Bible Journaling - Exodus 16 & 17

Exodus 16 and 17 are jam-packed with action. In chapter 16 we encounter the Israelites complaining that they did not have anything to eat out in the wilderness. Already, they had forgotten all about the hardships of Egypt, longing for the abundance of food they enjoyed there. God undertakes to provide for them daily by sending them manna to collect every morning for the duration of their trip. He also sends them a once-off 'gift' of quail, thereby effectively satisfying their need for meat to eat. In chapter 17 the Israelites are attacked and God miraculously saves them, using Joshua as commander of the army. The true miracle of delivery was actually wrought by God, though. As long as Moses kept his hands raised above, the Israelites kept on winning. As he lowered his hands, though, they would start losing the battle. Aaron and Hur came to Moses' assistance, supporting his hands and helping him to keep it raised, until the battle was over. I opted for a rather simple layout when journaling these chapters, making use of dye-cuts and stencils for effect.

Exodus 16 and 17 look like this in the Inspire Praise Bible.

I coat the pages with Zellen Clear Gesso.

The pages look like this once the gesso has dried.

I use a variety of pens and markers to colour the illustration in the right margin: Sharpie Fine Point Markers, Fountain pens and Mont Marte Adult Colouring Duo Markers.

When I am done, my pages look like this.

I had some lovely dye-cuts of birds in my stash, as well as some strips of denim ribbon, already glued, to use as a margin.

I stuck these down on the left-hand page, along with some silver hearts to fill up the empty spaces. It seemed fitting as these chapters were testimony of God's love towards the Israelites.

I then used a stencil with different bird designs. I selected three of these birds and roughly coloured them with a Derwent Inktense pencil. Without lifting the stencil, I then blended the pencil inside the stencil.

What the pages looked like when I lifted the stencil away.

In order not to obscure the writing, I needed to use elements that would be transparent. I decided to cut some die-cuts from vellum.

I cut the vellum to size so it would fit in my machine and layered the pieces in place.

Then I put the payers through my Sizzix.

It is this easy to cut your own die-cuts with the right equipment.

I used double-sided tape to secure the die-cuts to the Bible.

The finished pages.

You can watch a short compilation video of the steps above on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/Vq0KFmAT-GI

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2005,2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved.

Inspire PRAISE South Africa edition copyright 2017 by Christian Art Publishers, PO Box 1599, Vereeniging, 1930, RSA. All rights reserved.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
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