Christmas - alive and kicking

How do i know it's November? Because Christmas is here, alive and kicking! When I was a window dresser Display Artist way back in the 1960s, I knew that sure as eggs is eggs, Christmas started on November 6th as soon as Bonfire Night was over.

Having moved into a more honourable profession, I thought I could rest easy until December, but getting involved with a charity changes all that.

My main task at the moment is to sell 3,000 Christmas cards. I designed these (with a couple of other designs) way back in September but had to get the City Council Whips to agree the design (this is not the one I would have chosen - but there you go). At least we have sold 2,000 to the City Council for the Lord Mayor and the Council members, so the cost of production is now covered and all the proceeds go to the charity.

The design is the Town Hall in the snow. I had to do a lot of work with Photoshop to correct the distortion from having the photo taken by someone standing at ground level. Still, it hasn't turned out too bad.

The inside is quite plain with just the baubles and a few of our kids. The real problem has been that the shrink wrap the printers produced wasn't up to the necessary standard, so the local department store (who have been very helpful) said they couldn't put them on display. I had to buy clear self-seal packets and re-pack them myself. I still haven't finished.

But they do look a lot better now.

The other thing I've been working on are stained-glass tree and window decorations. i'm hoping they will sell at the Lady Mayoress's Coffee Morning in a couple of weeks time.

The easiest ones to make are probably the stars, because you can cut multiple glass shapes knowing they'll fit together pretty well. The difficulty I have is making neat loops for the tops.

The very straight Christmas tree is also fairly easy.

I rather like this 'loopy' tree, though it's awkward making the shapes fit tightly together because on of the colours of glass is 1mm thicker than the others.

The candles are my real favourites, though they take a lot of time. what I like is their 3-dimensional nature and the combination of cream wispy with the green water glass and red jewels.

This is the angel that got me started, though it's a bit of a fiddle with all the odd shapes.

I also like the crown. this was the first item for which I used my new glass saw.

Lots of colours and shapes

Ind hopefully the will sell...