5 Common Bible Journaling Mistakes (& How to Fix Them!)

Have you ever held back from Bible journaling because you’re afraid of messing up? Or when you do make a mistake, you’re not sure what to do about it? You’re in the right place, my friend. Let’s explore some common Bible journaling mistakes, and how you can fix them.

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Bible journaling is not a quest for perfection, y’all. Yes, we want to create beautiful Bible art, but it’s unrealistic to think that every page is going to be a masterpiece, or that there won’t be hiccups along the way. In fact, there will be plenty of screw-ups! And that’s okay.

The whole point of Bible art journaling, is to study God’s Word creatively, spend time with Him in the process, and learn along the way. It’s great to have beautiful Bible pages to refer back to later, but it’s also amazing to learn something from God, even when the Bible art didn’t turn out as expected. Even in the mess, we can still bring glory to God, and gain wisdom and insight.

So, please don’t shrink back from Bible journaling just because you’re afraid of “messing up”! Just as in life, God can take your imperfections, feeble efforts, and even the outright screw-ups, and make them something more.

5 Common Mishaps in Bible Journaling (and How to Fix Them!)

I’ve made PLENTY of Bible journaling mistakes myself. Even some spectacular messes! Sometimes, I’m able to find a quick fix or other solution, to make the mishap less noticeable. Other times, I find that God teaches me a lesson through the mess! And no matter what, I’m still able to immerse myself in His Word, and gain valuable insight, even when I’m not happy with the artistic results.

In the video below, I share five common Bible journaling mistakes, many of which I’ve made numerous times, along with solutions for how to fix them. (If you’d prefer to read instead of watch, keep scrolling… the list of mishaps and photos are down below!)

By the way, this is NOT an exhaustive list! I’ve had plenty more Bible journaling pages where I’ve fumbled the paintbrush, dribbled ink where I didn’t want it to go, and had other things that just didn’t turn out as expected. The examples here are just my top five biggest screw-ups, which I hope will inspire you to Bible journal with courage and confidence, knowing that it’s okay to make mistakes and you CAN make the best of it. 😊

1) Making a hot mess

Starting off with a bang! This Genesis 1 page on God’s Creation was one of my earliest Bible journaling attempts, and boy did I screw it up royally. I was using acrylic paints in my Bible for the first time, and had no idea how opaque they would be. I should’ve mixed them with water or other medium (nowadays I use Golden acylic glazing liquid), but I just didn’t know any better at the time. So the Bible text was obscured quite a bit by the paint.

Not only that, but it just looked so sloppy. I was aiming for a grand “God creating the heavens and earth” look, but what I got was more like a hot mess.

THE SOLUTION: In this case, all I could do was scrape away as much of the still-wet blue paint as possible, and when I added the purple paint, I watered it down. As for the hot mess of it all? I think it actually was meant to be. In the process of Creation, God took nothingness and made a glorious universe. He made order out of chaos, so I love that this page depicts this chaotic paint madness, and then there’s God calmly forming the earth in all its majesty.

2) Smudges, smears, and ink running everywhere

I smudge things more often than I care to admit, but nothing quite so dramatic as the very first Bible journaling page I ever did. Back in 2016, in my brand new NIV Journal the Word Bible, I created this page on Psalm 150. I had no idea what I was doing, so I stamped the music notes, instruments, and “Praise the Lord” first, before watercolor painting the background. Big mistake! The watercolors smeared and blurred the musical images, and left me scrambling to figure out how to fix it.

THE SOLUTION: In a case like this, the best course of action is to just re-stamp or re-draw the smudged items. On this page, you can still see all the muddy ink halos around each music note and instrument, from the original stamp that got watered down by the watercolor paints. But it looks much better than it did.

3) Running out of space for letters or words

Such a common dilemma! I don’t know how many times I’ve underestimated how much space I needed to fit a particular word or phrase. In the Matthew 4:4 page pictured above, I ran out of space for the last letter of the word “depend”. And, in the 2 Peter 1 page below, I ran out of space for the ‘s’ in “promises”.

THE SOLUTION: It depends on the page… if you can let it spill over into the Bible text (as I did on the Matthew 4:4 “I will depend…” page), then that’s a good option. But if you’re journaling on the right hand page, and you literally run out of paper to write on, just drop a letter (or a few) down to the next line. Alternatively, you could attach a piece of paper to the edge of the page, and write on that.

4) Clashing colors/making the page too “busy”

If you’ve ever done something, and then thought “I should’ve known better”, then you can understand how I fell into this hot mess of a page on Hebrews 4:12. It was supposed to be a God-glorifying declaration of His Word, but instead it was eclipsed by the loud pink flowers in the background. It was just too much color clashing/too much going on, but I couldn’t just erase the pink flower background, so I pressed on…

THE SOLUTION: For a dilemma such as this, white paint can come in handy! To tone down the pink flowers in the background, I went in with an Uni Posca white paint pen and colored in parts of the image (like the cross) to make the stand out more against the flowers. In retrospect, I could’ve done more to cover up the flowers, but at the time I left it as is.

5) Wonky or lopsided spacing/centering

Sometimes, in spite of our best efforts, things still end up off-center or totally wonky. And that was definitely the case for this Philippians 4:8 page I did just recently! I was aiming to add the words “Think About Such Things” in a neat and tidy arch, and then put my notes below that. But alas, the arch ended up being totally lopsided and just looked weird.

And this kind of thing happens fairly often. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve messed up the spacing or centering of words in the margin, and had to figure out how to fix it. So, what can YOU do if you find yourself in this situation?

THE SOLUTION: Add an extra element of symbolism, to offset the wonky look, and create more balance! For this page, I found a cute little lightbulb stamp (very appropriate for the topic of thinking), and an arrow stamp, to add. The lightbulb made the arch look more balanced, and the arrow filled in the empty space below it nicely. (Both stamps are from the Creative Worship Stamps “Note This” stamp set).

So, when it comes to the inevitable Bible journaling mistakes, mishaps, and messes, you can see how there are plenty of ways to make the best of them! Sometimes, you can totally fix it; other times, there may be a lesson God can teach you through the mess. But either way, you don’t need to be afraid of screwing up. It happens to all of us! And just as God leads us through life’s mistakes, and works it all for our good (Romans 8:28), He does the same in our creative study of His Word. 🙏🏼