Painted Book of Mormon (YW Activity)

We painted copies of the Book of Mormon for a young women activity! It takes about an hour and can be done with paint markers! These make great gifts and are a great way to let the creativity flow. This post contains affiliate links.

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PaintEd Book of Mormon

I was scrolling Facebook last year and saw a photo that the sister missionaries, serving in our area, shared of two copies of the Book of Mormon that they had painted. They were absolutely stunning! I knew my daughters would love to decorate their own copy too.

(Inspiration photos from our sweet sister missionaries)

We ended up doing it for a Young Women’s activity this week and it was a huge hit. Watching the young women visit and create was so neat.

Before the painting started we discussed some ways to make this copy of the Book of Mormon even more special than it already was. Many already have a set of scriptures so what would make this copy different? Here are some of the ideas shared:

• Write your testimony inside and give it to a friend.
• Take notes in the margins/journaling.
• Have your friends mark their favorite scripture inside and leave a note in the margin.
• Mark all of the references to Jesus Christ.
• Mark your favorite scriptures.

(Feel free to save our image above and use it as inspiration if your group does this activity, too!)

How To Paint a Book of Mormon

I reached out to the sister missionaries and asked if they had any tips or tricks for making this a successful activity for a large group of young women. They said that they used acrylic paints to create their designs (paint and brushes). I asked if they used anything to seal the covers from the paint wearing or chipping. They had been using their copies for over six months and said that they had held up great without being sealed, maybe a few areas that were starting to wear, but overall, they were happy with the results!

This was just what I wanted to hear. Simple, easy, can be done within an hour. The perfect activity! If you do want to seal the paint you can apply a thin coat of mod podge.

Supplies

• Acrylic paint markers (broad tip and fine tip)*
• Plastic table cloths
• Scrap paper
• Paperback copies of the Book of Mormon**

*The exact brand of acrylic paint pens that I used is out of stock so I linked to ones that are very similar and were actually rated higher than the ones I bought. I purchased 2 (24 count) packs of the larger markers and 24 fine-tipped markers.

**I asked our clerk to order the books for us and to take it out of the Young Women budget. They were about $3 each.

TIP: take time the day before the activity to prime each marker (shake each one so that the paint is ready and flowing out of the tip) and make sure each one works. We had two markers that were defective, so not too bad considering how many pens we had.

We used the seminary room that already had tables set up. We covered them in plastic tablecloths.

Each table had a cup of paint markers. Once the activity started they borrowed markers from other tables and it worked out well.

We used thick and fine-tipped markers. The markers were extremely user-friendly and dried quickly.

I had scrap paper to use as practice sheets. They could test out the markers and doodle the design before painting the Book of Mormon.

I printed off the photo of the ones the sister missionaries made so that the young women had an example. Many went onto their phones and looked up “painted bibles”, “painted Book of Mormons”, and “painted scriptures” and found inspiration there.

Didn’t they turn out beautiful?

The paint dried very quickly and each girl went home with a beautiful copy of the Book of Mormon.