Growing festive greetings

PETER HARRIS meets the artist who designs greetings cards with a twist

- PETER HARRIS

Hannah Marchant, an artist, designer and printer from Somerset, has handcrafted a range of Christmas cards at her studio in Long Sutton - but they’re not just any Christmas cards.

They are the perfect eco-friendly solution in that, come the spring, they can be planted out in the garden or in a container pot to grow into culinary herbs and vegetables or a colorful blaze of wildflowers. Made from recycled paper pulp which is embedded with seeds during the manufacturing process, the cards are not only compostable but, as they grow and blossom, permanently echo the greetings and good wishes of the friends or loved ones who sent them.

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, in various fun carrot designs, and a traditional snowman with his carrot nose, are featured in eight carrot-seed cards in her 2019 Christmas selection, along with four floral designs embedded with wildflower seeds and a bumblebee range, also with wildflower seeds, with messages such as ‘May your Christmas bee merry and bright’ and ‘Hap-Bee Christmas’.