some simple spring cards on a budget

my friend Gail and i prepared a card workshop for our mom's group. we kept it simple. our mom's group meets for only an hour and a half, so we have a short amount of time to create something. we have done more complicated projects, but those days tend to be very rushed and hectic...not exactly the break we need as mom's.

i thought i'd share the projects. we made two versions of each card. i'm including my card and the sketches for both versions. we kept them similar, but different enough to allow the girls some ideas to add their own touches.

we chose three different colours for the base.

we used a Making Memories 6x6 paper pad for the patterned paper. {we love the paper. love the variety. but were disappointed with the way MM attached the papers.}

a few of the stamps that Gail has in her Stampin'Up! collection.

some prima got flowers. the new Robin's Nest dewdrops. maya road ribbon.

home made evalicious inspired button heart embellishments. some home made embellished pins.

{note: we have a very tight budget for these projects, and do what we can to keep the costs down. our goal is to keep each project under $5. the dewdrops and the ribbon were our extravagant purchases! i am not selling my home-made embellishments nor wish to profit off the ideas of others...the original button flowers sold by Eve and the pins sold at Paper Valise are very beautiful and still better crafted than the ones i made!}

Card Number One

i chose to distress the edges because the paper came off the pad so poorly. i made lemonade out of that lemon!

this second one was the sketch for Gails' card. she used the torn strip to embellish the front of the card....it worked awesome!

Card Number Two

Card Number Three

it took us an entire afternoon to prepare these three cards. it didn't help that we had 6 kids at the time! we had about 10 minutes to work at a time, before we were interrupted with some major thing. "she hit me!", "he broke this!", "i go poop!", "i'm hungry", "i'm thirsty", or they went running by with one child attached to a rope and being pulled along the hallway.... i think the third card took us the shortest amount of time, as the clock kept ticking and our kids became more demanding and bothering us more frequently.

we had a ton of fun the morning we presented these cards to our mom's group. they did a great job and most only needed an hour to complete them. it was rewarding to have a relaxing morning and leave with a finished project.

what is the best time of day for you to be creative?

are you able to work while your kids are awake?