Mid Century Christmas Wishes

One of my favorite children's book illustrators are the husband-wife team of Martin and Alice Provensen. They also did a wonderful set of screen printed Christmas cards illustrating the 12 Days of Christmas. The cards were done in the 1960's and I've been looking for them to purchase for a number of years. This year, I got (half) lucky. Etsy seller Finds of the Attic had 6 of the cards for sale. Now, to find the rest of the series!

There still some sets from Finds in the Attic available - buy your own here.

Santa is Exhausted

Too many presents to wrap and deliver, too many cookies...Santa deserves a break.

Vintage Christmas

Holiday Treats on Spoonflower

This week's challenge on Spoonflower was "Holidays around the World".  I chose Holiday Treats - mugs of hot cocoa (or hot toddy?) candy canes, and gingerbread cookies because nothing says the holidays like lots of yummy food! You can vote for this week's challenge here.

hand painted in gouache on bristol

the final repeat design

Since Spoonflower not only prints fabric but also gift wrap, I ordered some for the holidays.

Christmas 2017 (and 1953!)

Some favorite vintage Christmas illustrations from the book
Favorite Christmas Songs and Stories The Big Treasure Book of Christmas
Illustrated by Dellwyn Cunningham
Published 1953 by Wonder Books, NY. (a division of Grossest & Dunlap, Inc.)

New Product

I've been getting ready for a few shows - this coming weekend is the Holiday Market in Ojai, California - and so I've been madly making things. In addition to my lavender sachets, I made some filled with balsam pine for the holidays. The pomegranate image is from my 2016 calendar and the bird is from last year's calendar. The sachets are available in my Etsy shop.

I also finished some new holiday cards which will go to my shows.

Merry Merry

Holiday Card 2014

It's Christmas!

My holiday card for 2012 using my collection of wood letterpress type and tiny ornaments.
Happy Holidays!

Holiday Decorating

I love holiday decorations and here are a few that I have set up on my desk so I can admire them for the season.

The two snow globes are hand made by myself ( a really easy project using an old jar, plastic or ceramic decorations, oven bake clay like Fimo or Sculpey, water, glycerin and glitter). The pottery snowman was purchased from One Clay Bead on Etsy. I found the dyed trees in a local shop and the crochet covered rock was purchased from Hallo Jak at a local craft show. The fox card in the background was designed by British artist Claire Curtis and was published by Art Angels.

Holiday Cards

Holiday cards that I've saved (and sent) over the years.

1. Bowerbox Press
2. Hello Lucky
3. Vintage (unmarked)

4. Designed by Sarah Young for Robot Design Ltd 
5. American Greetings (vintage)
6. Illustrated by Esther Wragg, Wragg Designs for Woodmanstearne Publications

7. Illustrated by Claire Heminsley, Wragg Designs for Woodmanstearne Publications 
8. Papyrus
9. Illustrated by Gustave Baumann (German 1881-1962) Art Institute of Chicago

It's Begining to Feel Like Christmas

It's just over a week until Christmas. My gifts are all wrapped and ready for shipping. My Christmas cards are half written. I finally have some time for my poor, neglected blog. I'll be posting Christmasy things, and the first is this vintage book. "The Friendly Beasts" was written by Laura Nelson Baker and illustrated by Nicolas Sidjakov (a Latvian-born illustrator who won the 1961 Caldecott Medal for Illustration for "Babushka and the Three Kings"). The book is copyrighted 1957 and the illustrations are done in the groovy colors of pink, orange and avocado green with black line art. Enjoy!

Christmas Day Greetings

The colors of this Christmas book are not very traditional, but fit Southern California where today it's 75 degrees and sunny.

The book dates from 1958 and was published by Viking Press. The illustrator, Ilonka Karasz was well known for her New Yorker magazine covers. She also illustrated another holiday book, "The Twelve days of Christmas". Perhaps I'll buy that next year.

Vintage Christmas

Here are a few vintage Christmas cards from my collection. They date from the 1920's to about the 1960's.