Dani, that book sounds great!
I never had any luck with masking fluid until I got the Daniel Smith. It even comes with fine nibs to use and you can draw with it. I've had really good results, but I only use it for small detail work, I've not tried masking big areas.
The type of books I'm working on right now are very graphic novel like, so lots of ink and paint work, but not a lot of artistic experimentation. But I would love to try these techniques as I do hope to be able to do pictures books as well at some point.
Siski, those still look fab, if not totally the same!