Vintage Hungarian Christmas cards #90

And again a Mikulás, St Nicholas card because this morning the good children will find many goodies in their boots. 

The text is the same as on my yesterday's card: Greetings from Saint Nicholas. But here the children were dressed in Hungarian folk costume. So I'm sure this card was not printed in Germany or Italy, it's a Hungarian card and the sign, "Zsolt" which is a typical Hungarian name confirms this. 

I have no idea when it was sent because the big portion of the postmark was removed when they removed the stamp. I guess sometime in the early 1940s.

You can find my other vintage Christmas cards, just click on the label - old Christmas cards - on the sidebar.

Vintage Hungarian Christmas cards #89

According to the Hungarian tradition, during the night of December 5, St Nicholas goes from house to house to put tiny gifts to the children's shiny and clean boots. This is why, today I would like to show you a "Mikulás" card, a St Nicholas card. The text means greetings from St Nicholas.

This card was sent in 1927, I guess. The postmark is not so clear or visible but the stamp they used was published from 1926-1928. 

You can find my other vintage Christmas cards, just click on the label - old Christmas cards - on the sidebar.

Mini treat boxes decorated with Santa

Every year, for Saint Nicolas/St Nicholas (Mikulás in Hungarian) and for Christmas I prepare tiny handmade gifts filled with chocolate for my daughter, Eszter's friends.

Here are some samples from the last years, if you click here and here.

And voilà, here are the latest handmade gifts.

For these little boxes, I used the Sizzix Thinlits die, Milk Carton box die (658823) and a beautiful turquoise paper with gold dots that I bought in Thionville (France) in the Culrura shop. 

The Santas are part of the Jingle All The Way (MFT, Birdie Brown) stamp set. I stamped the images with Tsukineko Memento (Rich Cocoa) ink on Neenah Solar White paper and coloured them with Copic Sketch markers. 

The little bells are from the past years Lindt Santa Chocolate.

For taking these pictures, I placed to books behind the boxes so you can see or imagine better the sizes of the boxes.

With my treat boxes I would like to join the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Fun with dies

Thank you for stopping by!!! Happy crafting!!!

Christmas tag with Tim Holtz St. Nick

Oh my god, it was two years ago when I last used Tim's St. Nick die! What a shame! Because I have many reasons to use it! For example here is one reason, I have a nearly 11 years old daughter who is still a believer! I don't want to exaggerate to say that at home there is a personality cult of Santa but he is a very special person to us :-)

And the other reason, I love this die!

About my tag I have to explain two things. I'm a collector of vintage Christmas postcards. If you like vintage postcards maybe you know that Santa's image was often accompanied with holly branches. And the other thing is, before the Coca-Cola's Santa spread all over the world, Santa was often represented in other colours than red, e.g. blue, brown and purple. This is why I made my St. Nick with purple hat.

For making this tag, I used 4 colours of Ranger inks, Pine Needle, Evergreen Bough, Mowed Lawn and Walnut Stain to the edges.

Then with the Holly Bough stencil and DecoArt Metallics Oyster Pearl I made holly branches on my tag.

The basic of my St. Nick is felt, as the hat and other parts too, except the face.

I also put some glitter powder to the white felt parts.

With my St. Nick Tag I would like to join the following challenges:

A Vintage Journey: Winter Magic

Monday Challenge of Simon Says Stamp: Christmas Gifts

Stamps&Stencils: Christmas Wishes


P.S.: Wooohooo! My tag was spotlighted on the Monday Challenge of the Simon Says Stamp! Many thanks for the Monday Challenge DT who liked my make!

Vintage Hungarian Christmas cards #27

This one is a Saint Nicholas card! Not a Christmas card but a postcard for December 6th! Greetings from Saint Nicholas (Üdvözlet a Mikulástól).

It was posted in 1936.

You can find my other postcards under the label: 'old Christmas card'.

Vintage Hungarian Christmas cards #21

As I promised, I'm here to continue my series that I started last year to show you my collection of vintage Hungarian postcards.

This is a new piece in my collection and it was advertised as a vintage Polish Christmas card :-) Luckily I knew it wasn't Polish!

It was posted in 1935 and it was sent to Belgium.

What I really like in this card that Santa pulls the Wain as he put his presents on it.

You can find my other cards under the label: 'old Christmas cards'.

Aged decoupage box with Santa and kids

Here I am again with another aged decoupage box for Christmas or for St. Nicolas (December 6th)!

To make this box I had to use masking sheet after gluing the main image and I had to paint the background by myself. I had to make the sky, the snowfall and the snow on the ground too.

The snow on the ground was created by snow pen and it became quite embossed. 

It's soon December and I will start again to show you my vintage Hungarian Christmas postcards. Each day I will bring you one as I did it last year!

Oh, and tomorrow there will be a new challenge at the Country View Challenges blog!

So see you soon!

Vintage Hungarian Christmas cards #2

I am here again with my second vintage, Hungarian Christmas postcard.

On this card you can see the same Santa/Saint Nicolas like on the postcard yesterday. But here the scene is different. 

In this case, Santa is at the staircase with a boy and a girl. He also wears a red robe, a mitre and he has a crook too. 

The card dates from about 1930-40.

Tomorrow I come again!

You can find my other cards under the label: 'old Christmas cards'.

Vintage Hungarian Christmas cards #1

I have been collecting the vintage Christmas postcards for nearly 20 years now. I have no idea how many pieces are in my collection. Each December I take them out, I admire them but after I carefully put them back to their metal box to avoid to get some damage.

Before the university I worked in a library, after the university I worked in the Archive of the Hungarian Radio so    I can say that cataloguing is quite familiar to me.

Well, I have decided that each day I will take a picture of a  Christmas-St. Nicolas/Santa postcard and I will show you here.

My first piece is a St. Nick card (Mikulás): Greetings from St.Nick 

On this card St. Nick dressed in a classical or a traditional outfit: red robe, mitre, crook. He gives some biscuits and maybe an apple to the children.

The card dates from about 1930-40.

Tomorrow I come again!

You can find my other cards under the label: 'old Christmas cards'.

Sizzix - Retro Santa greeting card

Sizzix - Carte de voeux avec Père Noël 

Here's my latest Santa card. 

For the basic of the card I used a rectangle die and a nearly turquoise coloured cardstock.

The red and white paper was downloaded from a webpage that I printed on a 120 grammes paper. If you want this free striped paper, click here.

For the Santa I used the Sizzix Retro Christmas Framelits Die and Stamp Set by Tim Holtz. I attached the Santa with 3D adhesive to the card.

I wrote a Hungarian St. Nick song to a text editor and I printed it. I cut out the text with rounded rectangle die. I coloured the edges with a sponge and stamp inks.

The date is 06.12. because in Hungary Santa/St.Nick/Saint Nicolas arrives this day and on Christmas Eve the Little Jesus or the Angels bring the present for the kids. The numbers were cut out with Tim Holtz Sizzlits Die (Wanted).

The holly leaves were cut out with an embosslit die of Stephanie Barnard. 

What I used:

Sizzix Framelits Die and Stamp Set, Retro Christmas by Tim Holtz (659377) - from this the Santa figure

Sizzix Framelits Die, Rectangle (658610)

Sizzix Framelits Die, Rectangle (657908)

Sizzix Sizzlits Alphabet Die (WANTED) by Tim Holtz (658554)

Sizzix Embosslits Die, Holly and Berries by Stephanie Barnard (658200)

rhinestones

3D adhesive and Pritt Stift

Tsukineko Memento and Ranger Distress ink pads

cardstocks

And here is the French version of this greeting card with the refrain of the French Christmas song, the "Petit Papa Noël". 

Christmas decoration on mantelpiece

Yesterday I changed the decoration on the mantel and I put  there all the things from last year. Later I may do something more sophisticated, but for the moment copying the tested decoration is perfect enough.

The stocking holders are used, silver-plated Pottery Barn pieces I have bought at Ebay.

The Christmas stockings from the Pottery Barn Kids.

I put emptied IKEA glass, scented candle holders (TINDRA) with tea lights. This is ideal as background lighting. 

The two silver-plated candle holders are from Hungary. My daughter got them from her grandparents.

For us the Christmas stockings play role on 6th of December when Saint Nicholas comes and visits us. In Hungary Saint Nicholas (Mikulás) puts his presents into the well cleaned children’s boots which stand on the window sill. 

I remember how carefully we shined our boots with my sister and how excitedly we waited the old chap who was our mother of course. She always had to put a lot of stuff next to our boots since girl boots are not big enough. 

Our Christmas stockings are definitely much bigger and in this case I’m in trouble every year to fill it thoroughly with presents. 

The difference between a PBK stocking and a girl's boot

Christmas lampshade for kids' room

Hi! I’m here again with my other lampshade design. I made this for Christmas into my daughter’s room. 

I used plain IKEA lampshades and paper napkins with pull puppet Santa/Father Christmas figures. This paper napkin is not just funny but seeing the puppet’s movement is playful as well. 

I cut out the Santa shapes from the napkin, I rid of two layers from the three, so I used only the coloured top layer. I glued on the surface with decoupage glue and a flat brush. Be careful, this layer is very delicate and breakable.

I put gold paint gently around the motives with a sponge. In the end, I covered the motives with a little lacquer. 

I made an extra lampshade too, which goes to my shop. 

An antique postcard, a paper napkin and a French cheese box

Do you know the IHR (Ideal Home Range) Christmas paper napkin? You can see Santa/Father Christmas in red suit with children around him. The title of the napkin is: Victorian Father Christmas. Beautiful! The original picture was supposedly made by K. (Karl) Röger around 1895.

The IHR napkin: Victorian Father Christmas

Many years ago, I bought a pocket from this paper napkin and when I was in creative mood, I applied one of them on a French cheese box which just got empty. 

My first decoupage box with this motive

My other hobby is collecting vintage Christmas postcards and when I was searching the internet, I was astonished to find a postcard with the same picture with the text “Joyeux Noël” on it. It was so miraculous that I bought it immediately. It has only one defect - someone has written the date 1909 on the picture with a marker (what a barbarism!) although the date was clearly visible on the cancellation of the stamp. For all that this is my most precious piece of my collection. In the corner of the postcard there is the monogram: K. R.

The vintage Christmas postcard 

Another cheese box