How to easily make 50+ cards in one day ...

Okay, now that I have your curiosity piqued, let me confess that I "sort of" cheated. I cut up two gift books for the images and then just pasted them onto cardstock.

You see, I have a friend that loves Mary Engelbreit (you know who you are!), and I usually pick up anything Mary E that I find in the thrift stores, if it's in great condition. I had bought both of these books with the idea of passing them along to my friend, but then I got to browsing through them and realized that they were essentially books full of already-decorated cardfronts.

Since I paid only $0.50 for each book and got over 50 cards out of the deal, I considered it a good investment of my time and effort. (Two cents per card is hard to beat!) And since my friend is frugally-minded, too, I figured she wouldn't mind. :)

So here are the pictures of all the cards I made today ...



These are the cards I set aside to send to fellow mothers (especially for those difficult days with preschoolers), new moms, expecting moms, and for Mother's Day and Father's Day.



These are all the others.



And then I made a gift for my Ministerial Secret Sister with two remaining images that I thought went well together. My Secret Sister has five children and counts them among her most precious treasures, so I thought this was perfect for her. I got the frame from Dollar Tree. It's hinged and has a curved front that makes it look like an opened book. The frames each fit a 4x6" photo or other decoration.

I'm very pleased with these cards for several reasons:

1. They're super-inexpensive!!

2. I love Mary Engelbreit notecards but rarely buy any because they don't usually have my favorites in notecards.

3. The images are so expressive that they make it easy to come up with an inside sentiment. For instance, the card with the boys swinging off the tire swing into the swimming hole would make a great, "Enjoy Your Summer!" card. The one with the mother's hands over her face while her two little ones eat the cake batter (titled "The Birthday Cake") would make a great, "Having one of those days/weeks/months?" cards for a fellow-mom.

4. I now have a large variety of cards to choose from. I tend to make a lot of one kind of card for awhile, so I sometimes don't have the kind I need at the last minute.

5. I made a dent in my paper stash! That might not sound like a good thing, but I've been feeling guilty for collecting all this paper lately and just hoarding it. I made it a goal to use this paper, and I think I reduced my cardstock file by at least 1/3 today.