I love CJs

I love taking part in CJs (Circle Journals, a kind of travelling scrapbook) - they force me to scrap photos and topics I wouldn't normally do, to try new techniques or colour schemes, and they generally stretch my creative imagination.

The CJ I am currently involved in is an "open theme" one, which means that each book has its own theme and that theme could be absolutely anything.  In today's case, the owner of the book has sent round some sets of photos of her dog, Leo, and has asked us to scrap them for her. 

As soon as I saw the photos of Leo on the beach, I knew I wanted to scrap them.  I knew I had papers and embellishments that would suit the theme and fancied playing around with texture too.  Initially I planned to use colour-cored cardstock and sand it, but I found I didn't have a suitable colour.  Then I thought of using paint.  This is the first time I've used paint directly on to a page before but I'm very pleased with the result

I'm fairly new to using acrylic paints so this was a real adventure for me.  Painting directly on to the page and them journalling and placing rub-ons over the top was a new departure but is one I will definitely be using again.  And I think the twine winding round the photos adds more texture - another technique I will use again.

The "beach party" label on the left-hand side started off as a plain chipboard piece.  I painted it with a pale blue acrylic paint then the brown; when dry, I sanded it to reveal some of the blue below, giving it a beachy, distressed look.  The "beach party" is a rub-on.

I hope she likes what I've done with her photos ...