Showing posts with label Wacky News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wacky News. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Mum Using A Condom - Mother Makes Her Own Quarantined Elf

Mum Using A Condom - Mother Makes Her Own 'Quarantined' Elf With Condom | Mum Makes Her Own 'Quarantined' Elf On The Shelf Using A Condom 

A CREATIVE mum who refused to fork out £16 for a ‘quarantined’ Elf on the Shelf in a balloon for her daughter decided to recreate it herself - using a CONDOM. Sapphire Grimes-Williams loved the idea of letting her daughter Alayla Kelly pop a balloon with the toy elf inside after a two-week quarantine period, but was horrified at the price.

After trying to recreate it herself with a balloon and finding the elf’s head simply got stuck, the 24-year-old tried instead with a fresh condom and was thrilled when the full toy slipped easily inside. The mum had considered buying larger balloons online but claims the delivery date would have been too late, leaving her with no option but to use the contraception instead.

The condom stretched into an enormous balloon with the elf safely contained inside - although Sapphire admits the latex was ‘slimy’ and she had to give it a good wash. Photos show the condom looking unrecognisable blown into a large dome shape and decorated with sequins, smaller balloons and bows - with Sapphire writing ‘warning, isolating’ in big red letters on the side.

Thursday, October 1, 2020

Romeo Cox - Boy Walks 1,700 Miles From Sicily To London In Lockdown

Romeo Cox - Boy Walks 1,700 Miles From Sicily To London In Lockdown | 10-year-old boy walks 2,800 KM from Palermo to London to see his granny 

Romeo Cox, a 10-year-old Italian-English boy, was born in London but moved with his family to Palermo, in Sicily, a few years ago. Earlier this year Romeo had looked forward to spending his summer holidays in London with his paternal grandmother, who is in poor health, however the coronavirus lockdown and travel restrictions at the time prevented him from flying.

After much heartbreak and pleading on the part of Romeo, it was decided that he would make the 2,800-km journey to London by foot, along with his father Phil, a journalist and documentary maker. Their adventures were documented along the way on social media, under the title Romeo's Big Journey Home, with Romeo inviting his followers to raise money for the Refugee Education Across Conflicts Trust (REACT), a charitable association run by his mother Giovanna.

Nadezhda Bushuyeva - Russian Woman Kept Inside for 26 Years

Nadezhda Bushuyeva - Russian Woman Kept Inside for 26 Years | Locked Away By Her Mother For 26 Years 

Nadezhda Bushuyeva was convinced by her mother that the outside world is in fact a very dangerous place. It is unclear if something had happened to her mother at some point in her life and that’s why she kept her daughter inside all those years or not. It could also just be the remote area of Russia that they live in and possibly it wasn’t safe there.

A Russian woman who was trapped in a house by her mother for 26 years has revealed that she ate cat food and stale bread in order to stay alive.The 42-year-old woman had been shut away by her mother - who claimed to be 'protecting' her - for more than half of her life, before she turned up at a local council office in Russia asking for a job and an identity document.

Nadezhda Bushuyeva had not seen the outside world since she left school 26 years earlier, except for one trip to a clinic in 2006. She was fed on cat food and kept inside until her mother, a retired shop assistant called Tatiana, became ill and required hospital treatment.

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Slovenian Woman Cutting Own Hand To Claims Insurance Payout

Slovenian Woman Cutting Own Hand To Claims Insurance Payout 

A court in Slovenia on Friday sentenced a 22-year-old woman to two years in prison for deliberately cutting off her hand with a circular saw to make a fraudulent insurance claim €1m (£900,000, $1.16m) in payouts.

The district court in Ljubljana said Julija Adlesic agreed with her boyfriend to have her left hand severed above the wrist at their home in the capital early in 2019. She was found guilty of attempted insurance fraud. About a year earlier, she signed contracts with five different insurance companies, the court said. The woman stood to collect more than 1 million euros, about half paid immediately and the rest in regular monthly installments.

Her boyfriend was sentenced to three years in prison while his father received a one-year suspended sentence.The pair had taken her to the hospital, saying she had injured herself while sawing branches. Authorities said they left the severed hand behind rather than bringing it to the hospital to ensure the disability was permanent. But police recovered and it was reattached.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Student Wears Jeans for 15 Months without Washing Them


A University of Alberta student didn't wash a pair of skinny jeans for 15 months and science says the fashion trend is safe, but maybe a tad smelly.

Josh Le wore the same pair of jeans to break in the raw denim, so it would wrap the contours of his body, leaving distinct wear lines.

He had his textile professor test the jeans for bacteria before washing them for the first time.

The results showed high counts of five different kinds of bacteria, but nothing in the range of being considered a health hazard.

Raw denim is not washed or treated when it is manufactured.

A current trend is to wear the dark indigo jeans without washing them to allow the indigo to wear out in the fabric.

After the jeans are washed, they leave a unique pattern based on their owner's body.

Le said some friends were "grossed out" by his experiment, but others thought it was interesting.

"Some people really liked it, but some people were completely grossed out by it," he told The Canadian Press. "I was able to meet a lot more people and have a lot of good conversations. It was like, 'hey, nice jeans."'

When his jeans got a bit funky smelling, Le's solution was to put them in the freezer.

"There were times when it had a bad odour, like in the seventh month," he said. "That's when I threw it in the freezer and magically when it came out it was odourless."



A student gauges bacteria in blue jeans after 15 months of unwashed wear

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Bride Discovers 'Husband' is A Woman

An Indian woman lived with her 'husband' for a year before finally discovering that 'he' was really a 'she'.

Minati Khatua, 26, of Rourkela, says she and her family were completely taken in by Sitakant Routray, 28.

"He had impressed everyone in my family and they willingly agreed to our marriage," she said.

As is traditional in India, Sitakant received a substantial dowry including an Indica car, gold ornaments and more than £350 in cash.

But Minati grew suspicious after the wedding when Sitakant avoided any physical contact on the pretext of a religious vow.

"I would try hard to find out and confirm his gender but failed repeatedly," she told the Calcutta Telegraph.

"However, one day I managed to force open the bathroom door when he was having a bath. My worst fears came true. He was a woman."

Inspector Jyotirmaya Hota confirmed that police were investigating the case.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Lillian Lowe : The World's Oldest Facebook User


Great grandmother Lillian Lowe today claimed she is the world's oldest Facebook user at 103 - and she updates her status from her iPad.

Cyber centenarian signed up for the website to keep track of what her seven grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren are up to.

Just two months away from her 104th birthday, the family of young-at-heart Lillian believe she is the oldest of the social networking website's 500 million users around the world.

The pensioner is thought to have taken the crown of oldest Facebook user from 104-year-old Ivy Bean who died in her sleep in July.

Lillian said today that she is a big fan of the social-networking site.

'I love it - it is very exciting. It's a wonderful way of finding out about things. But I must say it's a dreadful waste of time. I'm sure there are lots of other things I should be doing rather than playing on a computer.

'I have been on Facebook for a few weeks now, some of the grandchildren do get up to some antics.

I have seen a few things over the years, so nothing really shocks me these days anyway.

'I go on the Facebook about twice a week, I have about 30 friends at the moment so there's quite a lot to catch up on. At the moment I use my grandson's iPad but I am very hopeful to get one of my own, there are some great new models out at the moment.'

The retired hotelier and businesswoman uses her grandson's iPad to get on the internet and has 34 Facebook 'friends'.

Lillian, from Tenby, Pembrokeshire, south Wales, said it was 'just lovely' seeing her latest photographs and messages every time she logs on.

She said: 'I can recommend it for any grandparents to keep in touch with their family with ringing all the time.'

Lillian was born in 1907 when Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was Britain's Prime Minister - and she can still remember the news of the Titanic sinking in 1912.

The great-grandmother - dubbed Supergran by her family - was already at school when the First World War started and was 12 before she had a radio in her house.

Lillian said: 'I think virtually everything has been invented during my time. What I particularly like now is this Google Earth.

'When I was 84, I visited Australia with my young sister Mary, who will be 100 next year.

'We had a lovely trip, so yesterday I took myself off have a look at the Swan River.

'I've always read a lot during my life, and this computer has just taken the place of a book.'

Her grandson Steve set Lillian up with her Facebook account - and gave her his iPad to use.

Tenby RNLI mechanic Steve said: 'Lillian is incredible, she has an amazing memory and loves to keep in touch with what everyone is doing.

'I even went round the other day and she told me Microsoft had brought out a new touchpad computer she quite liked, she is dropping hints I think for her own.

'At the moment she has about 30 friends and she likes to check the news feed, she loved a video we did of one her great-grandchildren dancing in front of the TV.

'Now and again, she might raise an eyebrow at a few of the teenage antics she sees on Facebook, but she's pretty broad-shouldered and takes it all in her stride.'

Ivy Bean, 104, was the previous oldest Twitter and Facebook user.

The OAP, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, became a friend of pop singer Peter Andre online and he was regularly in touch with her care home before her death.

Gordon Brown's wife Sarah led the tributes to Mrs Bean who had clocked up an astonishing 56,300 followers on Twitter, and another 5,000 on Facebook.



Thursday, December 16, 2010

Gold Sports Car Model Worth 3 Million Yuan



Sports Car Model made of five kilograms of gold, displayed at a gold shop in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. The gold sports car is worth more than 3 million Renminbi yuan (about 450,000 U.S. dollars).

Monday, December 13, 2010

Go Swimming At -36℃



Members of a local winter swimmers' club walk to go swimming in the Yenisei River with the air temperature at about -36 degrees Celsius (-32.8 degree Fahrenheit) in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk December 12, 2010.





Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Taiwan woman 'marries' herself


A Taiwanese woman said Sunday she had "married" herself by throwing a wedding banquet.

The 30-year-old Chen Wei-yi, who has been an Internet sensation since announcing her "wedding" plans last month, held the ceremony in a Taipei hotel Saturday witnessed by 30 relatives and friends.

"Marrying myself is a way of showing that I am confident and upbeat and that I accept myself for who I am," said Chen, who is an office worker.

"We must love ourselves before we can love others. I must marry myself before marrying the special someone," she told AFP.

Chen's supporters have hailed the move as "creative," with some suggesting a group wedding for those who wanted to "marry" themselves, according to her Facebook page.

Taiwanese authorities have said that many women now choose to marry at an older age or to stay single, which is seen as a major factor causing the island's birth rates to dwindle to one of the world's lowest.

A record low 117,000 Taiwanese couples tied the knot in 2009, down nearly a quarter on the previous year, according to government figures.

Source : Presurfer And News Yahoo

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Kimono Making in Japan is A Dying Art



For centuries Japanese have worn beautiful, hand-crafted kimonos, but soon there will be no one left with the skills to make one of the nation's most enduring cultural symbols, say craftsmen.

Yasutaka Komiya, an 84-year-old craftsman, sat on a woven tatami mat floor flicking through piles of exquisitely decorated rainbow-hued silk.

"I started learning how to dye kimono fabrics in this style when I was 12," he said. "A few hundred years ago, thousands of people were doing this. But today? We are one of only three families left in Japan who can do this work."

The kimono industry, which produces one of the most enduring cultural symbols of Japan, is in crisis. Previously sustained by the need to dress an entire nation in traditional costume, it has today shrunk to a fraction of its former size.

Now leading figures in the industry are warning that within a decade the art of traditional kimono making, a crown in Japan's cultural heritage, could die out altogether as a generation of Japanese craftsmen who have spent a lifetime using specialist skills inherited from their own parents are now in their eighties.

Soichi Sajiki, whose family has made the garments for 200 years, said: "Japan's kimono industry is at a critical stage. We are seriously struggling to find ways of passing on our precious craftsmanship to the next generation.

"From the silk cocoon to the final product, there are more than 1,000 processes involved in one kimono, each carried out by different specialist craftsmen. It can take 40 years to master a single technique.

"Most craftsmen today are over 80 and within the next 10 years, many will pass away. We are in real danger of losing thousands of years of kimono-making techniques."

Once the garment of choice for samurai, aristocrats and workers alike, kimonos are rarely worn by today's young Japanese, who prefer to wear Western clothes. Even if a formal occasion does demand a kimono, they are likely to put on machine-made version - much cheaper than a traditional handmade kimono which costs between 180,000 and 1 million yen (£1,400 - £7,800).

As kimonos have gone out of fashion, the number of companies making them in Tokyo has shrunk - dwindling from 217 to 24 over the past 30 years. Even in Kyoto, the historic centre for traditional Japanse culture, there are now just 64 kimono makers left.

Mr Sajiki gave his warning in the refined tearooms of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Tokyo's historic Nihonbashi district – once a major hub for the industry.

Dressed in an immaculate grey kimono fastened with a jade green clasp, Mr Sajiki, 54, gestured towards the sweeping views from the 38th floor. He said: "Nihonbashi used to be full of kimono makers. But things have changed. Sales are just one tenth of what they were were 30 years ago.

"We desperately need to encourage more young people to embrace the kimono, train more young craftsmen and diversify by selling our beautiful textiles internationally."

Forty-eight carefully selected young Japanese women were due to parade in their kimonos and make speeches about their love of the garment as they competed for the coveted title of Tokyo Kimono Queen - the climax of the city's first ever Kimono Week, launched by Mr Sajiki as chairman of the Tokyo Kimono Business Association.

But the youth and glamour of the accompanying concerts, fashion shows, and exhibitions were far from the staid discipline of Japan's ageing kimono makers. Among the nation's most endangered artisans are five women in their eighties who live in the remote mountains of Niigata prefecture – the only remaining people who know how to use one particular 1,000-year-old hemp weaving technique.

In his workshop in Tokyo, Mr Komiya is the only artisan still able to undertake a delicate form of handpainting kimono silk in pure gold.

His own unique skills have, at least, been recognised by the governemnt, which has granted him the revered status of Living National Treasure – a living, breathing cultural asset to be protected.

Backed with government subsidies, he has been able to pass on the techniques he learnt from his own father to his son Yasumasa, 54, who in turn is training his two grandsons.

"It's important for the kimono industry to evolve and modernise in order to survive," said the younger Mr Komiya. "Traditional craftsmanship should ideally be passed on from generation to generation, but this is not going to be possible in the future."

Kimono makers need to seek customers abroad, said Chie Hayakawa, communications director at the Mandarin Oriental hotel where last week's events were being held.

"Kimonos are exquisitely beautiful, made from the finest silks in the world," she said. "These handcrafted fabrics should be more widely used internationally, with more collaborations with high profile fashion designers. There is so much potential."

A stone's throw from the hotel is the Nihonbashi landmark Mitsukoshi, one of Japan's oldest department stores which began its life in 1673 as a kimono store.

Today, its "kimono salon" spans an entire floor and is home to more than 30,000 handcrafted costumes, one of the biggest collections of handcrafted in the country.

Designs range from seasonal images - cherry blossoms, autumn leaves and sweeping scenes of nature - to delicate abstract patterns created using old dyeing techniques, hand painting or gold embroidery.

Vivid hues such as scarlet are reserved for young women. The unmarried wear long hanging sleeves. Designs for older married women are in more subdued hues, with less flowing sleeves and subtle motifs.

As lunchtime shoppers and office ladies perused the rolls of silk and hanging kimono, Shigeru Tezuka, a manager, said: "We are trying to target young women with more modern products – contemporary designs and bright colours and competitive prices.

"We're also talking to one very famous Italian fashion brand at the moment about a collaboration - to make bags to go with kimonos."

The hope is that Japan's kimono industry might be saved if its products could one day be worn by the world's supermodels.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Man Collected 1,760 Spoons From 447 Airlines



Dieter Kapsch : Flight attendant has collected 1,760 spoons from 447 airlines
If you're ever short of a spoon you can always rely on Dieter Kapsch – he’s got 1,760 of them.

The flight attendant has amassed his unusual collection from 447 airlines.

Explaining how his unusual hobby started, he said that his first spoon reminded him of a nice holiday and from there it escalated.

He said: 'It all started 13 years ago when I went on vacation with my sister, Gunda, to Spain and she thought it would be good to have a spoon with us during our stay.

'After returning back home she left the spoon with me and I was using it in my kitchen and liked it a lot. It always reminded me of a nice holiday.

'From that point I decided to collect spoons from every airline I was flying with and after some time I wanted to have them all.'

One of his oldest is from Imperial Airways, a British operation that ran from 1924 to 1939, and he also has one from the China Clipper, a Pan Am flying boat of the 1930s.

‘My friends love my collection and they’re very supportive – they have added to it a lot,’ said the 38-year-old Austrian, who added: ‘I hope there will be some more coming.’

Source : Tree Hugger

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Breakfast on Bridge In Sydney



People picnic and have breakfast on the main deck of the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the Breakfast on the Bridge event in central Sydney October 10, 2010. More than 7,000 people gathered together to have breakfast on the main deck of the Sydney Harbour bridge. According to local media, Australia's national soccer team, the "Socceroos" agreed to attend this event to help increase Australia's chances of hosting the 2022 World Cup.


Drinking 100,000 Year Old Glacier Water



The scientists who research our planet's poles have a tough, incredible job. Drilling tens of thousands of feet into the icy surface to retrieve core samples reveals a lot about our planet. It also provides a refreshing, pre-historic drink.

Edible Geography has a fascinating interview with Dr. Paul Mayewski of the University of Maine, who collects deep core samples from all over the world—from Antarctica to the Himalayas. By digging deeper and deeper, he and his team are able to examine the icy record to see what was up with the earth's climate thousands of years ago. Once a sample's been drilled out and retrieved, it's sliced apart with lasers for analysis.

Often, the findings of these core samples show a highly polluted atmosphere from the past. But does this stop the intrepid researches from taking a sip of the melted stuff?

Think that isn't badass enough? "We drink water from the nuclear bomb test era, and it has small amounts of radioactivity in it," says Mayewski. But it's no more dangerous than going out in the sun, he assures.

But alright, enough about the science—how does it taste? "About as clean as anything can taste," says Mayewski. But the pureness ain't even the half of it. Not that keeping your drinks cold is likely a problem in Antarctica, but these scientists sometimes drop a cube or two of drilled ice into their water



Source : Gizmodo

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Vietnamese Bank Offers Beer to Customers



A Vietnamese bank has started giving away beer to customers who make deposits. Western Bank launched the nationwide promotion on Wednesday, offering a large can of Bitburger beer imported from Germany for each one-month deposit of at least 7.5 million dong (£242) made until Nov. 25.

"We started this award before Tet, as every other bank has its own promotion," said a teller at the Vietnamese bank, which is based in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.

In the run-up to Tet, Vietnam's Lunar New Year festival, which usually falls in February, cash demand rises as companies pay year-end bonuses and consumers splash out.

Tropical Vietnam has a long tradition of beer drinking, introduced by French colonists in the late 19th century. Although local brews dominate the market, rising living standards have allowed city dwellers to taste foreign brands.

Authorities have been trying for months to get banks to cut interest rates, both on loans and deposits, so lenders have had to get creative in the fight for depositors.

Inducements have ranged from a tour of Europe to cars, crash helmets, bed sheets and blood pressure monitors.

Source : Telegraph

Monday, October 4, 2010

World's Smallest Apartment on Sale in Rome



World's Smallest Apartment on Sale in Rome - A former porter's closet measuring five square metres (55 sq ft) has gone on the market in Rome at £43,000. The property, which is being described as the world's smallest apartment, lies in the heart of the Italian capital, which has become of the world's most expensive cities for property, but is barely large enough to contain a single bed.

The owner of the bijou property says he has been inundated with queries since putting it on the market a few days ago.

Presented as a "compact bedsit", it is located on Piazza di Sant' Ignazio, a picturesque square overlooked by an enormous Renaissance church.

One report described it as "little bigger than a wigwam" while Il Giornale, a daily newspaper, commented: "In Rome, people now live like rats".

The flat consists of a ground floor bathroom with a shower, sink and lavatory and a ladder leading to a sleeping platform just big enough for a single bed. There is a single window, but to open it you have to climb over the bed.

It lies just behind Palazzo Grazioli, the imposing mansion which is rented by Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, as his private residence in the capital.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Farmer Grows 3 Million Pumpkins



A British farm has harvested Europe's largest crop of pumpkins in time for Halloween despite our changeable summer weather.

The three million pumpkins growing at David Bowman Ltd farm in Spalding, Lincs., have been baked by heatwaves and battered by torrential rain.

But they have reached their autumnal orange ripeness the perfect time and 100 staff are now working around the clock to finish harvesting them before October 31st.

Seasonal workers at the farm have to process a staggering 100,000 pumpkins every day during the 30 day harvest.

Farmer David Bowman, 62, who has 37 years' experience growing pumpkins, admitted that he 'can't wait' for the harvest to end on November 1.

He said: 'It's been a very average year in terms of the pumpkin crop because the weather was either too dry or too wet over the summer.'

'But we still expect to harvest around three million pumpkins which is a marvellous crop for an average year.'

'We are so busy at the moment getting everything for Halloween and I will just be glad when it's all over on November the first.'

'When you are carving out your pumpkin this year think about us harvesting in the wind and rain.'

David sells some of his crop abroad in Holland and Spain but the majority of his pumpkins go to supermarkets across Britain.

His crop is the largest in Europe with three million pumpkins at his 500-acre farm.




Monday, September 27, 2010

Flying Video Camera



A Chinese man used a Flying Video Camera Remote Controlled, spy cameras wireless model plane to record his friend's wedding.

Lao Wu, from Wuhan, spent 30,000 Yuan (nearly £3,000) buying parts ahead of the big day.

The plane, named UFO, weighs 1kg, has four propellers and landing legs, and is capable of flying as high as 10 stories.

Wu, an amateur plane designer for more than 20 years, said: "Half a year ago I read news on the internet that some foreigners tried to build a UFO, so I tried myself.

"The initial trails didn't have good video pictures until I installed it a shock absorber.

"It's very convenient, as I can remote control the plane to shoot at any angle, while I adjust its flying track through the wireless monitor on hand."

Source : Clipmarks

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Dad makes Chitty Chitty Bang Bang



A Hampshire man has spent three months turning a clapped-out 1976 Land Rover into a replica of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Stuart Wallis stripped the 34-year old wreck down to its chassis, engine and wheels before transforming it into his own version of the famous flying car.

Mr Wallis, 52, of Ringwood, took on the project after his eldest daughter, Lily, watched the classic film and challenged him to make a similar one.

After visiting Beaulieu Motor Museum to take photos and measurements of a separate replica, he set to work at his New Forest Metal Works business.

Stuart and a six strong team have worked over the past three months turning the Land Rover he paid £1,000 for into a copy of the world famous car.

Stuart said: "My kids have always enjoyed the film so I thought 'why not?'.

"The children all helped with the building of the car so they were all aware of how it was progressing but now it is finished I don't think they can quite believe it."

The vehicle features a 1,000 watt amplifier under the bonnet and loudspeakers so it can blast out hits from the film, as well as eight sets of air horns to create animal noises and police sirens.

In keeping with the film, it has red and yellow wings attached to the sides - although making the contraption fly for real was a step too far, even for Mr Wallis.

His children, Lily, 10, Tom, nine, and Zoe, seven, and their young neighbours Chloe and Elise Collins now love nothing better than a spin in the truly scrumptious machine.

Source : Orange UK

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Wallace and Gromit on Christmas Stamps



Wallace and Gromit will feature on this year's Royal Mail's Christmas stamps. On sale from November 2, the stamps feature the nation's favourite animated characters going about their festive duties with the 1st class stamp showing the pair posting their Christmas cards.

Wallace and Gromit go carol singing on the 2nd class stamp and dress the Christmas tree on the 60p stamp.

As usual, Gromit is left to do the majority of the work, carrying the cards and hauling an unfeasibly large Christmas pudding around on the 97p stamp, with his reward being a bone-themed jumper shown on the £1.46 stamp.

Like the Plasticine duo's award-winning films, the stamps are packed with detail, but with the added challenge of reducing the ''world of Wallace and Gromit'' down to stamp size.

To achieve this, Royal Mail's design team worked closely with creator Nick Park and Bristol-based Aardman Animations to devise brand new scenes featuring the pair.

The approach to the stamps was similar to how Aardman Animations create a film, with Park drawing scenes and visual jokes involving the characters, before refining the designs so they would work in a definitive stamp format.

Each stamp was then constructed with models, props and background sets - all created especially for the issue.

Park said: ''It's been such a wonderful honour and a pleasure to work with Royal Mail and to have my characters, Wallace and Gromit, immortalised on their very own stamps.

''It was one of the biggest challenges my talented team and I have faced yet - to create memorable Christmas images of the duo - the size of postage stamps. But we knew we'd lick it in the end.''

Royal Mail spokesman Philip Parker said: ''The process of developing these stamps has been a labour of love for all concerned - but I think it has resulted in one of the finest sets of Christmas stamps Royal Mail has ever produced.

''Nick and his team's attention to detail is legendary, but their efforts to bring Christmas with Wallace and Gromit to life on stamps is truly extraordinary.

''Keen-eyed collectors armed with a magnifying glass will see that the envelope seen being posted on the 1st Class stamp features the actual 1st class stamp.''