THE winners of the Lancashire Telegraph Christmas card competition have been revealed.

Primary school children aged four to 11 were asked to get creative and produce designs of everything from Christmas trees, presents and snowmen.

The winner from each category, aged four to seven and eight to 11, had their designs printed on cards by professional printers Impression Bolton Ltd for them to send out to their family and friends

Amelia Leyland from Darwen's card, which depicted Christmas day in her house, was chosen for the category aged four to seven and Mariah Usman-ali from Blackburn's traditional nativity scene design was chosen for the age eight to 11 category.

We received dozens of fantastic entries for our Design a Card competition, schools across East Lancashire took part and talented children also sent in entries themselves.

The judges had an extremely difficult time choosing from all the wonderful designs from the children.

The winners took home four tickets to watch Blackburn Hawks courtesy of Blackburn Arena as well as a family ticket to watch panto Cinderella at Thwaites Empire Theatre

They were presented by Lancashire Telegraph editor Steve Thompson and Dalton Mullin from Blackburn Hawks.

The best designs were printed in the newspaper and readers voted for the best two cards.

Steve said: "The standard this year was very high and everyone who entered should be very proud of themselves.

"The two winning designs are excellent. Our two winners are clearly very talented young artists.”

Seven-year-old Amelia she was 'really happy' when she heard she said won he competition.

She said: "I was really pleased with my card.

"I was really happy when I won because I had done a lot of work on my card and thought it was good."

Amelia's mum Christina Woodhead said she the news had come as a shock to her.

She said: "I couldn't believe it when the school rang, I didn't even know she'd entered the competition.

"I'm so proud, she has always been very creative, she loves crafting and making things so it's great that she's won."

Nine-year-old Mariah said she was 'really proud' to have been chosen.

She said:"I enjoyed making my card and thought it was good.

"When I found out I had won I felt really proud and happy."

Mariah's mum Sanah Khan said the news had come at a good time for the family.

"I'm so, so proud of our Mariah.

"We have had a hard year so it's great to end on a high like this.

"She's very artistic, all she ever wants for her birthday is art supplies."