Memories of Christmas Past!

I thought you'd like to see the finished brooch! I love it! I think we'll have to get started on another one for mummy to keep!We baked piles of snowflakes for the end of term class treat!
I just LOVE hologram flakes - so pretty and sparkly!
And with the end of term our thoughts turned to family Christmas cards. With the exception of a couple of years when life has been particularly tricksy, we have always made our own cards.
I thought I would share with you some of the ones we made in years gone by!
Time was, I designed and painted all of our cards by hand .... who knew I'd ever be so busy I would no longer have time to do this?!!
This one was from 1991 - everyone received a slightly different colourway or pattern of fruits
This is a favourite - from 1992, the year I graduated Art college.
Not sure when this one happened.
Then I started my first 'career' job in 1994 and look! A monoprint, re-produced by copier but still hand tinted! I can remember us sitting and doing dozens of these at the dining table! Probably fuelled by the props from the picture! It was called 'Christmas Essentials'! What else did a girl need?
This one reflects my love of all things Green Man, a figure well represented in local monuments and especially Norwich Cathedral. My chap is a bit more festive than most!
This one from 2000 may well have been gin fuelled as well. The eagle eyed will notice a slight issue with the foliage on one of those trees ... given the time of year?! By this time we were using a scanner to enable me to print as many copies as we needed. The days of truly hand made cards were wiped out by a demanding career and a house building project!
And then .....WHAM!
As any parent will recognise, our priorities changed in 2001.
The only image we could imagine showing all of our friends and family was that of our darling baby boy!

... the 'B' side of this card was sent to a more exclusive list!

Ooh look - he made it onto gift tags too!
And the trend was set from here on....His first Nativity..
His first Nativity as Joseph.
His reindeer impersonation!
I know...parents! What can you do with them? They're obsessed with their children!
And this is 2008!

Merry Christmas everyone!

And all the very, very best for 2009.

Now, I'm off to play with my baubles! But that's another post entirely!
Don't forget you still have time to enter my Puppy giveaway and Good Luck to everyone who has taken part so far!
An especially big thank-you to Vintage Magpie who gave me the biggest laugh I've had in ages by asking to be included in the giveaway.....with an anonymous comment! HA! Glad we sorted that one out!
t.xxx