Sunday 17 October 2010

Savta and Eli

'Savta' is the modern Hebrew word for 'grandmother'. I recently made this card for a customer who wanted a birthday card for her Mom, yet it also had to show that the greetings were from her children too. I think that 'Savta's' name at the top of the card did just that and I am sure that she was proud to see it up there in lights!
My customer told me that her Mum had recently started to dabble with watercolour painting, so a pan set and tiny brush were incorporated into the design. This particular card was quite a last minute request and had to be made at night - something that I really try and avoid because I find it hard to work accurately under artificial light. The hand cut letters made it all the more complicated but I was happy with the end result. A few days ago a visitor to my Flickr page commented with a question as to where I get my Hebrew letters cut. She wanted to know if they are only found in Israel or do I do it with a die cutting machine? I was so flattered to read that question because I cut all my letters out by hand after having drawn them to the required size. The fact that she thought my letters were machine-cut hopefully means that I might be doing something right! 'Eli' was celebrating his birthday a few days after his Grandmother so the very same customer asked me to make a card for her son too. People have very different ideas about what should go on cards for teenagers and this particular customer felt that he was "too old" for pictures of his hobbies or a portrait. She asked me to make a more generic card for a 15 year-old, with his age somehow depicted on it. I'm pretty sure that a birthday cake and candles are still quite acceptable to teenage boys, right?

8 comments:

Southern Belle said...

Love the cards. If they thought the letters were machine-cut then I'd say you're DEF. doing something right ;-)

customdesigns4ubynan said...

I can only think you must use very sharp scissors, or Xacto knife, because yes, your cuts are so clean. You do good work!

Leeya Engel said...

love those balloons! Thanks for commenting on my necklace post!

Terri said...

Great job on both to them! I really admire you for hand drawing and cutting your letters, I thought they were die cut too.

A Spoonful Of Sugar said...

Your attention to detail is always amazing! Love the box of watercolours - very cute:)

Laurie said...

Wow, do you really cut everything by hand? You're amazing!

Lovely World said...

Always so interesting to read about your custom work - how you process ideas and come up with lovely cards.

Ann Martin said...

Gorgeous cards and lettering - I'm so impressed you do the numbers and letters by hand!