Two Cards for Mum's 80th

A customer asked me to make two cards for her mum's 80th birthday back in May. She sent me a recent photo of her mum and told me that she likes to knit, do crosswords and play Kalooki.

Showing mum knitting was easy. I added a newspaper with a crossword puzzle on it and a tiny pencil. I had to look up Kalooki  but soon learnt that it is a card game popularly played in Jamaica. It is sometimes called Jamaican Rummy. I printed out a tiny Kalooki score sheet and some playing cards. A big yellow number 80 marks mum's age.

My customer wanted me to show her children on the second card. Once again she sent me a recent photo and I was able to create a likeness of them all, carefully copying all the details, from the girls' dresses to the colour of the boys' belts!

"Thanks to my amazingly talented friend Lisa Isaacs for making these wonderful birthday cards for my mum's 80th." my customer wrote on Facebook. "She [mum] loved them."  

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wow On Wednesday and Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop.

Tamar and Eilon

Tamar recently celebrated her Bat Mitzvah and her mum asked me to make a special card for her, just as I did for her big sisters Yaara and Maayan in 2018 and 2020 respectively. 

Tamar loves playing board and card games, listening to music on her headphones, strawberries and pizza, mum told me. She is also in a drama club. Apparently she always does the "V" for "victory" hand gesture in photos too! Finally, Snowy the dog, who has already appeared in a couple of the family's cards, had to be included as well.

I showed Tamar wearing her white headphones. Behind her is a stage with red curtains. I cut out some tiny strawberries and a slice of pizza and added some games too. Snowy is sitting next to Tamar. Instead of a greeting on the front of the card, her mum asked me to add a number 12 to mark Tamar's age.

Mum said the card was "absolutely gorgeous - thank you!"

Eilon was turning 9. His mum told me that he loves playing PlayStation, so she thought I could show him with his black and white controller. In the background I added two of his favourite books from the series 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' in Hebrew, or Yomano Shel Hanun. Eilon also loves milk chocolate M&M's, so I popped a packet in the background as well. A big number 9 marks his age.

Mum sent me this gorgeous photo of Eilon with his birthday card. "Another great success!" she wrote "And by chance he's wearing the same shirt!".

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun. and Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop.

Jack's Album

Jack recently celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. His mum told me that his hobbies include reading, origami, Netflix and gaming. He also likes the fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and practices Jiu-Jitsu.  However, Jack's Hanachat Tefillin ceremony, when a Jewish boy lays tefillin (phylacteries) for the first time in advance of his Bar Mitzvah, was coming up and Mum thought it would be nice to show him wearing tefillin on the front of his Bar Mitzvah album. The hobbies all went on the inside pages.

Jack's mum sent me a photo of the first time her son put on tefillin, the cubic black leather boxes containing Biblical verses, with leather straps, that Orthodox Jewish men wear on their head and their arm during weekday morning prayer. I carefully recreated the photo for the cover of his Bar Mitzvah album, adding some Jack playing cards, since the theme of the Bar Mitzvah celebration was deck of cards. Jack of clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds...

I then decorated five pages inside Jack's album, above. The first page had some books on it, to represent his love of reading. Then I cut out some tiny origami shapes, followed by a television with Netflix on the screen. Next I created a paper version of Jack's blue gi top which he wears for Jiu-Jitsu. His mum told me that he has a white belt. The word "gi" derives from "keikogi", which means training gear in Japanese. Keiko signifies "practice", while gi means "dress" or "clothes" (similar to the "ki" in kimono). Finally, I added the Dungeons & Dragons logo and some of the Dungeons & Dragons dice.

Jack's mum was very pleased with the album. "Thank you very much, it's beautiful" she wrote to me. Very often I end up squeezing a lot on the covers of my albums, at the request of the customer. It can look good but, in the case of this album, less is more. I like the simplicity of it being just the Bar Mitzvah boy and his tefillin against a bright blue background and a few playing cards.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Link-up Potpourri and Pictorial Tuesday.