This week Stranger launched a seriously exciting competition which gives anyone, including new and established illustrators, graphic designers, artists or anyone keen to have a go the chance to have their work featured alongside some of the UK's top illustrators in a special range of charity Christmas cards for ShelterBox.

Competition entrants across the UK will be vying for their design to be featured as the fifth card alongside four high-profile illustrators contributing work. All profits from the cards will go direct to ShelterBox, the international disaster relief charity based in Helston, Cornwall.

Jon Burgerman, featured above, is one of the UK's most revered illustrators and cartoonists. He's designing the first card in the set: "In this iAge of digital everything a card is a nice little goodie to give. It can be like a mini artwork, beaming from a mantelpiece for a while," he said.

The second card in the set will be designed by Jenny Bowers (featured below), whose recent projects include illustrations for Channel 4, The New York Times, Creative Review and Samsung. We'll be announcing two more surprise names nearer the official launch in November.

We wanted to create some gorgeous Christmas cards that were original, colourful and fun, which we'd want to send our friends... but decided to go one step further and use this as an opportunity to show off some great fresh talent too.

ShelterBox was our natural choice for charity - they're highly respected, were the leading provider of emergency shelter in Haiti, and are based just up the road from us!

We're planning to launch the cards at an event held at The Poly, Falmouth, on Thursday 11th November where the final five designs will be unveiled. The cards will come in packs of 10 - 2 of each of the 5 designs - and will go on sale to the public in shops across Cornwall and the rest of the UK as well as online after the launch.

This fantastic opportunity to contribute a design is open to everyone!

The competition closes at midnight on Wednesday 20 October 2010 and the winner will be announced on Friday 22 October 2010, so get entering! Here's how:

Email your designs to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Illustrations should focus around a seasonal theme of Christmas, contain no specific religious content and appeal to a wide audience. Designs should be 300dpi, 105 x 150mm JPGs in portrait aspect ratio