I like your result and appreciate that you changed the coloring and texture use and left the text out to make your version different - I love the grungy/painty background you went with.
You did fantastic without the variations trick, but if you want to use it, it's in the Image->Adjustments->Variations menu (at least in CS5; not sure about other versions). It's not a separate layer, it works on a selected layer, so before using it you have to make a copymerged layer.

Thanks for reading! :>