Card: Baby Announcement - Family Tree

The above image comes from my daughter's baby book.  I made about 80 of these for family and close family friends to announce her birth.  They were all finished except for the inside before she made her appearance.  Though I wish I had kept one or two more as this is the only one I have left.

Inspiration:  The ketubah (marriage contract) we had chosen when we got married featured a large tree (a link to the ketubah is found near the end of this post).  I had used the tree image for a Rosh Hashana card several years before and knew I could fit what I wanted on the branches.  I thought it would be very cool to tie in the same "tree of life" as our ketubah into a "family tree" to welcome our new baby into the family.  Also I was able to incorporate a lot of symbolism into this card design.  The leaves on the tree are family members and the flowers under the trees are friends we've cultivated (our garden).  There are only 18 leaves on the tree - 18 in Jewish tradition symbolizes "life".  Of course, the cradle is reminescent of "Rock a bye baby".

How I Make Them: I already had made a template of the tree.  I used this template on a dark brown paper, cut it out and glued it to the card, low enough so that I would be able to fit all the leaves and some text above the tree.  I cut out the leaves as pointed oval free hand in greens, blues, magentas, and purple papers - primarily on the darker side of the spectrum.  I cut the cradles out of a manila folder after making a template.  I cut little pink blankets out of scrap pieces of paper free hand and used a hole punch with peach paper to make the heads.  The flowers were cut freehand out of pastel colored papers.  I glued all the pieces on the cards.  Before gluing on the flowers, I hand-drew stems and leaves using green gel pens.  Once the glue was dry and I knew who the card was going to, I was able to write on the leaves and flowers.  Each tree was slightly different.  The 18 leaves included the person's relationship to our daughter (e.g. Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Aunt, Cousin, etc.) and their first name.  I always included Mommy & Daddy and the immediate family members that the card was going to.  If the card was for friends,  their names were on the flowers and I had a group of 18 family members that I always used on those cards.  I added the text "We proudly welcome to our family tree..." in gel pen on the front of the card.  After our daughter was born, I printed up the detailed information (her name, birth date, birth time, location, weight, height, etc.) on the computer and used thin green fabric ribbon to secure it through 2 hole punches on the inside of the card.

Alternatives:

• I've already mentioned that I've used this tree design for a Rosh Hashana card before (see link to image below).
• A family tree card would also make a great invitation to a Family Reunion.
• If you wanted to include a family pet, you could make a small cat or dog lying under the shade of the tree.

Additional Links:

• Rosh Hashana Card Image
• Tree of Life Ketubah - the image on this page shows the traditional text, our has the egalitarian text in hebrew and english but the artwork is the same.