Free Summer Santa Stationery Set

While it's cold here in Colorado as December rolls around... (and I imagine Santa is busy making toys up at the North Pole) - we forget here that sometimes Santa just needs a holiday - or as noted to our team back when I was contracting at office.microsoft.com - yes, Christmas does happens during the summer in some parts of the world...!  And so, in an effort to show Santa in warmer climes, I went to work on a summer-inspired set of Christmas stationery. 

The Summer Santa Stationery Set offers images of Santa chilling at the beach with a cool drink, relaxing under the shade of the local palm tree, also visited by, you guessed it, a crab called Sandy Claws. The set for Word 2007 (or later versions) contains everything you need for festive entertaining, and offers the following - 1) Gift Certificate, 2) Stationery, 3) Party Menu, 4) Party Invitation, 5) Thank-you Cards, 6) Large Gift Tags (Placeholders), 7) Small Gift Tags (Address Labels) and 8) Letter Envelopes.


Download the entire set for free and customize in both color and content.  (Note - these were items created while working with the Microsoft Office extensive library of free clip-art... to create content for the free download template library). For this project the goal was to highlight Word 2007's ability to create themes that allows you change color palettes at the touch of a button. And was constructed from items available in their free MS Clip Art Library particularly: MS Clip Art - Style 1450.

If you are interest in using using clip art in this manner, you might study this earlier post that offers an instructional blog entry. And for more holiday-themed downloads (for both Halloween and Christmas) that are free from Microsoft, by designer Robert Aaron Wiley, please check out the Bindlegrim website for Free Stuff! 

Grim Happy Outtakes (ILMO El Sr. Muerto)

Here are some early shots and outtakes from the photographic story of Christmas Gnomes from the original 2001 version of The Grim Happy Christmas  --- with a special tribute to the late great El Sr. Muerto:

In 2001 the part of the villain in The Grim Happy Christmas was played by a chain smoking Day of the Dead character (who was known to always play his roles with a sombrero and a cactus backdrop).

This scene (above) taken on a wet rainy day in Seattle and from the original book was redone for the 2011 version with a different actor. The original actor, I believe is listed on IMDB as the late El Sr. Muerto.

Above is an early unused behind-the-scene photograph of Red Hob and El Sr. Muerto preparing for their photo shoot in 2001. Red Hob is getting into character here as the loveable hero, while El Sr. Muerto sticks up his chin looking for the right balance of macabre and machismo.

In this outtake, Red Hob, who is supposed to be scared witless, can't help but laugh as El Sr. Muerto gives him Marty Feldman eyes. Sadly the two were unable to reunite for the newer version, since El Sr. Muerto had fallen apart some years previous in a fit of loco.

And, finally, above is a dramatic take from the early photos used in the 2001 version of this tale as only the great El Sr. Muerto could achieve. While below, in 2011, The Grim Happy Christmas (new version) cast, was honored, to have a new yet seasoned actor playing the role of the sinister villain, and we offer this small blurry outtake from the new photography as a small preview.

The Grim Happy Blurb Preview

Red Hob and Green Hob are happy to announce the availability (for the 2011 Christmas season) of their 40 page photographic adventure book "The Grim Happy Christmas: Another Fireside Tale from the Library of Mr. Bumble Bindlegrim", on the shelves of blurb.com and would like to direct you to this preview of approximately the first 16-17 pages of the book.

The Grim Happy Christmas by Robert Aaron Wiley

The Grim Happy Christmas

Following the last post (Peeking into the Christmas Box), I wanted to follow up with news that The Grim Happy Christmas photo book will be available soon within the next few days from the Bindlegrim library located on blurb.com, and here are a few sneak peeks of the cover and first few interior layouts of the book:

What happens next? I hope you will enjoy finding out.

The story is a simpler tale with simpler text (than that of poetry in The Pumpkin Dream) and is intended for a larger audience and families; the story follows a gnome who wakes up at Christmas wondering where the holiday he had dreamt of all year can be found, because something in this house seems terribly wrong!

From the inside cover:

Red Hob & Green Hob (front flap)

The characters of Grim Happy Christmas, Red Hob and Green Hob, were cherished vintage ornaments handed down from family and became the centerpiece of this book during a particularly skint holiday.

Christmas Gnomes (Tomten, Nisse, or Hobs) were Christmas kitsch ornaments Made In Japan during the 1950s of hand painted hard plastic faces topped by flocked paper hats. Arms, legs, and hair were chenille, and the bodies and feet were made from spun cotton.

Bindlegrim and Wiley (back)

Mr. Bumble Bindlegrim was a collector of holiday literature, and is said to have lived his later years among wild rabbits and mossy apple trees of an orchard on the San Juan Islands of northwest Washington.

Robert Aaron Wiley ( author of The Pumpkin Dream) is also an avid fan of holidays. He is known to explore the arts via writing, illustration, photography, design, digital media, music... as well as the history of vintage ephemera and kitsch.

Peeking into the Christmas Box

We may be rushing Christmas a bit here at Bindlegrim Productions, but snow has fallen before Halloween could arrive, and even now snow keeps doing its best to extinguish the presence of the Jack O'Lanterns. (And if you've been following the gardens at Ichabod's Cottage, check out our pumpkin-head scarecrow trying to chew its way out from under the snow in this late season battle between Autumn and Winter).

And so while the Halloween poem The Pumpkin Dream is finding its way back on a temporary shelf (and we happily thank all of those who purchased a copy in its initial year of self publication), there is another holiday classic from the Bindlegrim library being dusted off, and given a fresh design, for your Christmas enjoyment in 2011. And here's a little sneak peek:

Is it time to unpack the Christmas box?
Photograph (c) 2001 Robert Aaron Wiley from The Saddest Christmas Ever

Are you already thinking about Christmas too?
Photograph (c) 2001 Robert Aaron Wiley from The Saddest Christmas Ever

Above are just a couple of the original photographs from a book created in 2001. The somewhat sad story behind these photographs is that we had decided at our house, due to ongoing financial challenges, to cancel Christmas (something that happened quite a few times in the immediate years that followed). I had decided that year to at least use a few things on hand (an inkjet printer, a tiny sketchbook and pen, and the digital camera) to create a tiny book/card gift to my partner, containing an original story that will be revealed here over the next couple of weeks.

This year the book is being updated and it's characters looks forward to sharing a message of hope with everyone. Below are a couple of facing pages from this updated version:

I believe the content of the book is relative to all of us who haven't always had the means to celebrate the holidays, and the book would be appreciated by those who seek deeper meaning in the madness and/or emptiness that sometimes surround these celebrations, (this may be even more true as great numbers of us experience a tough economy). So as we work hard here to pull this book together at the studio, we're reflecting on Christmas past and of those to come, and we hope for the best to everyone this Christmas 2011. May the times be joyous!