Art Journaling At FSC

Hello folks, hope you're all having a lovely weekend so far. We actually have some sunshine for the second day in a row and it's not quite so chilly today. I'm hoping this keeps up as today is the last day before a short family break. We're all off to Bournemouth for a few days with the in laws so the next few days will be scheduled posts which I hope will pop up as planned.
Today sees the start of a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and it's been quite a challenge for me as Ellie picked something I've never done before, Art Journaling, and it took me a while to pluck up the courage to start something.
In the end, I decided to start a journal to show what inspires me as the ladies on my classes and my crafty friends often ask me where my inspiration comes from and it's very difficult to explain the way my brain works lol. My first page includes some of the elements that set my creative juices flowing and you'll have to let me know what you think.

I've created my page on an A4 sheet of watercolour paper because I couldn't find a journal with strong enough pages so will be binding my pages together when I have enough.
I made the background with Distress Stains - Crushed Olive, Shabby Shutters, Mustard Seed, Squeezed Lemonade, Tattered Rose and Victorian Velvet. I then stamped on the wild flowers (Artifacts by The Stamp Bug) with Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint and Wild Honey Distress inks.
I added a border round the edge with Vintage Photo (Andy Skinner Batik Garden). I then stamped the butterfly from the set with Archival Coffee ink together with some of the butterflies from the Crafty Individuals Elements set CI - 231. I coloured the large butterfly with Spiced Marmalade DI and then cut them all out.
I stamped the background stamp from the Batik set with Worn Lipstick and Vintage Photo DIs then coloured it with Victorian Velvet. I trimmed the image, distressed the edges and inked them with the Vintage Photo.
I stamped the text from the set with the coffee ink, tore this out and distressed the edges further. I die cut a doily (Papermania) from some Craftwork Cards kraft printed paper and assembled everything as you see, distressing the edges of the page.
As you can see, I couldn't resist some layering on the page, although it isn't heavy so should hopefully be Ok when I finally assemble the pages (when I've done them, that is!)

We have a fantastic guest designer with us for this challenge, the amazing Kate Crane, whose journaling I'm sure you're familiar with. The Fashionettes have also risen to the challenge with some gorgeous creations so do hop over for a look.
As always, our sponsor, the lovely Leo of Flonzcraft, is offering a fabulous $20 voucher to his online shop so do enter if you can.

A hello from me here to my lovely new followers and thanks for deciding to be here.
I'll be back next Saturday hopefully renewed from the break and I know I'll be raring to create again!

Before I go, I would like to say a huge thanks to the team at Stamping Sensations as I found out on Friday that I won the March challenge with a prize of rather a lot of fantastic Crafty Individuals stamps and did a happy dance when I saw this. Thanks ladies!
Hugs,
Fliss xx