A History of My Illustrated Faith

I refuse to use the term ‘it is with a heavy heart’ because that statement would just simply be untrue! But the truth is this will be my last time posting on the Illustrated Faith blog as a Creative Team member as my time serving on the team has come to an end. I am not sad about that, we all know that seasons change and we must keep moving forward. I’m reminded of the Dr Seuss quote that says, “don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened,” so let me tell you that I am positively beaming right now! I’m so excited to see what God has in store for Illustrated Faith in the future, and of course there’s no way I’m going to stop journaling my faith either, so I’m looking forward to what else is in store for my own journey!

This place, this people, this movement – it’s become such a huge part of my faith walk (in fact I actually refer to it more as our place, our community and our movement) that I couldn’t imagine where my life would have been without it. I keep filling page after page of my Bible with journaling and art and prayers and dreams. I spend hours in the Word enjoying time with my Creator and I have learned so much about myself in the process. And then, after all that, I also had the honour of being able to share what I’d discovered with so many of you through the magic of the internet!

Today in my departing post as a Creative Team member I wanted to take you back on a reminiscent journey of some of the projects and pages I’ve shared here over the past 21 months of being part of this amazing team.

It was February 2015 when my first blog post went up. This was in the time prior to having dedicated bible journaling supplies and the biggest questions everyone had was what you could use and what you ‘should’ use. Ha! There’s no such thing right?! So my first post was all about what supplies I use on a regular basis, and specifically, what do I take with me when I travel. It’s an interesting exercise to see what I packed then and what I take with me on the road now… many of the same basics are there, I’d just have more Illustrated Faith stamp sets now! LOL!

And speaking of the Illustrated Faith stamp sets, it was only a month later in March 2015 my first video tutorial was posted and it featured the very first stamp set and devotional that Illustrated Faith produced called You Are Beautiful. It’s so fun to look back at these early attempts and see how my style has changed and evolved over time.

A few months later Bella Blvd joined the party! It was such a God-lead partnership that really paved the way for the production of dedicated faith-based craft supplies. For me on a personal level it literally opened up a whole new realm of possibilities when it came to ways I could illustrate my faith, both within the margins of my Bible and outside of that as well. I started creating other projects for the blog that weren’t just bible-journaling pages and which also had a practical purpose. In the photo above for example you’ll see a handful of lunch box notes I made, a set of Christmas cards, and also this handmade journaling Bible for my eldest daughter.

Throughout this year I have continued to fill the pages of my Bible and it keeps getting fatter and fatter! ;-) So much so that when DaySpring joined the ranks as well and began making devotionals that you could journal directly into, it almost came as a relief that I would have somewhere else to decorate lest my poor Bible start bursting at the seams! To be honest I probably still wouldn’t mind… you know what they say…. “I like big Bibles and I cannot lie”…..

I just might need a new one real soon, that’s all! ;-)

So with all that said I figured I have no choice but to use my farewell video to do one last flip-through of my Bible from start to finish. This is the full journey people! This is every single Bible journaling page I’ve ever done to date!

And of course I couldn’t go without leaving a giant big thankyou to everyone here at Illustrated Faith. To Shanna for first trusting me to help wave the IF banner, to Heather who is the most patient team director I know (and believe me… I’ve tested that on regular occasion!), to Elaine who overflows with positive vibes at every turn, to the rest of the team (both past and present) who will remain some of my closest internet friends for life. And then of course there is the whole worldwide Illustrated Faith community of supporters, encouragers, artists and crafters who have lifted me up each step of the way. Thank you all!

No doubt I will continue to illustrate my faith for a long time to come, so you’ll still see me around!

xxx