Bible Journaling, Bible Study, Faith Building

The Ultimate Guide to Bible Journaling with Vellum

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Would you like to begin or continue Bible journaling but are intimidated by the process or are uncertain how to do it without defiling your Bible? I’ve got just the answer–The Ultimate Guide to Bible Journaling with Vellum. With these 12 creative and easy ways, you’ll be able to enjoy this spiritual art to help you study scripture in a fresh new way!

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Here’s the list of supplies that I’m using

The Benefit of Bible Journaling

A few years ago I was introduced to Bible Journaling or Illustrated Faith. It’s the act of coupling creativity or art with Bible study and reflection.

I want to get right to the exciting use of vellum, so I’ll keep this short. But I want to highlight two key benefits to Bible journaling.

1) You slow down and ponder. You take a longer time on a passage and really think about it and chew on it. Which means you digesting and internalizing the truth.

2) When you’ve created even a little something in your journal or Bible, you end up going back over and over again to those pages to remember what you did and what truth you absorbed into your heart in the process. You remember.

There you go. Just two benefits—but those two things are AMAZING!

Bible journaling with vellum

If you’d like to give Bible journaling a try, using vellum inserts is a super easy way to enjoy this spiritual art. And as an added perk, you won’t be covering any of the text in your Bible.

You will still be able to read all of the scripture in your Bible! Wahoo!

First things first—what is vellum???

Vellum is a translucent paper that’s often used as a filler paper for wedding invitations or as a durable tracing paper. You can see through it but it’s much heavier than tracing paper which makes it great as a “tip in” for your Bible.

You are able to run vellum through your printer if you want to transfer a design that way. You can easily trace a design onto it because it’s transparent. And it accepts ink nicely so you can stamp, use markers, colored pencils or gelatos on it and it looks beautiful!

This is the vellum that I’ve been using.

New to Bible Journaling?

If creating in your Bible is something new to you, I’d like to recommend a few options for Bibles that I’ve found work well.

The ESV Journaling Bible is my all-time favorite. You can see the pic of mine below. I’ve had it for a while so the covers available now are a bit different, but the inside pages are the same. It has lined columns down the side of each page for you to write your thoughts and prayers. The type face is about 12 pt. and the pages are thick enough to write on—not wispy and thin. It doesn’t lay flat, but I haven’t found that to be a problem.

If you want a Bible that does lay flat and works well for illustrating your faith, the Illustrating Faith Bible is an NIV spiral bound copy and has a larger format ideal for creativity and note-taking. This is great especially when you want to create directly on the pages and have room for your thoughts and prayers too. It’s not one that I would carry around with me (it’s larger) but is great for at home.

Last one I recommend is the Noteworthy Bible. It’s a Bible that has every other page left blank. That way you can create, take tons of notes or prayer requests and you never have to cover any of the Bible text. You won’t be limited on space for notes or creativity with a blank page for every page of scripture. Again, I have an older version of this one, but the interior page format remains the same.

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Let’s get started with how to use vellum in Bible journaling, shall we?

1) Stamp and color

Stamping a design onto your vellum is so fun! Add a little color and VOILA! You have a simple yet beautiful design.

First, cut the vellum to the size that you want so that it fits nicely into your Bible and allows a little room in the margin for a piece of washi tape to adhere it into the spine. This is the vellum that I use.

This vellum can be used on either side. Use archival ink so it doesn’t run or bleed. If you make a mistake, just start over—it’s not permanently affixed into your Bible so no worries😉

Scrapbook.com has an amazing number of stamps and Bible journaling supplies to choose from. I have a long wish list for when I use up things that I have.

Embellish your design with stickers, letters, coloring or anything that goes well with your stamp or the text that you want to highlight.

For this page, I simply cut out a heart from card stock and traced it onto my vellum. I stamped the words in the center and embellished around the edges with my archival ink pen. I got this set for Christmas and really like them.

1) Trace the heart onto vellum 2) Stamp design 3) Embellish the edges with archival ink pen

2) Use images that you can download and print

If drawing by hand is a challenge or you have something that you’ve seen that you want to use, this is a great way to go. Vellum can be used in your printer! Use designs that you’ve purchased or are not copyrighted for download and print them directly from your device.

Here’s an example below of a design that I downloaded. I simply sent it to print from my PC, added some color and then trimmed it to fit nicely into my Bible.

One of the devotionals that I’ve written has images for each of the days that coordinate with the study. I’ve created them to be 5×7 to fit nicely into your Bible.

You can get “Inspired, Drawing Inspiration from the Psalms” here. It’s a 6-week study that pairs nicely with the creative side if you should decide to either color and create in the study-guide or trace the image onto vellum and insert it into your Bible along with your personal thoughts.

3) Gelatos are awwwwsummm!

These are so sweet to use! They’re creamy and come in pastel and bright color sets. They literally glide over the page in a “dreamy” way (can you tell I love these?)

You can come back in with a slightly damp paper towel or brush and blend the colors too. They’re very versatile and have a unique look. Once they are dry, they no longer smudge.

1) Outline your scripture “windows” 2) Apply gelatos 3) Blend gelatos with damp paper towel
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4) Washi Tape for embellishment

This colorful tape is similar to lightweight masking tape. The ways to use washi are endless and the number of designs and colors are almost endless too! The best things about washi tape are that there are so many options, it can be written on, and it’s repositionable even later on when it’s been on your page for a while.

You can use it to edge the pages as I’ve done here, you can lay down a pattern or outline an area of text that you want to highlight or even make tabs. Lots of ideas here!

I have many many rolls of this, but these two sets are a great place to start. One is patterned and the other is solid colors.

Above is washi around a vellum window. I also used a tip-in and washi along the side

5) Scripture writing

Vellum is a great way to add scripture writing to your Bible! If you’d like a more in-depth look at this spiritual discipline, check out this post on scripture writing and the beauty of taking scripture deep into your heart.

As a part of contemplating scripture, take a few minutes to write it in your own words or even form a prayer. You can easily write on vellum with a micron (archival ink) pen and slip the page next to the passage that you’ve read.

Bible Journaling With a Vellum Insert
Write scripture in your own words

6) Stickers, stickers, stickers!

Such a simple way to bring fun and whimsy to a page. There are so many great stickers at Scrapbook.com that are specifically designed for use in illustrating your faith.

Here I used some letters and stickers along with gelatos to highlight the text.

The vellum and background paper can be flipped open to read the scripture.

7) Colored pencils are simple and you probably already have a bunch

Color in a design or even provide a watercolor look overlay for your page. There are a lot of types of colored pencils out there, but my favorite are the Prisma pencils. I’ve always had trouble with sharpening other brands and having the leads continually break off (bummer). These sharpen well and the colors are vibrant. They may cost a little bit more, but in the long-run they’re well worth it.

I have the Prisma watercolor pencils so that I can come back in and blend with a damp brush, but they also have regular colored pencils.

8) Using a “window” to outline text

I LOVE this idea! It’s kind of hard to tell in the photo (see photo in #3 for gelatos), but I colored the design on the vellum and left a little window for the text I wanted to highlight. You could do this with your favorite verses and really accentuate them. It’s sweet to open up your Bible and have your attention drawn to verses that impact you!

9) Highlight your text

In a similar way to the “window” idea above, use a highlighter to make passages stand out. You could use a standard felt-tip highlighter or I’ve found these gel highlighters are really nice for marking directly in your Bible and they work nicely on vellum too.

I traced an image from my Inspired, Drawing Inspiration from the Psalms study and added some easy flowers along the side. I highlighted over the vellum insert to make a sweet little window for the scripture.

10) Use vellum as a divider or tab

Choose what you would want on your page and cut it slightly wider than your Bible page. This is handy so that it can be used to delineate a page or a group of pages you want to easily flip to. I added washi tape to the edge so that it stands out.

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11) Trace an image

I mentioned tracing up above, but what about tracing a photo, a magazine image, a flower, your child’s hand, etc. . . Put the traceable item underneath the vellum and use a soft pencil. Erase when you need to—you can do that and the paper holds up great! This is a completely unique way to add something special to your Bible or journal.

12) Trace a word or phrase

Even if you don’t have the ability to produce beautiful calligraphy, you can do this! Find a word or phrase and trace it! There are many ideas on Pinterest. I have a Bible Journaling and Illustrated Faith board that has hundreds of ideas.

Or grab something from a coloring book or printed art print and trace it in pencil first. Then go back over your lettering with a micron pen. I’ve worn through a couple sets of pens and have this set right now which I love! The brush pen is working well for writing and drawing and there are a good amount of sizes of tips for narrow to wide lettering.

Image traced from “Inspired, Drawing Inspiration from the Psalms“

I’m loving vellum these days! I’d love to hear from you and see how you’re using vellum in your Bible or journal. Leave me a comment 😊

God bless and enjoy connecting creatively with God’s Word!

Sally