Can He Be Scuba Diving on His Bike?

A friend was rather taken with the birthday card I made for Nadav's 22nd birthday which showed him diving in the Red Sea, off Eilat's shores. My friend's husband, Ed, is into diving too. His birthday was coming up and she wanted to know if I could make a similar card for him.

Once I had agreed to make the card, the brief became a little more complicated! Ed is into biking too. "Can he be scuba diving on his bike?" my friend asked.

Never one to shy away from a complicated request, I have shown Ed on his bike. He is wearing the bright yellow cycling jersey and black shorts that he has on in the photo my friend sent me, above, and the blue bike helmet on his head. At the same time, he has a giant diving gas cylinder on his back, underwater breathing apparatus and flippers!

I added a pale blue background, some coral and a fish, along with a big 55 to mark Ed's age.

My friend was delighted. "Lisa managed to get Ed riding his bike while scuba diving!" she wrote in a WhatsApp group we both belong to. Comments varied from "What an amazing card" to "Lisa's cards always capture the magical essence of a person."

* This post has been shared on Little Things Thursday, Create-it Link Party, Thursday Favorite Things.

Twenty Two

I never totally stopped creating after my youngest son died but it was hard for me to create "happy" pieces when I was, and still am, feeling so sad. Mister Handmade in Israel and I both decided that we wanted to forget our birthdays but our eldest son, Nadav, felt that he wanted to mark his day. In that case, he needed a special card made by mum!

He is now a year older but I am sharing his cards in consecutive order. His 23rd birthday card will follow soon.

Nadav had not long before discovered a love for diving and spent his 22nd birthday in Eilat, Israel's southernmost city, with his lovely girlfriend Hila. They had both done introductory dives a few months earlier.

Diving in Eilat offers the perfect way to explore the world-class coral reefs of the Red Sea off Eilat's shores. Eilat and the surrounding region of the Red Sea is one of the world's best diving regions and a great way to see the wonders of the underwater world, the coral, the marine life and more.

My card shows Nadav in his black wetsuit and flippers. He is surrounded by the beautiful blue water and colourful coral of the Red Sea. Some friendly fish have come to say hello too. The observant amongst you might notice the red Arsenal crest floating next to him in the water. As I have mentioned many times before, Nadav is obsessed with the Premier League football club and their crest just had to appear on his card. A big yellow number 22 marks his age.

His birthday card was spirited away in Hila's bag and presented to Nadav on the morning of his birthday. "Thank you very much" he wrote to me. "I like the card!"

* This post has been shared on Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop and Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday).

Uncle Ronnie

A customer ordered one of my extra large cards for her Uncle Ronnie with the intention of framing it for his birthday. She sent me a super long list of the things she and her Mum feel represent him. He is a handy man, she wrote, and so a screwdriver, hammer and nails were requested for the card. He absolutely loves chocolate, especially chocolate from the British chocolatier Paul Young, and particularly loves his hot chocolate, so she asked if I could show him holding a Paul Young hot chocolate drink. She also wanted a peppermint tea to go in somehow too! Uncle Ronnie is a big fan of the Radio 4 programme The Archers and he loves singing Barbara Streisand songs. He also loves cars and gadgets, so cut-outs of a silver SLK Mercedes sports car and a Lexus were requested.

Uncle Ronnie is a Past President of the City of London Law Society so my customer wanted some kind of image relating to the fact that he is a lawyer. He loves skiing and scuba diving and flying kites with the children in the family, oh and she wanted me to show him wearing the Master of Ceremonies red sash that I could see in the photo she sent me. Finally, Uncle Ronnie has the most enormous wonderful winning smile and that should really stand out, she said.
There was a LOT to include!

You can see some of the many cut-outs I created. Above is a picture of the tiny screwdriver, hammer and nails, and below them a paper fox to represent Ronnie's law firm which is called Fox. The fox appears on the card above the Scales of Justice, below. Finally, the colourful kite was also a request.
The card took me, ahem, quite some hours to create and I was delighted to receive the following emails after my customer and her Mum had seen it:

Dear Lisa
I hope that you had a lovely Rosh Hashanah and I wish you and your family a very happy New Year. I cannot even begin to tell you how thrilled my brother was with the card and the fun he had identifying all his special interests - it was a great success and I know that he has already put it up in his home. I'm sure that he would not mind at all your using the card - and I do hope that it brings you in lots of orders - you really deserve the success. You took such immense pains to get everything just right and I do hope that it will help your business go from strength to strength. Thank you again for all your help and patience and if it would help for someone to give a personal recommendation I'd be more than happy to do so." 
Her daughter added, "Uncle Ronnie really is one of the most amazing men I know and I absolutely adore him ... you probably feel like you know him better than anyone!".
Um, I think perhaps I do!