See how two holidays came together to make a fun new series as Keepsake artist Anita Marra Rogers brings her love of Halloween to the Christmas tree.

Horses, dogs and unicorns—typical subjects for children’s artwork. But Anita Marra Rogers didn’t draw like a typical child. Her mother quickly recognized that early talent, and she signed Anita up for oil painting lessons. At age 19, Anita used those paintings in her portfolio when she applied for a job with Hallmark. As good as those paintings were, she was turned down.

A few years later, a Hallmark sculptor looked at those same paintings of seascapes and landscapes. He saw talent. He told Anita that she simply wasn’t doing the kinds of images Hallmark wanted. He invited her to come in and see what the Hallmark Artists were working on—whimsical animals, warm Christmas scenes, wintry landscapes. Anita tried her hand at one, sculpting a deer and a bunny looking sweetly at each other over a snow bank. As soon as her friend saw it, he told her that her Keepsake Ornament career had begun.

Hallmark wasn’t Anita’s first sculpting assignment. As a child, she made animal shapes out of cotton candy for her brother and sisters. There’s still a touch of sweetness to every Keepsake Ornament she creates.

Happy Halloween
1st in the series

There are lots of details tucked into this spooky Halloween scene, so we went to sculptor Anita Rogers to learn about the inspiration for her design:

“Each year, I’ll be creating a different pumpkin with a different Halloween character, and this first one is a cute little witch. Instead of the moon, I put her in front of some wispy clouds and gave her some sparkle. I actually designed her to look like my daughter when she was little. My daughter’s older now, but she still has long brown hair and green eyes, so this little witch kind of reminds me of her a little bit! I put her in a purple dress because it’s my favorite color and I think it looks pretty good with the orange.”

Next year’s jack-o’-lantern is a very different take on another traditional character. Fans of this series will have to wait a little longer to see what details are in store!