I chose to work on the back cover and last page of my current A5-sized art journal. The cover will be fully covered, a much easier way to get rid of the black than painting over it.

Select glossy magazine pages/pieces and trial their placement before sticking them down. I used double-sided tape over the whole surface to avoid glue buckling issues, completely forgetting I had a tub of YES! glue which would have done the job as well.

You need to find quality glossy mags – I used the RHS Garden magazine. Close-set text will also work for this as well as full-page photos. The more inked the page, the better.

I made sure the magazine pieces overlapped the edge of the journal so that I could trim them closely with a knife.

Check everything is firmly stuck down and dry before continuing.

Remember to use an antistatic pad first, then stamp, powder and emboss with clear gloss embossing powder. Build up a pattern.

Silhouettes and filled-in shapes will work best. Fine lines are a no-no. I also used Versamark applied with a makeup sponge through a stencil to build up my embossed elements.

It’s hard to see, but on the right side, there are glossy raised areas. They are the heat-embossed stamped images and will resist the Brasso step.

Using small pieces of Brasso wadding and circular movements, start rubbing over the page. The Brasso will lift the ink on unembossed areas.

Rub harder to remove more and increase the contrast between protected and unprotected areas. Use less pressure if you want to fade the two into each other.

The wadding will fill with ink, so keep moving it around to find a clean bit until it all has been used up.

Once you have all the areas polished clean of ink, double-check the contrast, remove more ink as necessary and then give the page a quick waft with a heat tool to blow off any remaining polish solvents.

Using archival inks and grungy stamps, add background elements to the uninked areas, using your preserved areas as a guide to your choice of colour palette.

A quick waft of a heat tool will set the ink to the paper and then a brisk polish with a clean cloth will remove any overstamped ink from the embossed areas.

I increased the contrast around the ‘CREATE’ by smearing over white acrylic paint, waiting for a minute or so for the paint to dry on the paper before wiping it off the embossing with a damp cloth/wipe.

As a final touch, I added some distress ink around the edges for a vignette effect.