Royal wedding sick bags making a splash

If the British royal wedding is too much to stomach and you're fed up of Wills and Kate being rammed down your throat, then a souvenir sick bag could be just to your taste.

Graphic artist Lydia Leith has produced the special item to help those who risk being nauseated by all the pomp and ceremony when second-in-line to the throne Prince William marries Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey on April 29.

In the splendidly British colours of postbox red or royal blue, the screen-printed bags bear a picture of the happy couple, topped off with a crown and the words "Throne up".

Beneath the outline image, the novelty items read "Sick bag" and "Keep this handy on April 29th 2011".

Leith, who hopes her brainchild will be taken in the light-hearted manner she intended, had the idea of producing a Valentine's Day sick bag but then turned her attention to the wedding.

What started out with a few bags being sent to graphic design magazines ended up as a popular viral on the Internet - and now people around the world have got the bug.

"It's gone everywhere, it's crazy," Leith told AFP.

"It started off with America, Canada and New Zealand and now there's so many different countries. It's gone worldwide very quickly. It's spread like wildfire."

The 24-year-old, based in Newcastle, northeast England, is struggling to cope with the rush of orders.

"I keep getting so many nice emails from people saying thank you for coming up with this idea, it's just what we need."

But not everyone gets the joke.

"Some of the comments are saying I should be dragged around the streets of London but most people have understood it's a joke," she admitted.

The items, costing three pounds ($4.90, 3.50 euros) each, are genuine air sickness bags, with the added royal twist.

They are the latest wacky item among the wave of royal wedding souvenirs, which also include novelty condoms whose box urges lovers to "lie back and think of England".