DIY....A Perfect Place for Journaling Markers and Pencils!

I have decided to give all 5 of my nieces their own Journaling Bible and markers/color pencils.  I have no idea if they have any interest but I figure I will make it as easy to do as possible to encourage interest.

The plan is to make a book of stickers that they can just color and stick into the Bible OR, just draw themselves... so I bought them each a set of markers, colored pencils, pencil sharpener and a black PITT Pen.  Then I thought that it would be neat to have a small binder that will hold everything, stickers and all.  However, it is really impossible to find CLEAR pencil holders that fit in the small binder.  Hummmmm.... gotta do it myself.  So I went about "inventing" one.  I went to Joanne's and bought a couple yards of heavy acrylic.  Thankfully, I already have TONS of black zippers so that was a "freebie"

I decided that I wanted them to zip at the top so that's where I put the zipper.  Once it was made I decided to add "pockets" for the pencils to get a tighter fit.

VERY HAPPY with the results!  So I cut enough acrylic to make 4 holders for each girl, 20 in all!

But, before I started sewing all of them together I found the following idea on Pinterest.  Cover a Zipper Lock sandwich bag with duct tape!  COOL IDEA!!!

So, I then went to WalMart and bought the cheapest Zipper Lock bags I could find... I think I got 40 bags for less than $3.  They are 7"x8"And, of course I already had duct tape.  

And then I started applying the tape.

Once I got both sides covered I added a "tab" on the opposite side from the zipper so that I would have a place to punch the three holes.  Below you can see that I added 1/2" but that was a little too much, it should be about 1/3"... the wider made it stick out a little too much 1/3" would be better.

Mark and punch the three holes (I used a page that already had holes for a pattern.)

And here you go, PERFECT FIT!  Notice that I left the zipper edge clear so they can see the colors without having to open the bag...since they need two bags just for markers.  And yes, I had to put the zipper on the side because of the size of the bag, but that's ok for the markers because of their size.  This is just black duct tape... not so very pretty but ....

Then I added some brushed gold vinyl dots to make it a little better looking ... hummmmmm....now the red "zipper" part stands out, gotta figure that one out now.

Here is the notebook closed with all markers and pencils inside.  YAY!  LOVE IT!

And to help the black and gold pencil holders match a little better I painted some gold on some of the paisleys.  Not the best picture but you get the idea.

Do Not Worry ... Matthew 25:25-34

I like what Corrie Ten Boone said "Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength, carrying two days at once.  It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time.  Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow it empties today of its strength."

  Good word!

That's just another way of saying  Matthew 5:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

And of course, part of the same chapter:

Do Not Worry

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

New Testament Timeline from Wayfinding Bible

Today someone asked me to create a timeline for the new testament like the Old Testament I did a while back.  Like the other one, I am getting the time line from "The Wayfinding Bible".  Each book has a timeline at the bottom of the first page.  It shows what is happening in that book in blue and any other events that happened along the timeline but not in that book are in black.  The chart below shows the dates of things that happened during the same time but aren't specifically in the Bible in the first column.  I hope that makes sense. 

Psalm 23:4... Walking Though The Valley

Man oh man!  This one was both easy and really hard to do.... how do you show a dark valley that needs a dark shadow so that you can see what needs to be seen???  To actually put light and dark it all the right places is way beyond my abilities for sure!  I have NO CLUE!  So, I just got something drawn really quickly and I may or may not go back and try and answer the problem... if I can come up with some kind of solution ????  Because I reeeeeally don't have the necessary talent!

Anyway, here it is in pencil in the mean time....

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me....."

Hummmm... now that I am looking at it I think I need to do a better job of the perspective of the words.  I didn't even thin of that when I was doing it... glad it is still pencil!

Oh heck!  I just tried adding more gray across from the shadow of death but it didn't help... bummer!  That's what I'm talking about, clueless!

Psalm 27:14 - WAIT for the Lord!

Wait for and confidently expect the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for and confidently expect the Lord.

I get an email of a scripture every day from Biblegateway and this is today's scripture.  WAIT!  Don't jump out ahead, you don't want to go ahead of the lord because you might go down the wrong path.

Before I started drawing I knew that I wanted to use a stop sign but instead of just drawing one from memory I googled "stop sign clipart"  and found this little guy:

Cute right, but a little too smiley, not as demonstrative as I wanted so I changed his expression. 

.

Psalm 4:8... In Peace, In Safety

Psalm 4:8

 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. 

This is one of my favorite scriptures.  To be "in Peace and in Safety" because of the Lord.

About ten years ago I bought a large embroidery machine just so I could embroider scriptures on pillowcases.  This was one of the more perfect scriptures I used.  It is a nice little last minute reminder before you go off to sleep.

Would you believe that I made a MAJOR mistake on the above?  Of course I did!  Don't like making mistakes with a black pen!!  I put the "t" before the "e" in safety.  That's what happens when I don't have spell check to catch me!  Hence, the big black squares with white text.  Not bad, I actually like it better because it hi-lites the words.

Update:

Ya know, it always amazes me how many things I never see before, but really bother me AFTER I have a huge picture posted here!  Thing is the actual drawing is only 1.25"x 2" so it is hard to see the mistake and just fixing them with an eraser is HARD because my smallest eraser is too big, it erases too much!  Oh well... since it is so small I will just have to ignore it.... which is also really hard.

Proverbs 14:34 ... Sin Has a Gotcha

Proverbs 14:34 

Righteousness exalteth a nation: 

but sin is a reproach to any people. 

If you have been around long you know that I have done something similar to this in the past...but I wanted to put it into my Bible.  Gotta say, I see the nation getting blacker and blacker with sin... HEARTBREAKING!

I started out with colored pencils but quickly realized that there is no way to get a red as red as I wanted it with pencils... so I pulled out my acrylic paints.  I am happy to say that even though the pages are thin, there really isn't any bleed-thru.  There is a showdown because everything is so dark, but nothing that is distracting.

I used Golden paints... you will notice they are really pricy! That would normally throw the breaks on but I LOVE LOVE the reds and the transparency of them.  And too, the reds are among the more expensive, see how the black is half that price.... I think there is real gold or something in the red that makes it so expensive.  ???

.