I debated with myself and changed my mind several times before finally settling on the traditional February theme of Love for this Creative Art Journaling post. Love is after all one of the foundations of the Bible and there are enough verses and entries about the topic to fill several of these posts.

There are so many different forms of love we can journal about: love for our spouses, family, and friends (which is what the marketers focus on); love for our fellow man; our love for God; God’s love for us; and even the question of what love is. No matter which direction your Bible study and journaling is going here are a few entries from various illustrated journaling Bibles. It’s my hope these photos will help you find an entry you want to focus on or give you inspiration for your own artwork.

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I Corinthians 13

One of the main reasons I started these creative art journaling posts was that I’ve wanted to do comparisons and show you how different Bibles dealt with the same verse. The well-known passage in I Corinthians 13 about what love seems a great choice for this post. I particularly like this passage when I stop and think about the fact that since God is Love (1 John 4:8). I Corinthians 13:4-7 describes some of the attributes of God as well.

This entry from the HSCB Illustrator’s Notetaking Bible leaves you room to emphasize your favorite line or two of the passage. I’ve done the coloring in watercolor and used a Pigma Micron pen to darken the lettering that was already there. I intend to add some lettering either with gold embossing or a gold calligraphy pen and have practiced using both outside my Bible but got sick before I finished this entry and haven’t gotten back to finish it yet.

The idea of using embossing powder actually comes from a challenge from Rebekah R. Jones about this passage. Here’s the link to that blog post and video in case you want to check that out.

The NIV Beautiful Word Bible and NIV Beautiful Word Coloring Bible have the largest portion of the verse included in their illustration of any of the Bibles. While the pale earth tones in the colored version are pretty, I’ll probably use much brighter colors when I work this passage in the coloring Bible.

They did two different entries for I Corinthians 13 in the NLT Inspire Praise Bible and included them both in the NLT Inspire for Girls Bible.

This is the illustration in the original NLT Inspire Bible.

And this adorable illustration complete with a teddy bear is from the ESV My Creative Bible for Girls.

This version from the ESV Illuminated Bible, Art Journaling Edition is complete already and beautifully laid out as well as drawn.

Do you have a favorite of these journal illustrations? Is there one that you might use as inspiration for a journal entry of your own? Is there another verses you’d like me to do a comparison of?

Word Art & Lettering

Sometimes when journaling we can barely find room for all we want to write and sometimes a single word is the most important point. Many of the illustrated Bibles include Word Art, a lettered and illustrated version of a single word, and include them next to relevant passages.

This version of Love is found in the  ESV My Creative Bible for Girls next to Romans 8:38-39 reminding us nothing can separate us from God’s love.

The KJV My Promise Bible has this version of Love next to 1 Corinthians 13.

This illustrated version of Love is actually found in several different locations. It is next to both Mark 12:30 “love the Lord your God with all your heart” and Hosea 11 which is all about the Lord’s love for Isreal in both the NLT Inspire Bible and the NLT Large Print Inspire Bible. It is located next to the beginning of Psalm 18 “I love you Lord” in the NLT Inspire for Girls Bible

This Love word art is from the KJV My Creative Bible and can be found next to Jeremiah 31:3 that speaks of God’s everlasting love.

Have you ever included Word Art in your Bible journaling?

I also thought it would be nice to show at least a couple examples of lettering the word “love” within a verse

1 John 3:18 is one of the verses they did a new illustration for the NIV Beautiful Word Coloring Bible instead of just removing the color from the illustration in the  NIV Beautiful Word Bible. They have used slightly different ways of highlighting the word “love” in the two entries.

I like the use of the heart for the “O” and the slightly detailed shadow in this lettering in the NLT Inspire Praise Bible. I also like the idea of making hearts out of something else instead of just drawing a heart for the illustration sometimes.

They have added some extra detailing to the fairly standard lettering of the word Love in this example from the HSCB Illustrator’s Notetaking Bible

Lastly, I’ve included the KJV My Promise Bible’s list of promises about God’s love with it’s outlined cursive lettering.

I hope at least a few of these pictures have been inspirational and I pray you have a month full of God’s love for you and those around you.

Do you have a favorite verse about love? A favorite lettering style? An idea for a theme for a cretive art journaling post? Let me know in the comments.

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Links above are to our reviews for more information about the Bibles featured. Most of these Bibles should be available at your local Bible bookstore or at many online retailers. The following are affiliate links to find them on Amazon.

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