My Creative Bible – Inspire Bible Comparision
The Bible art journaling community has been growing by leaps and bounds and Bible Buying Guide and Bible publishers have noticed. This is the first of a new series of articles about art journaling, and the Bible publishers have made it easier on me by publishing a wide variety of journaling Bibles including the recent ones specifically for art journalers. Two of the most notable are My Creative Bible and the Inspire Bible. I have the pink hardcover edition of the My Creative and the vintage floral Leatherlike edition of the Inspire.
Both bibles are single column with a 2 inch wide side margin, 8.65 point font, slightly cream paper and hundreds of Scripture art illustrations.
The Bibles are almost the same size. The Inspire is a little bit bigger but not quite as much as it looks in this picture. The cover on the Inspire is popping up slightly because of being laid flat so long for the pictures.
They have chosen some of the most popular verses and have different takes on many of the same scriptures. They both also have a few word art drawings like the word Faith.
The pages are thin enough to allow some bleed through of artwork from the other side but not thin enough to be a problem for most mediums (I think). Check back for articles about how well different mediums worked in these Bibles.
Most of the drawings are in the margins but both bibles have some full page illustrations.
Translation and actual artwork seem to be the only major differences between the two. Either of them would be great for experienced journalers who don’t want to start from scratch every time they are feeling creative or people new to art journaling who will have an easier time getting started in a Bible that is already drawn in.
According to their boxes, the My Creative Bible has over 300 illustrations and the Inspire Bible has over 400. Part of the difference is that the Inspire has illustrations without verses at the ends of some of the chapters. Going through the index deciding on possible verses for pictures I noticed the Inspire had more illustrations but I would guess it’s closer to 50 then 100.
The margins are lightly lined where there is not artwork and there at least a few blank pages or parts of pages in both for larger art projects.
Of course, they don’t always pick the same verses as these different versions of Matthew 5 show.
Both Bibles have an illustrated title and a verse on the first page of every book. They both also have an illustrated title page, presentation page, and end pages.
If you’re trying to decide between them I would recommend starting with which translation you are more comfortable with. If that doesn’t decide it for you, then consider art style and whether you would rather have more illustrations to color or more room for your own artwork. Then decide on your favorite cover (The Inspire has 2, the Creative 3 soon to be 4 to choose from). I was provided the print cover Inspire free for review and chose the pink My Creative to purchase, because I’m more familiar with KJV, to see the differences in cover types, and because I liked the rose illustrated page edges. My daughter has an Aqua Inspire on order because she prefers NLT for reading and wanted the butterfly page edges. At the currently reasonable prices, it would be hard to go wrong with any of them.
I love the idea of art journaling and have been dabbling with it for the last 8 months or so. I had hoped to make art journaling posts a regular feature of Bible Buying Guide in January but life got in the way and here I am a couple of months late. The next two posts in this series will be examples of different mediums in these two Bibles. I have crayon, gel pen, colored pencil, and watercolor planned at least and might sneak in a couple more. I will also be trying clear gesso to seal the page for my first time. I would LOVE to have feedback from all you creative journalers out there. What kind of posts would you like most? Is there any medium you would recommend I use or one you’ve been scared to try? Is there anyone whose artwork or tips I just have to see? Is there some kind of journaling article there is already too many of? Let me know in the comments.
Links to other Bible Buying Guide articles about these two bibles (more on the way)
Various Art Mediums in the KJV My Creative Bible
Thanks for showing the two Bibles side by side. I agree that we could not go wrong with either; they are both lovely Bibles. I already had the Inspire on order and now having seen and directly compared the two I still feel good about my choice, especially since I wanted the NLT translation.
Yo’re welcome. My daughter and I both used translation to pick our 1st one of these type of Bibles.
The people at Christian Art Publishers (who actually worked on both Bibles) contacted me and pointed out that the major difference in art styles is that the Inspire’s artwork was done by digital artists and the My Creative Bible has hand drawn artwork. Both styles are beautiful but if anyone hasn’t picked one yet it’s something to keep in mind.
This was very helpful. I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on which mediums work the best.
Glad it was informative. A post with various mediums in The Creative Bible will be up April 15th and a post with various mediums (some of the same ones, some different) in the Inspire Bible will be up April 22nd.
Hi Lucinda, thank you so much for your very detailed review about these two creative journaling Bibles available for now. I had been looking around which Bible to get because I truly love to read The Word, taking down notes and doing art as well. Unfortunately, none of these had made me decide which one to buy yet because I had been looking for few specifics:
1. I want to get a large print one in nice legible print because I love to read my Bible anytime anywhere with or without my glasses
2. It has to have the words of Jesus printed in red to avoid misunderstanding on who says what.
3. It has to have 2 to 3 inch margin for journaling and art work.
4. It should have a reasonable amount of thickness of paper to withstand journaling pens and some art medium without bleeding through and ruining the Bible.
5. It has to be in KJV because it’s the version that I grow up with and always love.
6. Hard enough cover with good binding and lays flat to stay in place in my Bible purse cover to make it easy to tote around with my pen and art stuff.
7. Last but not the least, it would be nice to have reasonable amount of art works scattered here and there for the times when you don’t want to make your own but just in the mood to color; but also leaves enough space for journaling and doodling on your own.
I hope and pray the publishers would read this through your post and publish one soon because I think it’s so much worth the wait. I don’t want to change the Bible I have now unless it’s for the best!
Again, thank you so much for your thorough review.
So glad you like my reviews Dina.
That’s quite a wish list. We’ll pass it along as we get opportunities.
Thomas Nelson is releasing a large print “Journal the Word” Bible around mid-November that matches your wish list except for one thing – no pre-drawn artwork. You can see it on Nelson’s site by clicking here. The link is to my favorite of the 3 hardcovers. It will also be available in bonded and premium leather.
If you have a favorite publisher or find a Bible you want your dream Bible to be similar to you might want to write the publisher directly as well.
FYI, your images are broken. The article is still very informative, but I would love to come back and see the pictures if they get fixed. I’m thinking one of these would make a great gift for my five girls!
Thanks. We lost a lot of images when we had to move to a new server. We’ll get it fixed soon.
We have the pictures back up now Jennifer. Either of these would make great gifts for your girls and both are available in a couple of different cover options (Full reviews of both with more pictures are linked in the article). Depending on the ages of your girls and what translations you prefer there are a couple of other Bibles you might want to consider. In KJV there is also the My Promise Bible (review here). In NLT there are both the Inspire Praise (review here) and the Inspire for Girls (review here). There is also a My Creative Bible for Girls (review here) in the ESV translation. I have a few Creative Art Journaling posts that show a few pictures each from most of the illustrated journaling Bibles we’ve reviewed. If there is a specific comparison of two or three of these Bibles you’d like to see let me know and I’ll do my best to do a new post as early in December as possible.