Eden and Emily

Eden recently turned 15 and her Mum asked me to make a special card for her big day. Dance still had to be the theme of the card, Mum said, just like it has been several times before. (You can read the lovely story about one of the first cards I was commissioned to make for Eden here.) She goes to Hip-hop, jazz and modern dance classes - busy girl - but is also very studious and Mum wanted some school books to be on there too. Eden also regularly attends meetings of the NOAM youth movement (NOAM is an acronym for No'ar Masorti, Masorti Youth, a Zionist youth movement.) so I popped the movement's badge onto the card as well.

She looks pretty happy with it, doesn't she?

Emily was turning 18 and her auntie wanted a lot on her customised card! She specifically asked for the number 18 to be in the middle of the card with the words חי – Chai in Hebrew and in English next it. Chai, which is pronounced as if you were saying "hi" in English, is a Hebrew word and symbol that means "life." It is spelt with the Hebrew letters Het (ח) and Yud (י). According to the gematria, which is a mystical tradition that assigns a numerological value to Hebrew letters, the letters Het (ח) and Yud (י) add up to the number 18. The Het has a value of 8 and the yud has a value of 10. As a result, 18 is a popular number that represents good luck. At weddings, bar mitzvahs and other events Jewish people often give gifts of money in multiples of 18, symbolically giving the recipient the gift of "life" or luck.

Along with wishing her niece "Chai", good luck, my customer also wanted me to include many of her interests on the card. These include Netflix, the high-fashion retailer Topshop, Mac Cosmetics, Capital Radio, the television music competition The XFactor and sushi.
Phew! I think I got everything on there.