watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

Greetings Beloved Illustrated Faith Family!

So in 2017, I started a new journaling Bible.  My first entry was my inspirational word for the year and this will be my second journaling entry.

It’s hard to start a new journaling Bible.  The pages seem so perfect and new.   There is a feeling you might ruin the new treasure.   You miss all the worn goodness, bent pages, colorful tabs, and ribbon bookmarks.   The old journaling Bible was comfortable, familiar, well loved, and known.

But this is how our Lord works.  He is the Master of new beginnings, blank slates, and fresh starts.  I am so grateful.  Revelation 21:5 ESV reads,

And He who is seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”  Also He said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

So we begin a new year, a new journey; and I love how in this scripture, God also says, “write these words down.”    Hmmmm… sounds like “journal” those words.  Don’t you just love Him?    So I thought, “what should my second entry be?”  It felt like it should be a statement of some kind, a declaration of new beginnings.   And without hesitation, I knew I needed to document words God whispered in my heart that I still haven’t dared to believe.

Has God ever whispered something in a place of such fragileness that you doubted even He could make it come true?

This past fall, I had several times when I felt so weak and broken I doubted that God could use me at all.   It was during one of those low moments God whispered, “you are going to fly Amy” and I cried.  How could I fly when my wings felt broken?

Oh to fly…I love to imagine the feeling when I am rollerblading.   The wind on my face and the strength and speed of movement.   My favorite flying creatures are the large birds, especially eagles and hawks.  They stretch out their wings and let the power of the wind carry them.  Some birds even seek storm winds and dance in the strong currents.  All I could think was,

Yes Lord. Please teach me to fly in the winds of adversity, weakness, and struggle.  Yes Lord, help me to trust you so much that when storms come, I just stretch out my wings in trust and soar.

And I thought of Isaiah 40:31,

but they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Let’s journal truth friends.

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I really wanted to emphasize the wings.  A sweet friend, Tara Eiken, posted these words a few nights ago, “believe in yourself, be brave, use your wings…” so I decided to paint some undefined butterfly wings as a symbol of God giving me new wings to fly.

I made some puddles of color on my white board.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

I wanted the butterfly to be more of an impression, not detailed.  So I started with my #8 round brush and sketched out a few lines with clear water.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

I did this to place the image and to give the color a bit of a “road” to travel on.  Remember watercolor moves where water is and stops at the dry edges.  You can see more on using this technique here: watercolor tutorial.  I then started adding color by gently stroking the light green down onto the clear water butterfly shape with the tip of my brush.  The green in our Illustrated Faith pallet is my favorite of all time.  It’s so fresh and bright.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

I am continuing to repeat the shape pattern of the butterfly with loose strokes, letting the color play in the clear water already down on the page.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

Once I have a base of light green.    I load my brush with teal.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

And repeat the pattern of the wing shapes, letting the teal mix with the green and move within the boundaries of my clear water lines.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

A quick dry with my Ranger Heat Tool.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

I wanted lots of movement in these wings so I went back in using the tip of my #8 brush to add some more clearly defined lines in the same shape pattern.  This time I am painting on a dry surface and loading my brush from the pallet to get pure pigment.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

I love the whimsical, dream like effect of no detail.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

Now to add words.  I used my favorite combo, Illustrated Faith Bella Blvd stickers and handwriting.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

A tab.  I have organized all of my tabs and small paper pieces in two adorable bowls from DaySpring.   I keep these on my desk.   One has all the warm colors – red, orange, yellow and the other bowl has the cool colors.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

How to find the right tab?  Well, you could gingerly sort through them or just dump them out (my preferred method – LOL).

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

I added a tab with a bit of Illustrated Faith Bella Blvd washi sticker in the perfect color underneath.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

I decided not to add my usual scribble details to the image of the butterfly because I wanted to retain the dreamy image of becoming.  But I needed scribble somewhere, so I added it to my lettering.  It’s been one of my favorite lettering techniques for a while.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

Next up… date stamp.  One of the things I want to be better at using this year.  Do you have anything you want to add to your pages this year?

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

Next I underline my scripture.  I like to use my Illustrated Faith paint card as a guide when I want straight lines.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly

And last, I wanted a funky paperclip with lots of personality.   I gathered some string.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly | paperclip tutorial

Cut whatever length you want.  Just make it long enough that you can work with it.  Fold the strands in half and thread them through the top of the paperclip.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly | paperclip tutorial

Bring the loose ends at the bottom through the loop in the top.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly | paperclip tutorial

And gently pull.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly | paperclip tutorial

Trim the top to the length you want.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly | paperclip tutorial

And I add a drop of hot glue to the back to keep the clip tight and secure.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly | paperclip tutorial

Page complete.

watercolor butterfly Bible journaling tutorial by Amy Bruce | Lord, Teach me to fly | paperclip tutorial

Lord, teach us all to fly this year.

hugs,

amy bruce

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7 Comments
  1. Monika 7 years ago

    The clarity of your voice and your art and your teaching right now is such a testimony to behold. This is my favorite of your entries to date. Such an honor to learn from you. Wow wow wow.

    • Author
      Amy Bruce 7 years ago

      Love you Monika! God blesses me so with your sweet encouraging Spirit and I am so grateful. Lots of hugs, amy

  2. JM 7 years ago

    Amy,
    where was this amazing post last year when my OLW2016 was “brave”? Oh well, i guess that i was meant to read it on THIS very day for a reason. Thank you for your tute. Sometimes, i get all caught up in the illustrating it perfectly and it seems like a daunting task…
    peace

    • Author
      Amy Bruce 7 years ago

      Peony – You are so welcome! Perfection is a trap that snares so many of us. You are definitely not alone. Lots of hugs and prayers that your journaling page of the OLW went well! Blessings and hugs! amy

  3. Amy 7 years ago

    So wonderful! I love your sweet spirit! I know God uses our struggles and past experiences for good. That always give me such hope. As I was walking this morning I pointed out to my daughter the pelicans and how beautiful it was they were flying right along the surface of the water. Their wings stretched out and what looked to be no effort at all, reminded me that if we open our wings and just be available to Him how far we can fly. I know this may all sound very sappy, but when thoughts of God come to mind like that, (when you see a pelican of all birds lol), I can only think that HE is speaking to me. Amy, you have encouraged, motivated, and spoke truth to me over and over in this crazy little social media world. Thank you for sharing and teaching. Thank you for using your gifts to glorify God. You are a blessing and a gift. (((BIG HUG))) aj_swim

  4. Author
    Amy Bruce 7 years ago

    Amy – You and and I are sisters for sure! God so speaks to us in the same ways and oh how I believes He delights when we see His messages to us. Love you so much sister. Lots of hugs! amy

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