Book of Mormon Journaling

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UPDATED
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I updated the free downloads. They should print out much better.
Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to see my personal Book of Mormon :) 

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I finally figured out how to do some Book of Mormon Journaling! I'm so excited with myself!!!
Whoop!

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DISCLAIMER
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Friends,  PLEASE don't read my post and say, "I can't do that!" or "I don't have the supplies she used, so I can't do this". 

The whole point in the Book of Mormon journaling that I am talking about, is to pick up your book. Read the scriptures I have chosen to draw about, read the whole chapter! Get that book in your hand, and open your heart to it. Let it speak to you, and write down your feelings and thoughts. Use plain paper, use your kids old crayons, use a glue stick and old newspaper! Use what you have <3

Because I am so old that I could be considered ancient, I have learned something about myself. I don't learn by simply reading. I do better listening, and through pictures. Tell me a story about the picture and I will remember more than just simply reading. It's my way to show my thoughts and feelings :)

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Of course once I got it in my head, I had to run right over and grab me a few books to get started.

Here's what I started out with:
Image result for book of Mormon




I got the hard covered one, with the intention of somehow decorating the outside. I wanted to try it out before I put anything in my other scriptures. My sweet friend Cori explained to me that the "Missionary Version" of the Book of Mormon has thicker pages than the fancier versions. I'm so glad I made this choice for my art surface.

Here's a link for the Book:
Book of Mormon: Regular, Blue


I also ordered some Vellum paper. Here's the link for what I ordered:

Vellum Paper


I'm using these pens, they dry pretty quickly, so not much smudge :) Here's the link:

Micron pens



This is my favorite thing in the whole world! It makes journaling so easy, and everything is nice and straight. Here's the link for the ruler:

Illustrates Faith ruler

I colored all of the graphics with regular colored pencils.



This is the glue I chose to use. So far, I have no complaints! It works great!

Rubber Cement glue


Here's what I did:
I traced the image on to the vellum, adding details. I colored it, shaded it, and cut around the images.
To place it in the book, I ran the very edge of the vellum along the metal part of the brush in the rubber cement. Then I just stuck the vellum piece into the binding as far as I could, where the corresponding scripture was. Be sure to not get the glue anywhere else. It dries pretty fast!
 That's it! It's super easy!


Here are my pages!


I put this in the front of my book, right after the introduction. I really loved this quote by President Benson. When my girls open their books I wanted this to be the first thing they would read. The template for this is below,


You can see the image above with a white paper behind it, so you can see the image clearly. Below is the image without the paper so you can see the text behind it.


2 Nephi 32:3





Mormon 9:5
I also outlined the scripture that corresponds with the image and colored it in.





Alma 46:12

Here are the templates for the above images! You should be able to print this off on a full sheet of paper to use in your own books.







Mosiah 4:9





Alma 39:14 The template for these two are below.







Jacob 2:18
The template is located below :)



Moroni 10:22




Ether 12:6


  Alma 37:6



I LOVE Elder Holland! I could listen to that man talk for days!!! 
1 Nephi 17:8



As it should :)
2 Nephi 4:5


 3 Nephi 18:7

Here is the template for the three images above:


I decided I wanted to put some tabs on my book too. I found some patterned card stock that I liked (20 coordinating prints :) )
And I purchased a tab punch! 
Here's the link for the Tab punch:

I punched out a TON of tabs, and glued them into place with glue dots, and then used rubber cement to attach the back piece. I wanted the tabs to be thick. I have seen where others just do one thickness and glue dots. 
After pouring over the Pinterest boards and Facebook group posts, I found just what I wanted. I used different handwriting styles, and black ink and a white gelly roll pen. The tabs on the side are the books, and across the top are the journaling that I have already done in my book.



Have you seen the bookmarks people make for the books? OHMYWORD.... I about had a heart attack. I made up a WHOLE bunch today... It was so fun! Here's what I did:


I used ribbon, bakers twine, and tuelle, along with some paper clips. I've seen them done with fabric as well. That's next on my list :)


I cut the ribbon in to about 5 inch lengths. I wanted to be able to trim them later.


I folded the piece in half, and pulled the ends through the loop on the other side of the paper clip, tying a knot.




Once I had it pulled tight, I put a little drop of hot glue right above the knot to hold the ends together and keep the knot in place.


I might have gotten a little carried away with the finished products.... I made bucket loads!


They're so pretty!



I LOVE love LoVe it!!!!!

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I thought maybe you would like to see my personal book. I bought the Triple Combination for myself.  I picked out some pretty papers that suit me. I ABSOLUTELY love it!



The gold thing is called a "Journal Band" by Heidi Swapp

 here's the link:

I think it's just so pretty!!!

For the inside of my book, I decided to do it a little differently. I didn't draw faces on my inserts, and I didn't color them. Here's an example.


I bought a date stamp, so I can remember when I did that page. I have been drawing a box around the coordinating scripture.


I found some religious print Washi  Tape at Michaels, and I got a little inspired :)


I taped this insert to the page and created a "tip in". I got called to go to Girl's Camp this year. We are doing Book of Mormon Journaling as our craft. I created a whole set of scriptures just for camp. This is one of them :)


I LOVED this quote by President Monson, from this past General Conference.
It's taped to the inside of the front cover.

I found that I wanted to mark other scriptures as I read, but I didn't necessarily want to do an insert. In doing Bible Journaling, there are big spaces for this. Here's how I took advantage of the small space in my book:



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Happy Independence day!
Here are a few of the scriptures I found that made me feel a little patriotic <3



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I've had a few people ask me about my writing on the pages, and how to do it. Here's what I do:


This is the basic design. I just add wide loop holes, and lots of dropped down links between the letters. The more crooked the letters are the better.



I make the up and down lines thicker where the loops and spaces are wide enough.


 Color in the wide lines.


I also added some extra swirly loops.


 A few more embellishments, and I was pretty satisfied with how it turned out. 

Here's the printable all ready for you!


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Girls Camp!!!!

This year I got asked to be a Stake Specialist for girls camp! I was able to help with the craft and the design for the shirts and sweat shirts. It was absolutely amazing to see hundreds of girls and leaders walking around wearing something I had drawn out on paper. I might have teared up a bit, lol. Here's what the shirts and hoodies looked like:
They turned out so awesome!

For the craft, we did Book of Mormon Journaling. I almost missed this part. A month before camp, I had to have emergency surgery. I wasn't able to stay at camp for the week, but I was able to go up twice for a few hours. I was able to see the girls work on their books.  Special thanks to my bestie Val, for punching out over 5,000 tabs!!!  We needed a little over 7,000, and she saved me! Also thank you to Amy (the fantastic camp leader) and Helen, for all that they did to help as well. I am so grateful for those who picked up and finished getting things together and ready for the girls when I could not.. 
Yep, this made me cry too. 

So, here's what we did:
Each girl was given a book,
A bag containing pre-punched tabs with adhesive tape in place,
pre-cut inserts along with a list with page numbers and coordinating scriptures,
a book mark matching our theme,
7 paper clips,
and 7 coordinating pieces of ribbon.

They were able to write on their tabs and stick them right on.
We used rubber cement to place the inserts in the books.
They used glue guns to make their ribbon and paper clip book marks.

Here are the inserts and other printables we used:





I can't even tell you how awesome this experience was for me! To see the girls working and helping each other with such kindness was almost overwhelming. They were so excited. They were so grateful. Some of the girls had never had their own Book of Mormon. Even now, almost 2 months later, it brings me to tears. Best.Camp.EVER.

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Book of Mormon Journaling for BoYs!!!!!

My husband recently got called to be a Ward Missionary. As we were talking about it, we decided I should make up a few BOMs that he could share with the children he goes to visit. The girl sets were easy, but we needed a boy set. Here's what I did:




For the tabs, I used paper that looks like old maps. It looks awesome.
I had a bit of an issue with the handwriting, because I didn't want it to be too cute.
Hopefully this will do :) 

I used my Book of Mormon Heroes set, in the black & white, and printed off the images.
I added the names to each insert after I printed and cut them out. 

Here's the set:

Here's the Etsy link just in case you'd like to grab it:

The set has images for Nephi, Lehi, Enos, King Benjamin, Mormon,  Abinidai, Alma, Ammon,  Alma the Younger, Moroni, Captain Moroni, Helaman, Samuel the Lamanite, and the Brother of Jared.

The inserts were placed to coordinate with the stories of each Hero.

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CABBAGE ROSES EDITION

This is probably my favorite version so far. We had a fundraiser for the Young Women in our ward, and I donated a finished book to the silent auction.
We also had a dinner for our ward family, thanks to my hubby for smoking the yummy pork for our sandwiches! August from @JackOfAllTravels for purchasing it!

Here's the paper I chose for my Tabs:

I just love these colors. It turned out beautifully!


These are the side tabs.


And the top tabs.


These are the inserts.... special thanks to the girls in the Melonheadz LDS Facebook group for helping me choose the scriptures. <3 to Jacque, Shanna, Joan, and Heidi.



I printed them off on Velum, and colored them with colored pencils.

Here are pictures of the inside:

I used washi tape to attach this insert to the page.


The inserts in the binding were glued in with a tiny bit of rubber cement.



This set has a few that are on the same page... I inserted one into the binding with rubber cement, and washi tape to attach the second one to the page.













This was inside the back cover. I just loved the polka dotted card, the color was perfect! 
The insert was again attached by washi tape.


The final touch was a "Journaling Band". You can use it like a book mark. I had trouble finding affordable ones in colors that I liked. (Here's a little bonus for you, I used a baby headband from Hobby Lobby! It's perfect!)

I did hold myself back from adding glitter glue.... it was a struggle.

xox
Nikki


FINALLY!!!!! I have the link for the Cabbage roses for you!













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I would LOVE to see what you do with your book!
Happy Journaling! 

xox
Nikki





55 comments:

  1. These are BEAUTIFUL!! I'm going to do this. Thank you so much for sharing such a lovely idea!

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    1. Thank you so much Colette :) I hope you have as much fun with this as I have been <3
      xox
      Nikki

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    2. Not sure if you've seen them yet, but Deseret Book is releasing a "limited edition" Book of Mormon with wider margins for journaling...I thought immediately of you and wondered if maybe everyone has been so inspired by your journaling that they've had enough requests to offer a BOM specifically for journaling. Mine is (and probably always will be) a beautiful work in progress so it's a little too late for me to start something new now. I just add a bit here and another insert there. I just love it and it all started here!! But maybe people just starting out would like something with wider margins...Thanks so much for this fun legacy craft! :)

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    3. I bought one this morning!!!! I about had a melt down in the middle of the store <3 Thank you Colette!
      xox

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  2. oh.my.goodness.... I am so excited friends. I'm ordering it all right now!!! xo
    Thank you for being such a great example ;)
    xo Lory

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    1. YAY!!!! I want to see what you do with it :)
      xox

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  3. Oh.My.Gosh! I love those bookmarks! I'm doing some. Thank you.

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  4. These are great. Thanks for sharing your take on Book of Mormon journaling.

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  6. OH my heavens my heart is swooning! I have seen several bible journals and wondered and researched a bit on how to do it with a Book of Mormon but haven't jumped yet...now I'm feeling inspired...vellum! I love that idea. I may be heading straight to Amazon for some purchases! Wahoo!

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  7. I wish you could feel my gratitude. I teach the 11 year old girls and they seem intimidated by the physical book of Mormon. They have no problem with the digital version. I am not a big fan of the digital version. I feel there is not a real relationship with my phone or my tablet. I want the girls to fall in love the real thing. Thank you!!!

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  8. Oh. My. Heart! (<I love that! I'm going to use it!) You ARE Amazing, Sister! So Amazing. This is exactly what I have needed in my life. I've glued little papers into the binding area of my scripture's pages before but never thought to do on vellum. Brilliant! Thank you !!!

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  9. That's AMAZING!! I wish I can have this in Chinese too,but I guess I will start with English first.I think it is a great way to encourage the teens and kids to read and use the actual scriptures instead of their phones. Thanks for sharing.

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  10. Beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing, Nikki.

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  11. Wow! How encouraging! I was given a bible journal and haven't used it yet. One more item to unpack and use. Thank you for all the freebies. I can print when printer finds home. I need you and your girls to help me organize my space. I pray for you often. I loved being on your team.

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  12. Thank you for sharing all of this wonderful art work and lettering.

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  13. This is so great. Thank you for sharing.

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  14. these are wonderful, thank you for your hard work and sharing with us. There however are a couple of references that are incorrect to what you posted. like 1 Nephi 17:8 should be 3 Nephi 17:8.

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    1. Lol... of course they are! I will fix them. Thank you for pointing this out... I should know better than to post stuff at night ;)

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  15. Is there any way to get the ones you used for Girls camp as well? My daughters and I are reading the Book of Mormon together and that would be awesome to give them. Thanks!

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    1. Just save the images above to your computer and print them out <3

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  16. Wow...What a clever idea to use vellum instead of drawing directly on the pages. I had read about scripture journaling the idea of drawing, coloring and painting in my scriptures really put me off. I had worked my way around to scripture journaling on separate paper but Vellum is a terrific idea! Thanks@

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  17. I am so excited about this new project. I am reading the Book of Mormon with my 2 granddaughters and they are so excited too!
    I can not locate page #2 that has the Believe in God quote with the world illustration and the crown with the Seek not after riches quote. (I believe that the Ether 12:6 page was posted twice.) I would appreciate it if I could get that page.
    Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful work!

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  18. This is VERY generous of you to share! Thank you!!!!
    bunches of love
    Noelle (Arkansas)

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  19. I love all of your art!!! I wish I could buy one of your camp t-shirts! I totally want one!

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  20. This is phenomenal! This would be a joy to do with our young women. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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  21. You. Are. Awesome! and Talented! These girls will remember this forever...

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  22. This is AMAZING!!!! I can't wait to do this at home!

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  23. Everything you do makes me smile. Your work is lovely! Thank you so much for sharing, I plan to use your images to help my kids have fun memorizing scriptures. Amazing!

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  24. I love, love, LOVE this!! Trying to do something similar for our Girl's Camp this year. Question, did you use vellum for the girls? And colored pencils, right? I'm not a journal-er so I'm not sure about it all!

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    1. We used regular paper for the girls because of the cost. It was for our whole stake, so we did about 300 kits! Yes on the colored pencils :) Good luck! Feel free to email me if you have more questions.
      xox

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  25. Thank you so much for sharing your templates for the Book of Mormon journal! They're just gorgeous :)

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  26. OH MY GOODNESS!! I LOOOOOOVE THESE!! Both of our daughters received the Journaling Book of Mormons for Christmas from their YW presidency in our ward and these are PERFECT! Thanks for sharing your TALENTS!! LOVE!

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  27. These are amazing. I ask new to young women's and i think this would be a great activity to do this year. Thanks for sharing your talents.

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  28. This is such a great idea and so cute. Do you have the Pres Monson quote to print?
    Thanks for sharing.

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  29. WOW! Thank you for sharing your ideas, your talent, and mostly your faith and testimony to help inspire! What a great way to minister to those of us who are seeking new ways to study our scriptures. I am so grateful.

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  30. Thank you! I am not an artist per se but I love to play regardless. I took your free templates and then purchased one from your store but shrunk them down just a little so they would fit in the new Book of Mormons for journaling. I would love to share the pics with you. If I can, then anyone can! :) Thank you❤❤❤ suzi.m.bowen@gmail.com

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  31. Thanks for the sweet shout out, Nikki! :) These are so cute!!!!

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  32. Nikki you are simply amazing, these turned out great!

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  33. Do you have the pdf inserts available yet? Thank you for sharing your beautiful talent with others!

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  34. Our family is going to be working on putting together our journaling Book of Mormon for our studies this next year. Is there a place where I can purchase the "Cabbage Rose" Scriptures? Thank you for all your beautiful work and ideas!

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  35. Are the pdf's available yet? are they in your store? Just amazing.

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  36. I have started this then got busy , but I am so ready to do it especially that we are studying the Book of Mormon. But i can not find the pdfs Please help I am so excited to do my Book of Mormon


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    1. SOme have a link, and some are just for you to copy and save to your computer :)

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  37. Where can i find the pdfs for the Cabbage Rose, and the scripture about the angels bearing you up pdf.

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  38. I would love to use the Cabbage Rose pdf"s I would even pay for them . Where do i find them.. Thanks

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  39. This is amazing. I would love to find a group who does this weekly, keeping up with the scriptures we are supposed to follow in the come follow me program.

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  40. i just love your stuff you are so talented you and others like make our lives (those of us who have no artistic talent) so much brighter in color
    Thx xoxo

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  41. Thanks so much! I love your work. I have used it a lot over the years. Thank you for sharing.

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  42. Hi! I LOVE this, this is going to make my girls Treasure their Book of Mormon!
    Only thing, when i click on pictures to print, it prints so blurry. How can i print. The cabbage roses printed perfectly, with the pdf. Thank you
    You are Amazing!

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  43. These are so awesome. However, on the reference page you have commandments listed as D&C 14:17 but section 14 only goes to 11

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