Rise Up: illustrated faith review and tips

There hasn’t been a more perfect Illustrated Faith kit for me! “Rise Up” the new  Illustrated Faith kit by Dayspring was designed by Kristen Wolbach and it is a 14 day devotional. I love both her design style and the heart she shares in the pages of this study. I get to share some (affiliate) links below where you can purchase your own kit and let me tell you, you do not want to miss this one! Being a Pacific Northwest girl to the core made me appreciate the sunset, mountains and gorgeous overall design all the more. If you grab a kit be sure to let me know so we can share thoughts and entries.
I have read through the majority of the devotional and am now working my way through them on a more personal and in depth level. For me it is the best, the learning sinks in and I find myself growing the most,  when the things I am learning from the Lord collide and intersect so how cool is is that Day 2 in  Rise Up was all about being a witness, focused on Acts 1:8 and our church discussed “sharing the good news” and the same verse this past Sunday. I knew I had to dive into this one, now. I also knew I wanted to include the sun or the candle with the gorgeous sunset colors in this particular entry. In the end I love how it turned out and it served as a great blend of the two lessons I’ve been meditating on this week. It was fun to visually combine my church’s brand logo, the series logo, and the main point of this week’s message with the concepts discussed in Day 2 of the Rise Up devotional.

 

What I love about the new Rise Up kit:

  •  The Scriptures that Kristen chose.  There is great variety both and in their location in the Bible (Old and New Testament selections) and they are not all the same typical scriptures people often journal, plus the vary in length with some being a single verse and others an entire passage. Plus Wolbach used a variety of translations which I just love.
  •  I feel like the prompts and questions take you to a deep level with what you’ve read, and are not just face value. She asks you to really dive in, and the prompts help you to do so.
  •  The connections Kristen drew between the Scripture and her own personal reflections are strong, easy to follow, and inspiring.
  •  I love the design of this kit. Both that it is watercolor and also sort of has a sketchy feel.  It is challenging me artistically.
  •  I loved the design elements like the watercolor splatter, that almost looks cosmic, on the black alpha stickers; I love the sunset colored washi; and the universality of the acrylic stamps. Overall she ties the elements of nature beautifully and subtly together in this kit and I’m finding so much inspiration in that fact. The sunset tonight, on our second really warm day here in the Pacific Northwest, was awe inspiring and I am excited to create it on the pages of my Bible this week using the supplies in this kit!

What I was missing with this kit:

  •  I definitely missed getting a stamp pad in the kit. (I think the trade off was two pages of lovely stickers) It’s just that I love the stamp pad often directs a color scheme or allows me to have some consistency in coloring between entries, I just missed it this time around.
  • While I love the little magnetic bookmarks I miss some of the simpler and crafty “clippys” they used to include in kits. Mostly because I found the magnetic bookmarks are a bit heavy for the pages of my Bible, and I loved the crafty homemade feel of the clips with ribbon or fabric. I do love using these magnetic ones in the devotional booklets though – they are perfect for that. Maybe I just haven’t found the perfect way to use them yet… They are so cute, just a tad heavy for my Bible pages.

 

I will say those seem like really small things to point out. I also read another review that mentioned keeping your washi inside the small plastic bag it comes packaged in so that it doesn’t gum up your plastic zipper tote or other supplies. I thought that was a great tip.

In this entry I used the gorgeous sunset color schemed washi tape that says “be true” and “speak life” which is so beautiful and totally reusable beyond just this study – LOVE this fact.  I used a sticker from the second sticker pad, the circle at the bottom that said “witness” which was perfect for day 2. I added a Scripture reference and some sketchy outlines to make it pop on my page. I adore the black, cosmic inspired, alpha stickers way more then I anticipated. I love that when using these the words then are BOLD and noticeable on my page.

Before I go I also wanted to include a couple of tips for how I find time to journal in my Bible despite having three munchkins four and under and lots of life to live! I try to read for a few minutes each morning, I take my books or in this case my traveler’s notebook with my devotional in it, with me everywhere. I just fit it in when I can. Yes I’ve even stolen moments in the bathroom.

In Shanna Noel’s book 10 Ways to Learn to Love Your Bible and Stay in Love she talks about making a plan for the week  before it begins and to set out an idea for how/what you will journal each day. I loved this idea and have used it quite a bit. For example this week I said…

Sunday I will journal sermon notes when I get home from church.

Monday I will use my illustrated faith devotional.  (totally cool that this week Sunday and Monday were linked!)

Tuesday I will select a single Scripture passage to journal.

Wednesday I will journal  what we discussed in Bible study.

Thursday I want to listen to worship music to be inspired.

Friday I will be on the go so I’ll just take some pens and be inspired by what our schedule holds.

Saturday I will use to reflect on what I learned this week and create an entry.

That’s just a quick sample of how I might orchestrate a week of journaling. I also don’t force myself to journal every day in fact if I get one or two entries completed in a week I would feel great about that. I don’t hesitate to start an entry even though I may not be able to finish it. I figure just like my faith these entries are a work in progress.

I hope you’ll check out the  Rise Up  kit and grab one for yourself. Maybe even snag the book too, it was a huge help in breaking down barriers in my Bible reading and journaling life. In fact it really challenged me to stop making excuses and gave me practical ideas for how to get creating, reading, reflecting, growing, and learning. If you want to see a full, but brief, unboxing of the kit watch my video here.

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