Custom-made card for Sora

Hello, friends!

Here is a card that I made this weekend. It is a non-traditional "Welcome Baby" card, for a friend at work named Cindy.

Cindy's son and daughter-in-law recently added to their family, with the birth of their daughter, Sora. Cindy's daughter-in-law hails from Japan, and so the name "Sora" means "clear blue sky" in her native language.

Cindy asked me to make a commemorative card for her that would be suitable for her to pass along to her son and daughter-in-law. The only parameters were that the background should be blue, representing the baby's name. I'd already mentally kicked around a few ideas before she asked, and the notion of cherry blossoms or dogwoods came to mind, with a bird in flight, "soaring." I contemplated a stork but thought that was too traditional; I decided to use a little more imagination with the ruffled feathers.

All of the components, except for the twine running through the flowers and the yellow "Flower Soft" in the center of the flowers, are made from paper. Did you know the Flower Soft is made of ground up PVC piping that's been dyed? Interesting stuff!

The only part of this card that was cut using my Cricut is the green frame around the card; for that, I used Cake Basics. The flower petals and leaves were punched. The bird and baby were fussy-cut. The onesie that the baby is wearing is Cuttlebugged using the Swiss Dot pattern. I used a 3/4" round punch for the baby's face and then hand-drew the features on the baby. The pink Japanese text says "Sora".

This is one of those cards that I hope gets framed and kept for a long while. It did take a few hours to make -- it was a labor of love. Welcome baby Sora!