Bible journal with me – How to cover hidden journaling, plus Pipsticks butterflies

Happy Friday, mes amis, and welcome to another Bible journal with me post! This week, I’m showing you how to cover journaling that you don’t necessarily want the general public to have access to. I also really enjoyed using some beautiful butterflies from a Pipsticks sticker pack. Hope you enjoy this process!

Hidden journaling in a Bible

Journaling alongside the Word of God can be a powerful process, allowing ourselves to feel our honest emotions while also rooting ourselves in the Truth. I first discovered the technique on Illustrated Faith’s YouTube channel years ago, and have used it a few times since then.

Please note: the process I’m showing you involves covering the words of the Bible text in a few layers of writing and paint. For me in this instance, the process of journaling and adding the layers of paint was sweet and helped me feel close to the Lord, so in my personal, not-for-studying Bible, it was okay with me. If this bothers you, however, you can easily modify the technique to avoid covering the words, or use a separate journal or piece of paper to achieve a similar effect.

Here’s the YouTube video if you’d like to watch it!

The process – watercolor, acrylic paint, and stickers!

This Bible journaling page was originally inspired by one of the sheets in a Pipsticks subscription pack that I received a month or two ago. I was inspired by the phrase “Change is good,” which I used in one of my other Bibles for a similar journaling process. There’s quite a bit of change happening in my life right now, and I cherished the opportunity to sit and talk to the Lord about it.

Step One: watercolor background

For the first phase of this page, I laid down a layer of pink and orange watercolor. I like to use the wet-on-wet technique for pages like this, as it allows the colors to flow and bleed into each other on the page.

Step Two: journaling

For this step, I like to use a pen that will be easy to cover up. I usually reach for a silvery Jelly Roll that I love, but mine was dried out today, so I used a silver one instead. Again, this was a really sweet part of the process, as I watched my words fill the page in between the lines of Scripture. I ended up choosing Isaiah 43:19, which reads,

Behold, I am going to do something new, Now it will spring up; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43:19 NASB20

I already had journaling on the page with this verse on it, so I chose to use the opposite page. The text that I journaled over was part of Isaiah 44, which is a criticism of the idolatry of Israel and the surrounding nations. It describes the complete and utter uselessness of trusting in idols that can’t save, which was a reminder to me that, as my life is changing, I need to trust God above all. I’m spending the rest of this year doing a deep dive into the book of Isaiah, and I’m looking forward to studying this chapter more deeply.

Step Three: acrylic paint and more layers

The next step in this hidden journaling process is to add some acrylic paint to cover up the words you’ve just written. I chose some more shades of pink and orange, and included some Himi jelly gouache for more variety. I can still see the words I wrote in the finished page, but they’ve now become part of the background. I also added some scrapbook papers, washi tape, ephemera, and the beautiful butterflies from the Pipsticks sticker sheet. You can find that sheet here : ).

Step Four: add a title

The final step in this hidden journaling process was to add a title. I chose to highlight the two major take-aways I had from Isaiah 43:19 with the phrase “I’m doing a new thing, and I will make a way.” And that’s it!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Bible journal with me process and technique of hidden journaling. Have you ever been through a significant life change? What did you learn from it? I’d love to know!

Happy journaling!