Lior, Ariella and Guy

Lior's Mum felt that I had captured her son's look so accurately on his birthday card that she suggested that I show a photo of him next to the card for you all to see for yourselves.

Lior, who turned 15, is into cars, computers, chocolate milk and keys! I have shown him holding up a key in one hand, with a glass of his favourite drink in the other. A laptop and red sports car are also featured.

Ariella visited several of Israel's National Parks as a pre-Bat Mitzvah project. My customer asked me to make a card for her with a date palm on it, to match the necklace that she had made for the Bat Mitzvah girl. She also requested the stylised ibex, the logo of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, on the card, along with a map of Israel. I created the card in shades of green and added a portrait of the pony-tailed Bat Mitzvah girl in the centre. When my customer delivered the Bat Mitzvah card, apparently Ariella's reaction was "It looks just like me!"

Guy celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at the Kotel, or the Western Wall. The Western Wall in Jerusalem is the holiest of Jewish sites, sacred because it is a remnant of the Herodian retaining wall that once enclosed and supported the Second Temple. It has also been called the "Wailing Wall" because for centuries Jews have gathered there to mourn the loss of their temple. My customer asked me to include something connected to the Kotel on the card. She also wanted me to show some tefillin, the set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah, which are worn by observant Jews during weekday morning prayers. Jewish men start wearing tefillin just before their Bar Mitzvah.

I have shown Guy wearing a black and white striped tallit (prayer shawl) and tefillin. In the background is the Kotel. I also added a gold Magen David, or Star of David, and the number 13, the age that Jewish boys become Bar Mitzvah.