutorial is just to provide you inspiration and some tips. So say you want to try using acrylics, but hate cacti, the tutorial may still be helpful to learn a little more about using acrylics to paint other things in your Journaling Bible!
So, with no further ado, below is the tutorial video!
Materials Used
*This article contains affiliate links. CLICK HERE for my full disclosure*
Apple Barrel paints from Walmart (but any acrylic paints work!) – the specific colors I used were: Kelly Green, Christmas Green, Crisp Green, Kings Gold, Bright Yellow, Ivory, and Cranberry.
Sakura Decorese Gel Pen (white)
Other Helpful Links
