Playing with layers

My friend Dana is always talking about layers of paint, so I thought I would play around with layering. This technique came from "Altered Books Workshop" by Bev Brazelton. Although the book is pretty rudimentary and geared toward beginners, I never read a book I don't learn something from. What I learned from this book was the secret to layers of glazes and paint is to first use a warm color, then a cool, alternating so you don't get a muddy look. You can also begin with a cool, then add a warm, as long as you don't put a warm over warm.

The book is too large to scan in one pass, so I scanned both sides for a better view. Click on any photo for a better view.
I began this layout, which is not for a Vintage book, but for my Time book, which I feel I've put off for far too long, by applying some beige transluscent glaze. I added some scraps (trying to lessen the mountain of paper bits in my studio) using a glue stick. The next layer was green, which I felt was too dark for the page. I didn't help much when I added even more scraps, then layered it with burnt sienna glaze. Before adding the focal image on this page (left side), I glazed over it with beige glaze, then attached it to the page. I then dipped my finger in a pale blue glaze, then a dark blue glaze, and added these one at a time. The green was still overpowering, so I added beige glaze over everything. I allowed it to dry overnight.

This morning I looked for some little gold wedding bands I know I have. While looking, I stumbled onto these gold rings mixed in with my gold buttons. The scale seemed good, so I added them to the page using E6000. I first laid them out along the strip to the left of the picture, but didn't like that there were only two, so decided to place them under the sign and above each person. I still didn't like how there was an even number, so I freehand cut three hearts and placed them below the couple. I then glazed over them using first beige, then burnt sienna, then blue.
For the wedding announcement, I used burnt sienna before adding it to the page with glue stick. I thought the page was too boring, so I found the die cut cupid, but it was cut from a soda/pop can and the front side was aluminum. Once again I got out my glazes and used all the colors from the page. When I placed it on the page, it blended in too well. So I lightened part of the area which would be behind the die cut, then outlined part of the die cut with gold leafing pen. Finally, I attached it using E6000.