Few artists can expect almost everyone in the UK to see their pictures. For Carol Sharp, however, that is a possibility.

She will reach her largest audience yet with a collection of seasonal Christmas images.

Her work will be dropped on to millions of doormats this Christmas because Carol's stylish photographs are on the Royal Mail's Christmas stamp collection.

They feature holly leaves, mistletoe, pine cones, ivy and a section of spruce tree.

She attributes her artistic eye to her grounding at the University of Brighton in the Eighties, where she graduated with a first-class degree in visual communication.

Carol, 40, divides her time between a cottage in Norfolk and studio in London but says it was her formative years in Brighton which have paved the way to her success as a photographer.

She said: "Being in Brighton was fantastic and it was so creative at the old polytechnic. The tutors were really encouraging.

"They didn't try to pin you down or try to turn you into what they thought a graphic designer was supposed to be.

"They allowed experimentation, which was why I took up photography."

With her simple contemporary style and love of plants, Carol was the perfect person to design the botanical range for the Royal Mail.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "Carol's precise, close-up images soften out towards the edges, producing an exciting combination of shape and colour for what is traditionally the most popular stamp issue of the year."

She even grew the mistletoe used on the 47p stamp in one of the many areas of her Norfolk garden.

Such is her passion for foliage, the photographer has created a cottage garden, a Mediterranean garden, a wildflower meadow and woods on her land, all of which are regular subjects of her work.

Carol said: "I am passionate about everything to do with flowers and plants. When I was creating the pictures for the stamps I needed people to recognise what the plants were.

"I had to be more conscious of Joe Public than normal and I couldn't be very abstract. Royal Mail really wanted to feature traditional foliage of winter.

"We started off with wreaths and garlands, but it was difficult to fit them in.

"My idea was to go simpler and look at the spikiness of the leaves or the shiny red berries of the holly. I wanted the images to look fresh and natural."

The five self-adhesive Christmas stamps are on sale now.