I chose to work on the front cover and page of my current art journal. I knew the cover would be fully covered, solving a long-standing problem of how to get rid of the black.

Swipe an antistatic pad over the page, stamp with embossing ink and cover with ultra-high embossing powder, tapping the excess off. Heat set and allow to cool.

On the facing page, I stuck down some laser-cut PVC-free black vinyl. From previous use, I know it is laminated and much thicker than standard vinyl and thus ideal for this use. Any colour will do, as would thick card.

Now cover the whole spread with self-adhesive aluminium tape (available from Amazon or DIY shops). I smoothed down with a microfibre cloth – no scratches and the toweling pushed into the crevices nicely. Try and butt the edges against one another rather than overlapping.

Now create the glaze. I mixed 5ml acrylic gloss varnish with 2.5ml flow medium, 5 drops of fluid acrylic colour (look for ‘transparent’ pigments) and 5 drops of coordinating fluid interference paint. Stir well and randomly apply with a paintbrush. Dry with a heat tool and repeat with other colours.

If you wait a little before drying, the flow medium allows the glaze to fan out a little (more like a watercolour than an acrylic) and soften the brush strokes. Here’s a close-up of the left-hand side after colour glaze application and drying.

Expect the glaze to take a little longer than normal to dry – it’s on a non-porous surface and the flow medium also seems to slow drying times. I found the glaze to be a bit tacky, especially when warm, but it dries nicely.

Finally, stencil snowflakes around the edges using a make-up sponge with thick white acrylic paint.

Because you’re working over (dry) varnish, if you muck up the stencil, quickly wipe the white paint off with a damp cloth, briefly dry with a heat tool and try again with the stencilling.

The gloss varnish finish, iridescence of the interference pigments and the underlying aluminium certainly make for a shiny finish – which is a pig to photograph. I like the contrast with the matte white-painted snowflakes.