Tutorial for background

First grab some magazines. Torn the black and white (written) pages. Glue the scraps to your surface. I use only white glue. When they are dry, rub a cloth with thinner (wear rubber gloves), till the letters are almost faded. Then rub the resulting background with wax bitumen. Polish it, then to the stitches with a liner and acrylic paint. You can do collage or decoupage or leave it as it is.
You can use color pages. The results are a little different. I used color pages on the envelope book and black and white on the journal.
Hope it helps.