During this lent season, I’ve been enjoying a variety of studies including devotionals from By the Well 4 God and A Pile of Ashes. (You can check out pages I’ve done already here —> Come To The Table – The Ultimate Dinner Party & But First, God – Lent Journaling Page)
One very interesting aspect of the “Come to the Table” from By the Well 4 God has been the glimpse inside a modern Seder dinner. The Seder dinner is a Jewish tradition, full of symbolism, that is celebrated at Passover every year. As I dove into Day 8 of this devotional, we took a look at the Yachatz, or breaking of unleavened Matzah bread. This occurs in the 4thstep of the 15 step Seder meal. The devotional explains it like this….
“In this step, the middle matzah is broken in two with the smaller piece returned to its place between the other two matzah, and the larger piece reserved for later.”
This is a familiar scene that is laid out in Luke 22:19, when Jesus breaks bread with his disciples and offers them the first communion, comparing the bread to his body which would soon be broken for all of us. The Bible does not shy away from describing the actual breaking of Jesus’ body in John 19:1-3.
“Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews” and struck him with their hands.” John 19:1-3
I chose to journal the connection between Luke 22:19 and John 19:1-3 to remind myself of the very literal, gut-wrenching breaking of Jesus’ body, and how he so selflessly offered himself up to endure such hardship. I am loving that By the Well 4 God has recently started releasing printables that go along with the theme of this kit. The printables this month were especially lovely, so I actually printed out 2 sets!!! My page started with a printable that I tore to give it a more worn look. If you are able to trace the path you’d like to tear with water, it makes for a cleaner, more predictable tear.
I also prepped the background of the Bible page with a Distress Oxide ink (Victorian Velvet). I have found that using a cheap blush brush to apply the ink gives a light, easily blended feel. After I applied the printable, I decided to go a few steps further to add some dimension to the page. So, I grabbed a Tim Holtz clock stencil from my stash, wanting to add a little embossing.
This is where things got a little bit tricky. I really wasn’t sure of the best way to add the embossing ink to the open areas of the stencil. In the top right corner, I used an embossing pen and VERY quickly traced the outlines of the stencil. After shaking on the embossing powder, I found that this method worked pretty well, but it was certainly stressful to get it all traced before the original ink dried! For the next clock, I attempted to just use the whole embossing ink pad and stamp it down directly over the stencil. While it technically worked, you can see that the results were not nearly as clear. Oops!
I decided I wanted to cover up the mistakes I had made on the large embossed clock, and luckily By the Well 4 God provides so many different supplies for you to work with, so I am never lacking for options. I adhered a feather and a tag to give me a spot for journaling. This provided more interest to the page, and covered up my embossing mishap.
As I was deciding what to journal, I remembered that there was a bookmark in the kit that contained the actual verse that I wanted to reference. I cut it up to add it to a couple of different parts of the page. I used some distressed-edge scissors to try to stick with the vintage look of the page. I love that I was able to incorporate this gorgeous bookmark! I have a whole stash of these saved up, and after seeing how great it worked to cut it up and adhere it as an element, I’m excited to see what else I can create! Plus, anytime that I can incorporate a feather on a page, I’m calling it a good day!
To finish off my page, I used metallic washi tape to box off the verse and added a date stamp and tab to the top. Even with all of the embossing and layers, this page came together pretty quickly, and I am very pleased with the result. I love when I am able to journal about the connection between different verses. It is in the connections throughout the Bible that I think the stories really come to life for me.
What is the most unusual element you have put on a Bible page? Let me know in the comments below!
Keep it creative,
-The Scrappy Wife
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