A custom made card, a cake... and a surprise winner!

A good friend asked me to make a baby card for her cousin's new baby.  This particular friend is a very loyal customer - I have made many cards for her family back in Australia - and so is already familiar with the way that I work. She sent me photos of the baby's parents and big sister and, after a few e-mails back and forth, it was decided that I should add some other baby bits to the design, specifically a teddy bear - apparently she is a big fan of my teddy bears! I also had to make sure that the baby's curl was ginger. The new baby is a redhead and so I took great delight in creating that little curl - an intrinsic part of my baby card designs - in a red pen!
The weather is mixed over in Australia at the moment so my friend decided not to send new baby clothes as a gift for the time being. This card was popped in the mail to let her cousins know that she is thinking of them and it seems to have been well received! This is the e-mail they sent her:
"We got your card - it's absolutely awesome! Thanks so much, it's really great."

Another friend recently asked me to make a card for her Dad. There was no particular theme requested so I went with a simple redesign of this card, simplifying it a little as this was a smaller card. In my opinion presents and balloons are perfect for any birthday celebration, regardless of age, so I hope that 'Dad' enjoys his card and the good wishes that come with it.

As you already know, my youngest son recently turned eight. Of course, why have one birthday cake when you can have two? A mummy cake had been requested and a mummy cake is what he got! As cakes go, it was actually one of the simpler ones that I have made. I cut a skull shape out of a piece of paper, then cut round it on a big sheet cake. I iced the whole thing with buttercream then randomly placed strips of fondant on top. It was very sweet but my son and his friends loved it and it disappeared quickly! The little black spider was cut out of paper because, even with two boys in the house, I couldn't find a plastic spider anywhere! This one was far cuter anyway...
Okay, now onto the surprise winner. I've done a giveaway before, and posted in the etsy forums to get people to come to my blog and enter. But here's the thing... most of those people don't come back, and they only post so they can get something free (and who can blame them, right?). Most of you who commented on my last post - my 200th blog post - are faithful readers and commenters, so I wanted to reward one of you. I put the number of commenters into a random number generator and it chose #14.

So...the surprise winner is... Maribeth of Lovely World! Maribeth, I want to send you a package of 'Handmade in Israel' goodies and some extra goodies to give you a little taste of Israel too. Please be in touch with your mailing address.
I plan to do more giveaways in the future. If you're a silent lurker, now's the time to speak up!