A New Home Blessing

A good friend of mine is rather keen on my papercuts. She particularly liked the Blessing for the Home, or Birkat Habayit, that I created earlier in the year and thought it would make the perfect gift for her mum and sister in the UK, both of whom recently moved house. We discussed the colour schemes of their new homes and decided on a dark red backing paper for mum and grey for her sister. I liked both the colours she chose!

My papercut is drawn and cut entirely by hand from a single sheet of Textura recycled bright white card. The words 'Blessing for the home' appear in both English and Hebrew. It is embellished with flowers and my signature little bird. The blessing is written in Hebrew and reads as follows:

יבורך זה הבית בברכת שמים

והיה כעץ שתול על פלגי מים

אהבה רעות וששון בו ישכנו

פרנסה הצלחה ובריאות בו יכונו

יברכך האל וישמרך

וישא את פניו אליך

ישם לך שלום ושלווה

ונחת והרבה אהבה

אמן

May this house be blessed with blessings and dreams
As a tree that is fed by fresh waters and streams
May love, joy and friendship dwell here in its walls
May health, wealth and success be strong in these halls
May God bless you and guard you
And lift up His face to you
May God grant you calmness and peace
And pleasure and love without end
Amen

My friend was very happy with the finished pieces. "They are truly beautiful. Thank you so much." she wrote to me. I was then delighted to receive an email from her mum a few weeks later: 

"Thank you for making such a lovely papercut. I will hang it so everyone coming into my hallway will see it as soon as I open the door." she wrote.
My papercut makes a great wedding, holiday or housewarming gift. If you would like to order a papercut or take a further look, it is available right here in my Etsy shop. The blessing can be either in Hebrew or English.

* This post has been shared on Little Things Thursday, Creatively Crafty Link Party, Thursday Favorite Things

Blessing for the Home | Birkat HaBayit

The Shalom papercut I created last summer was so well received that I decided to cut another piece, this time a Blessing for the Home or Birkat Habayit. This blessing is traditionally hung on the wall next to the front door or next to a window of many Jewish homes. It can also be found on keyrings holding the keys to the home. It is meant to drive any evil spirits out of the house and protect the occupants within. Besides bringing a blessing upon the home, variations from around the world are also seen as great works of art and are often given as housewarming gifts. A Birkat Haesek, "Blessing for the Business," is also popular in Israel.

The provenance and original authorship of the Birkat Habayit (Blessing for the Home) is unknown. A variation of it appears in a printed amulet for protection against plague, dated from 1925 in Hungary and is attributed to Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, the Rebbe of Ujhely (Sátoraljaújhely) in Hungary. 

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, an Israeli Orthodox rabbi born in France, believes that the prayer originates from a poem created by Rudyard Kipling, although there is no proof of this claim.

There are different versions of the blessing and the text is commonly written in either Hebrew or in English and increasingly in other languages as well.

The text I have used reads as follows:

יבורך זה הבית בברכת שמים

והיה כעץ שתול על פלגי מים

אהבה רעות וששון בו ישכנו

פרנסה הצלחה ובריאות בו יכונו

יברכך האל וישמרך

וישא את פניו אליך

ישם לך שלום ושלווה

ונחת והרבה אהבה

אמן

May this house be blessed with blessings and dreams

As a tree that is fed by fresh waters and streams

May love, joy and friendship dwell here in its walls

May health, wealth and success be strong in these halls

May God bless you and guard you

And lift up His face to you

May God grant you calmness and peace

And pleasure and love without end

Amen

My papercut makes a great wedding, holiday or housewarming gift. It is drawn and cut entirely by hand from a single sheet of Textura Recycled Bright White Card, using just a scalpel knife. It measures 30x21cm and fits perfectly into a standard frame. If you would like to order a papercut or take a further look, it is available right here in my Etsy shop.

When you check out, please be sure to note which colour backing paper you would like, if you prefer something other than purple. Unless you are a local customer, this papercut is available unframed.

* This post has been shared on Inspire Me Monday, Happiness is Homemade, The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) and All Seasons.

The Three "E"s

I have been making birthday cards for Eden for a number of years. Last year she was on the same mechina (pre-army programme) as my eldest son and that was what featured on her 19th birthday card. She is now a soldier in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) so this year, for her 20th birthday, her mum asked me to show Eden in uniform on her card. Mum pointed out the aiguillette or sroch in Hebrew, an ornamental braided cord which she wears on the left shoulder of her uniform to indicate her specific role in the army. I was also asked to include Eden's boyfriend on the card, so I dressed him in his air force madei alef, the formal beige uniform which pilots wear for ceremonies.

Eden has long been interested in makeup. Mum sent me a photo of her current favourite brand, Huda Beauty and I added a tiny eye-shadow palette in similar colours, makeup brushes and a lipstick. A big number 20 marks her age.

Ella and Shai recently moved in to their first home together so Ella's parents asked me to make the the young couple a "Happy New Home" card. They were very specific with their request. I should show the couple outside a house - not an apartment - holding the key to their front door. There should also be a sign outside saying "Welcome to Givon" (Givon is an Israel settlement northwest of Jerusalem). I am not sure that the "house" I illustrated looks exactly like the one that the couple now live in but you get the idea...

Finally Emily, our third young lady with a name beginning with 'E', was turning 23. Her auntie requested a card using a Bongo's Bingo theme. Apparently Bongo's Bingo consists of several rounds of bingo interspersed with rave intervals, dance-offs and catwalks down tables. It's essentially bingo played over pitchers of cocktails and beer, with frantic dancing to 90s pop music and celebrity entertainment.

Of course, I'd never heard of it!

I created a card with some cocktail glasses, music notes and bingo balls on it. The eagle-eyed among you might notice that all the balls mark Emily's age!

* This post has been shared on Little Things Thursday, Creatively Crafty, Thursday Favorite Things and All Seasons.

It's so Safta!

Not long ago a friend and regular customer asked me to make a birthday card for her Mother-in-law. She wanted me to show Safta (the Hebrew word for Grandmother) making her famous chicken soup in her big silver cooking pot. Now, it just so happens that we had eaten a Shabbat meal with these particular friends not long before and Safta was there. Making a little papercut portrait of her was pretty easy since I could remember exactly what she looked like.

My friend was so thrilled with the birthday card that she posted it on her Facebook page. "This is such an amazing card I just had to share it!" she wrote. "It's so Safta!". Another family member commented saying that it was "a brilliantly accurate card". Apparently Safta is left-handed, so I had even put the soup ladle in the correct hand.

I think they liked it.

Another local customer asked me for a card for her daughter who loves karaoke. Apparently she always uses the HOT TV remote control as her microphone, so Mum asked me to show her singing whilst using her 'mic'. The words to her favourite song are on the laptop. I was even told which part of the song to put up there! Mum also wanted to make sure that her daughter's eyes were coloured very green. Oh, and I tried to match the dark red colour dye of her hair. Really I did.

Finally, this was the result of a request for a joint birthday and new home card. I popped a sweet little red-roofed house into the foreground of the card and added some birthday stuff in the background. You can't go wrong with balloons and cake on a birthday card.