A collage of dyed newspaper, painted Bondaweb, transfer foil, net, machine stitch and a fab piece of squashed metal by Carolynn McMillan Christmas is a great time to make and receive cards. I thought I would share two that I received - I just love them. Carlolynn McMillan lives in Canada and we have been emailing for a while trying to sort out which of the Pellon products in Canada and the U.S.A.are similar to the ones I sell. We have swapped parcels of goodies and I think I prefer all the 'pelmet' Vilene interfacings that I sell as they are smooth. The ones that Carolynn sent me are bit rough and pock marked. However I am sure there must be a larger range available so I will investigate. Carolynn also sent me some 'Reemay' which looks very similar to a fine to medium weight Vilene Spunbond. I need a chance to play with it to see if it reacts in the same way. I am waiting to hear back from Carolynn to see what she thinks of all my samples . . . I posted mine a

Newspaper faux chenille book by Jen Henley My happiness is now complete - someone has sent some of their own work to me to show you - well done Jen!!! Wonderful though all my samples are, it is much more interesting to see what other people do with these techniques. This is the email Jen sent -  Love your Facebook page. Re your post about faux chenille, I have attached some photos inspired by you. Love your new book and the faux chenille with newspaper really appealed.   I had a stash of newspaper used for ironing off soya from fabric.  It had been painted with Koh-i-Noor (using a wide brush and the whole palette, lovely mucky colour). Followed your instructions and machined the newspaper onto a base of painted Vilene Spunbond/Lutradur that I had lying around. Was ecstatic with the finished piece and turned it into a book cover, using faggoting stitch to join the edges of the spine with a natural linen thread. Decided that the book needed home made paper so made a batch of