Rusted Book Cover How-To

I've had a few people ask me how I achieved this rusted effect for my book cover.  Unfortunately, I didn't take photos while I was doing.  Fortunately, there are several ways to get a similar effect and other people have made videos. 

You could probably achieve this look with water-based products, but the steps would be different.  The techniques here are based around acrylic paints.

I'll write down the exact steps I took and products I used, but you can get to a similar look if you have:
a dark surface--for instance, black cardstock or paper covered with black gesso or black paint
Yellowy Green OR Teal paint
Orange, Yellow, and Brown Paint  OR reddish-brown and yellow paint
Optional: Something to add pebbly texture and something to add glimmer or sheen
Optional: Ephemera and embellishments, such as chipboard, resin, stickers, etc.

Links to various method tutorials:

Cheap & Easy
Dave Lowe Design Faux Rust Painting -Quick, Easy and Cheap video
Creating Faux Rust ~ DIY with Iron paint and cinnamon

More complicated, but cooler
Terri Sproul's Rusty Metal Technique video
Shoshiplatypus Rust Effect video
 

My Supplies
Stillman & Birn Zeta Sketchbook Hardbound (5.5x8.5in/14.0x21.6 cm)
UmWow Chipboard: Layered Squares, Layered Clouds
Transparent Gesso
Golden Fluid Acrylics:
     Iridescent Micaceous Iron Oxide
     Teal
     Quinacridone Burnt Orange
     Hansa Yellow medium
Golden Coarse Pumice Gel
Polymer Medium gloss
Paper clock cut-out
Pattern paper flower with resin center
Resin ship
Make-up sponges
Palette knife

I used make-up sponges to apply the paint and a palette knife to apply the coarse pumice gel.

Process
My Stillman&Birn sketchbook has a black cover, but a hatched texture so I primed it with clear gesso. 

Once that dried I painted the cover with Micaceous Iron Oxide.  I like it because it has some tooth, and also a metallic glitter.

Once the Oxide paint was dry, I painted on the teal.  The teal is pretty opaque, so I left small areas bare, and spread it thinly in other areas.  This I also let dry.

I used Polymer gel to glue down the chipboard, flower, and resin embellishments, and then spread Coarse Pumice gel at random.  I layered it around and partially over the embellishments, and let it set for a couple of hours.

For the last step, I sponged on quite a bit of Quinacridone Burnt Orange, and small areas of Hansa Yellow medium (which I worked into the Quin Burnt Orange).  I left lots of the teal and some of the Micaceous Oxide showing.

For the back, I repeated these steps, except that I didn't add any embellishments or coarse pumice gel. (The back isn't quite done.  I ran out of Quin Burnt Orange.)

I also repeated the process on a two-page spread in the book, sans embellishments or coarse pumice gel.

 

So that's it! Have fun rusting your bright and shiny new stuff, lol!