Testing Supplies in My Journaling Bible

As I said in my last post I've been Bible Journaling every Sunday night since January, and wanted to start blogging about it too. I've given up Facebook for Lent, so have found myself with a little bit more time and am hoping to get some of my pages up on here soon, along with the process I used to create them. I'm hoping I can show people that it really isn't that daunting to get started, and point people in the direction of my favourite supplies, youtube channels, and top tips!

I'm also in the process of helping plan an Introduction to Bible Journaling event over at 10ofthose in Leyland, which will give people a chance to look at the journaling bibles in the flesh and also have some work stations for people to give it a go. It's exciting, but a little intimidating too as I've only been doing this a short time myself!

Back to my first steps into Bible Journaling!

I'm a control freak. There, I said it. I am an information junkie too. When I start a new project I like to get AS MUCH information as I possibly can. Whether its planning a holiday and trawling Trip Advisor for ideas on where to stay, and what 'must see' attractions there are, or planning a lesson and googling the life out of the topic, I just like knowing stuff.
So when it came to starting Bible Journaling I wanted to get clued up as much as possible. I read as many Bible Journaling 101s as I could, watched Youtube Bible flip throughs, and decided the first essential thing I wanted to do was test out all my craft supplies. Over the years I've accumulated a wide variety of craft supplies relating to card making and paper crafting, and just general craftiness, so I wanted to see what would be okay to use in my Bible.

Things I wanted to test:

Pens

Pencils

Paints

Stamping inks

So I set about systematically testing these at the back of my new journaling bible in the Bible Reading Plan pages. I would be looking for ghosting, or bleeding through the pages.

Now bibles are not your everyday book pages. They are very thin, mainly to reduce the thickness of the bibles we carry around. The paper used in Bibles weighs around 40-50 gsm, compared to photocopier paper which is 80gsm, or lightweight card being 160gsm, so you can see its very thin! This does mean that the bible text, or indeed anything your put on the paper, may show through to the other side. I'll refer to this as ghosting, where you can see a faint image through the page.
This is inevitable when the paper is so thin, and is accepted throughout the world for Bibles. As long as it does not distract from the words being read it is fine.
So we will consider ghosting an acceptable outcome of Bible Journaling.

What I consider to be unacceptable is bleeding. This is when the ink/paint actually soaks through the paper to the other side, and is unsightly and distracting. I wanted to whittle out any of my supplies which would bleed through, as this was a definite no-no for me.

This is what I found.

Results

Pens

This is the front of the page I was testing on

And this is what you can see on the back of the same page.


Letraset Promarkers - These bleed straight through the page, do not use unless page prepared
Letraset Aqua Markers - With a single layer they ghost, but a second or third layer will bleed
Mozart Brush Pens - These bleed through
CalliCreative Italic Pens - These bleed through
Sharpies- Fine Line and standard - These bleed through
Calli Metalic Pens - Ghost through
Derwent Graphic Fine Line pens 0.05-0.8 - Finer points ghost through, thicker tips bleed in places
Tombow Brush Pen - Ghost through
White Calli Italic - Not visible
Highlighters - Bleed through on the edges


So does that mean I have to throw out all my lovely pens??? NO! You just need to spend a little time (and money!) preparing your pages if you're going to use them. I've been using Windsor & Newton Acrylic Matt Gel Medium, but a lot of people like to use Clear Gesso (I already had the matt gel medium, so I thought I'd try that first!).
Here's what the back of the page looks like when you prep it first!!

When Acrylic Matt Gel Medium is used all the pens that bled through (including the pro markers!) didn't bleed through at all, although they do still ghost. One thing to consider though is that any ink you place on top of the medium will not soak into the page (which is good!) but that means they sit on the surface and take longer to dry, meaning if you're not careful you might smudge them (which is bad!). The colours are also a little less vibrant too.

Pencils

Stabilo Chalk Pastel Colouring Pencils - Light ghosting, more obvious if activated with water
Derwent Studio Pencils - Not visible unless activated with water, and then they ghost through
Standard Childrens Pencils - Not visible

What you might notice is the difference in pigmentation between the cheap basic children colouring pencils and the Derwent Studio artists pencils. The Stabile CarbOthello chalk pastel water soluble pencils are even more strongly pigmented. So although you can use any pencils in your bible, you do in some respects get what you pay for.

Paints

Watercolour paints - Ghost through
Acrylic Paints - Ghost through

The acrylics go on really well with a credit card or old store card, and if you put it on in this way you can still read through the paint. However, the green and blue colours I have were a bit grainy, and too dark for my liking, as they make it quite hard to read the text, so personally I would definitely limit the use of these colours to the margins. What is brilliant though is how vibrant the colours are, and they don't bleed through, although as you can see they do ghost through. Also if you write or stamp over the acrylic it doesn't show through either!

Inks

Memento Inks - Tuxedo black, Lady Bug red, - Bleed through
Tim Holtz Distress inks - Cracked Sapphire, Barn Door, Bundled Sage, Peacock Feathers
If stamped they bleed, if used on a sponge then they are a thin enough layer to just ghost
Archival Ink - Jet Black - Bleeds
Whispers Archival - Starry Night - Bleeds
Adirondack - Denim - Bleeds

This is the back and front of the same page when I was testing out the stamps.

Most of these inks do not bleed if you stamp off excess ink before then doing your second stamp on the page, but ideally prep your page. They also won't bleed through if you use a medium to prepare your page first or stamp over acrylic paint, but they will still ghost.

This is what I've found so far, I'll update when I try new supplies or new techniques!

Next time I want to talk about Faux-ligraphy and fonts!