Faux Chipboard

I've been participating in Trish B's Art Quest Challenges. I posted the my examples of the first two challenges back in September. This challenge was to create a page using the Faux Chipboard Technique. I decided to do this technique right in my altered journal, which gave me a little trouble.
I didn't have any fun foam shapes, so I made my own by punching out some shapes. I had to work to get the fun foam into the punches, but once in, they punched easily. I had run out of basic PVA glue, so I brushed Modge Podge over the page, hoping it would add texture later on, and attached the fun foam shapes with the Modge Podge.

The instructions said to next cover the entire surface with colored gesso. I didn't have any colored gesso. I mixed some red, brown & black acrylic paint and brushed it over my page.

Then, I covered the page with white gesso which turned the background I had made pink. I mixed up another batch of red, brown & black acrylic paints and brushed it over the surface, leaving a lighter area where I planned to add the technique instructions.

The next step was to highlight the fun foam images with a contrasting color of acrylic paints. I used gold on the fluer des lyes. I covered the vase with Lumiere's Met Olive Green paint, and heated with the heat gun to get a bubbly surface. I also rubbed in some gold acrylic paint into the background to soften it up. My problem at this stage: I no longer liked the vase on the page and was afraid if I took it off I'd have a huge whole. This is when I questioned my decision to work straight in my book.

I posted a picture of my work in progress to the Art Venture group to seek input. What a fantastic group! I was given lots of great ideas to think about, links to medieval scripts and the courage to just remove the dreaded (to me) vase. I have misplaced my x-acto knife, but found a seam ripper to be very useful in prying off the vase without a tearing a whole in the paper. I added some black ink to the edges of the pages to give them a little more definition. To finish the piece, I printed off an image of a medieval musical score, misted it, wrinkled it up, let it dry and attached it to the page with glaze; when dry I highlighted the wrinkles with gold pigment ink. I found a gorgeous Madonna stamp. I made a polished stone background on coated card stock and stamped the image over it. I then added gold leaf to the halo and highlighted parts of her dress with pinkish gold leaf, cut out the image layered it on black cs and placed her over some gold lacy ribbon on the music paper.

I added the instructions for the faux chipborad technique on the left page, added a quote and, for fun, cut down the vase and added it also. I like how it all turned out, thanks to my great art buddies!