Journal - inspired by Sam and Lin

Hi, this week has been a bumper week of goodness at Paperartsy and we were surprised and wowed  when my good friend Sam appeared on Wednesday with an Oriental-themed tag here  and delighted again on Friday when Lin Brown made a washi-tape background hanging piece here 

I knew I wouldn't have time to do both (having been very lazy all week!) so have combined elements of both into a journal page.
As ever, my background is leftover paints from previous projects, this was the Lin Brown limited edition Fresco's so very apt for the new challenge... I stamped the scratchy rectangle stamp in black over the whole page, and added white Sharpie pen highlights, as in Sam's background.

 From here I went with the Lin "mash up" and the tulip idea - I don't have the same stamp plate Lin used, but in hindsight I think this is for the best, as it would have been too busy on my background.  I stamped and cut out several tulips and stems from ELB03. using Cornflower Blue archival ink, which is reflected in part of the background

 I only ended up using 3 in the end, but first I added some of Tim's tissue tape and blended it into the background with some watered down Chartreuse Fresco. (this also seals it to the page a little, as I've almost run out of matte medium)

 I stamped one of the sayings from ELB05 and cut the words out separately and edged in Black Soot, which I also used for the flowers.  After I'd finished, I remembered Lin's trick of using a small dabber for this which would have been much easier!

I used 3d mounts for some of the words, and stuck some straight to the page, so there was some difference in relief.

I really had fun with this, so thanks to Sam and Lin, for the inspiration!

Entering the Paperartsy challenge, here