Bella Blvd Studio Blog: Bella Blvd & Illustrated Faith

Hi everyone! I am so excited to be here today! My name is Shanna Noel and I like to illustrated my faith in the margins of my bible. Today I wanted to give you a peek into my process and share with you how I enter the notes from the Sunday morning sermon into by bible.

First off I am often asked if I take my bible to church with me. Yes! Of course I love taking it with me but no, I don't set up a table with paint and stamps and watercolors (although how fun would that be?!) instead I bring a notebook with me. My notebook notes are NOT pretty, they are messy, doodly and a general hot mess but the important thing is I am writing down what I am hearing in a way I understand them.

When I am ready (sometimes it's Sunday afternoon, sometimes it a couple days later the important thing here is that you are allowing God the space to do what HE needs to do within your heart through prayer and time) I take my notes out and enter them into my bible. Often times the pastor will give several bible verses throughout the sermon. I take the message that I am taking away from the sermon (that may be different for everyone even within the same sermon) and match that up to the perfect bible verse.

Then I find that page in my bible and if it is already full (as it was here) I will just turn the page over and try the next side. In this instance (this doesn't always happen) the bible verse on the next page (Romans 12: 3-8) was speaking to me even more. Believe me friends, this isn't a bad thing!! Instead of only reading the verse that I set out to do instead I dug deeper into the word and found even MORE of what God had waiting for me there.

I make a plan to document what God is whisper on my heart. In this instance "Be Who He Created" came to me. I knew right away I wanted to get some paint on the page (I use liquitex heavy body paint) and a gift card (it dries super quick). From there I knew I wanted to use my Genesis kit and the large white alpha (it's my FAVE!!!!) what I love most about this alpha is that you can customize it any way you would like! For me an imperfect black stripe is ALWAYS a great addition! I put my two letters "BE" on the bible mat and doodle the lines on there using the Illustrated Faith pigment liner. From there I mix-n-match the letters and labels to create the message.

I love adding the final details to the page. For this one I added the "hope" washi to the bottom of the page and a "new start" tab to the top as a wonderful reminder to remain confident in the gifts that God has given me... so let's use those gifts to GLORIFY HIM!

Thank you so much for having me! I hope you have a wonderful day Illustrating YOUR faith!!!

I am so excited about the work we are doing through Illustrated Faith. As you can imagine the excitement of this movement has caused my inbox to be flooded with beautiful messages. I answer emails during studio hours Monday - Friday and reserve my weekends for family and teaching. Thank you so much for understanding! Have a wonderful day! xox - Shanna