Hallmark sat down with Keepsake Artist Anita Marra Rogers to chat more about the Mrs. Claus’s Sewing Cabinet ornament releasing on June 4 at 11 a.m. CT! Anita was the lead on the project, and she worked with the entire Keepsake Studio of Artists to bring the ornament to life. Keep reading to learn more of what she had to say about the process.

Don’t forget to join Hallmark on the Keepsake Facebook page on June 4 from 10-11 a.m. CT for their virtual Keepsake Artist Signing Facebook Live event! Anita along with art director Kurt Gaulke will be chatting more about the Mrs. Claus’s Sewing Cabinet ornament and answering all your burning questions! There will be signed giveaways as well for those in attendance. The giveaway is the Mrs. Claus’s Sewing Cabinet ornament signed by the entire Keepsake Studio! The event is completely free! See you on 6/4 from 10-11 a.m. CT.

As you can probably guess, Anita had tons of fun being the lead artist on this piece! She said, “I love to boss people around. Just kidding!”

She went on to say, “I like the opportunity to do a little bit of art direction. The hardest part of leading this is trying to figure out which parts can be assigned to traditional sculptors, digital sculptors, and surface design artists. It’s got to be divvied up just right. Once I got that figured out, I sent out the preliminary sketch to the studio and let them know which elements were to be done by which type of artist.” See below for the original concept sketch and the rough color sketch where she was trying to figure out what colors to put where. The final ornament ended up much different from the sketch, but we love it all the same! Anita mentioned, “as you can see from these, I am not very good at drawing, that’s why I sculpt. It comes more naturally to me.”

Once she sent out the preliminary sketch, Anita said, “then at the announced time and day, it was open for sign-ups! Of course, I got first choice.” As you should, Anita! “I think most everyone was happy with the item they got to work on. There wasn’t any bickering over parts.” Success!

Because most of the Keepsake Studio are working primarily from home, there were unforeseen challenges. Anita described, “every so often we (Kurt, the art director and I) would meet up at Hallmark’s corporate headquarters here in Kansas City to look at the parts that were being turned in by the various artists to compare for size, etc. Funny story, the first time we saw Sharon’s mice they were about twice the size they are now. They looked more like rats than mice! We had to ask Sharon to re-do the mice, so that they were less rat-like.” Thanks for reworking those mice, Sharon!

Anita went on to say, “it was interesting and a little challenging trying to bring this all together working almost completely virtually. It was kind of like herding cats getting all the artists on the same page. I think it came together nicely. I know our fans are going to love it. I know I do.”

Mrs. Claus’s Sewing Cabinet
Special Edition

Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments. “Behind the scenes with Anita Marra Rogers and Mrs. Claus’s Sewing Cabinet ornament!” Keepsake Ornament Club Facebook Page, May 2, 2022. https://www.facebook.com/groups/KOCMembers/posts/3128341824072487/