Cricut Cardz Challenge #68

We're halfway through the work week now and that means it's Wednesday, Cricut Cardz Challenge day.  This week our challenge is to use a house image from any cartridge, a flourish and some lace.  I used the Cricut Lite Sugar and Spice cartridge for this cute little Victorian cottage image.  I used my Gypsy to make it into a shaped card.  My base card is made by welding two of the house shapes, flipping one and attaching them at the top then cutting them from kraft cardstock.  I also used the hide contour key to take out all the markings.  I cut another house shape from a medium brown cardstock and attached it to the front of the card.  I used a pale yellow textured cardstock for the house layer and textured white cardstock for the windows, door and trim.  I made the Welcome to OUR Neighborhoods with my computer and printed in brown ink.  The lace trim is added at the mid-section of the house and my flourish is above the attic window.  I cut it at 1/2" from the Cindy Loo cartridge and added a yellow rhinestone to the flower center.  I wish I had a cute little cottage like this to live in, on the shores of a pretty lake, in the summer, with the sun shining down.  Sorry, my daydream got away from me.  It's this miserable cold weather that's still hanging around here in Michigan.  Hope you can join the challenge this week at Cricut Cardz with a house card of your own.  Don't forget to add the lace and a flourish.

Easter Bunny Glitterbabe Image

Isn't this the cutest darn image?  I fell in love with it when I saw it on my good friend Stef's blog.  This is her image and you can find it here at her Glitterbabe's Shop.  This is a 5.25" square card (white cardstock) and I topped it with a scrap of Heidi Grace paper.  I colored my image with COPICS then matted it onto light blue cardstock and placed it on a scalloped square I cut from Bazzill textured cardstock with Cricut's Storybook cartridge.  I added a little ribbon and my tag sentiment is a Cutting Cafe Easter Mini word that I punched with a Marvy tag punch. 

BBTB2 Disney and Blog Hop

I can't believe it's the last Monday of the month already!  The month of March just flew by.  But, that's okay because it means Spring is here and the day's are getting warmer and brighter.  This week's hostess at BBTB2, Maria, asked the DT to use a Disney cut.  I recently got the Toy Story cartridge specifically to scrap this photo.  I also have a Buzz Lightyear photo that I will be using it for.  After doing this page and the Woody cut, I have to say, I may put off that other layout for awhile.  This was definitely the hardest layering I've encountered from a Cricut cartridge.  This guy is cut at 7.5" and some of the parts were so tiny I had a difficult time trying to figure out what they were.  The photo in the manual is way to small to get a detailed look.  Lucky for me I could look at this photo for reference.  My background cloud paper was printed with my Cricut Imagine Best Friends cartridge.  The title, photo frame and character are all cut from the Toy Story cartridge.

The Cutting Cafe Egg Sentiment Shaped Card

There's an adorable new shaped card set at The Cutting Cafe called Egg Sentiment Shaped Card Set.  It comes with an egg shaped card, scalloped edge topper, envelope with an egg edge, 8 patterned papers in two different sizes and 4 sentiment borders.  The adorable little chick I used on my card came from another Cutting Cafe set called Easter Set 1.  I was always fascinated with fuzzy, cute, cuddly chicks and ducks when I was young and was always trying to get my mom to let me get one at Easter time.  I never convinced her.  Now I understand they aren't house pets.  LOL  I cut my base card from white cardstock and topped it with the scalloped shape cut from Bazzill Basic Dots in yellow.  Then I printed and cut the black polka dot piece topping it with the shaped sentiment.  I cut my chick from a scrap of yellow polka dot and embossed the egg shell with Cuttlebug's  Swiss Dot folder.  For some reason this little chick made me think of the book Chicken Little that I loved so much when I was a child.  It must be a picture from the book that jogs my memory.  Anyway...I used dimensionals on the egg shell and a second layer of flowers. I added little tiny pearls in the center of the flowers that I colored orange with my Copics.  Here's a little hint for you when you're working with circle or oval shaped cards.  Trim a little off the bottom of the card back straight across and when it's standing it won't wobble. 

I will use this card for the following challenges:

• Aly's Sunday Challenge-Spring
• Daring Cardmakers-Book (Chicken Little)
• Pattie's Creations-Flowers and Pearls
• Southern Girls-Add an animal
• Stamp Something-Spring
• Totally Papercrafts-Cuddly and Cute

The Cutting Cafe Shaped Basket card

Here's a shaped card I made from The Cutting Cafe Easter Basket Shaped Card Template and Cutting File.  I used Bazzill pink textured cardstock for the base card, basket handles and front pieces.  My flowered backing paper is DCWV Girl Nursery Stack.  The banner on the front of the card is from another Cutting Cafe set called Easter Banners Colored Set.  This set comes with two sizes of the banners colored in pink and yellow or you can print them in black and white and color them to match a project like I did.  The eggs in the basket were just cut from scraps and I embossed and inked one of them to add a little texture. I also stitched the basket top with my sewing machine to make sure the front pieces didn't come off.  I finished my basket off with a bow and button. 

Paper Cutz and Three Patterned Papers

Friday---Hooray!!!  Made it to the end of another week.  Hopefully your weekend will include some time to craft.  Perhaps you can join this week's Paper Cutz challenge for a card, layout or project using three patterend papers.  This challenge gave me a chance to highlight my mini album I made for pictures of my 9th grandchild due in May.  I'm always making things for someone else and rarely do anything for myself.  I made this album for myself as a little brag book.  It's just as exciting to have the ninth grandchild as it was the first.  We will travel from Michigan to Virginia to see this baby, so a lot of family members here in Michigan won't have the opportunity to see the baby personally.  I will be taking lots of pictures to bring home to share and I wanted something cute to put them in.  I absolutely fell in love with this line of double-sided papers from Best Creation, Inc. called Safari Boy.  I love the colors, texture, shiny glitter highlights, patterns and adorable little animals. I purchased only four sheets to mix and match into a 6 x 6 album.  The first picture is of the front cover after binding it with my Bind It All.  Sorry for the glare on the photo, I put an acrylic sheet on top to protect the front and back covers.  I took pictures of the inside pages before binding so I could lay them flat.  Below are page two and three of the album and I used three of the patterned papers together on page two...a check, a diamond and the lion heads that I fussy cut for the edge.  The third page uses a polka dot for the banner.  I cut the banner from Cricut's Birthday Bash cartridge and the letters for the banner from Plantin' Schoolbook.  I added buttons to the corners of the journaling square and a little fussy cut lion above the banner.

For pages four and five of the album I used the checked background with the diamond border. I cut two scalloped squares from the Storybook cartridge and trimmed them with a little rick rack. The joy circle is cut from Lacy Labels and I added a journaling block in the other corner.

The striped edge I used on pages six and seven is a scrap from my bin that I thought coordinated well enough. I added a jounaling box and a sentiment then a couple more of the fussy cut lion heads. It doesn't show up in the photo but the word cuddly is glittered and there is glitter on the lions heads.

I punched a border for pages eight and nine with a Fiskars punch and added another journaling block and the adorable elephant with glitter.

For pages ten and eleven below, I used the other half of the scallop shaped paper piece that I used on the front and back covers then added the little alligator in one corner and a journaling block in the other and added a couple buttons to each. 

The last two pages, thirteen and fourteen, have scalloped cirlces that I cut from Cricut's Easter 2010 cartridge and added sentiments and bows on each circle. 

The last photo is the back cover.  I was able to put this album together in about four hours using all the pre-made elements.  I almost forgot to tell you that I used chipboard for the album pages to make it sturdy.  I hope you enjoyed looking at my album.  I sure enjoyed making something for myself and can't wait until I am able to see that baby and take the pictures to add to the album.

Cardz TV Bunny Challenge/Contest

There's a contest going on over at Cardz TV.  The challenge is to use a bunny on your card.  One bunny just wasn't enough, so I have a dozen.  If you're like me you have a million scraps.  I put some to good use here by cutting each bunny from a different paper.  My bunny is from Cricut's Create A Critter cartridge.  I decided that my bunnies would be viewed from the back so I could add cute little tail puffs on each of them.  This card is a 5.25" square.  I added a pink mat and a light green polka dot mat to the top of white cardstock.  My bunnies are cut at 1.25".  I added a computer generated sentiment to the inside of the card that says Hoppy Easter.

Things I Love About Spring

I know the calendar says it's Spring, but if you were where I am (Michigan) right now it's anything but Spring. I'm writing this as the sleet is pelting my studio window and we are under a Winter Weather Advisory.  Oh goody!!!  I can't believe I'm saying this...at this point I'm glad it's not more of the white stuff.  The last pile of snow just melted from our backyard yesterday.  Anyway, trying to remain in my Spring frame of mind I made another card today using a brand new set from The Cutting Cafe called One Spring Day for a few challenges.  Fabulous set with over 90 digital images in black/white and color. 

The Challenges:

• Alphabet Challenge-Trees
• Aly's Sunday Challenge- Spring
• Amber's Crafts-Anything Goes
• Crafty Ann's-Spring
• Digi Doodles-Anything Goes
• Do You Stack Up- Bow
• Paper Crafting Journey-Up in the air (bird)
• Sugar Creek Hollow- Anything Goes
• Thrilling Thursday- Show us what you've got

I loved this tree image the minute I saw it.  Nothing would make me happier than seeing some green leaves right now, but here in Michigan that's about another month away.  I am happy to say that the robins started returning last week.  (If I were them I would have stayed where it was warmer).  This is a standard A2 card cut from kraft cardstock and topped with yellow polka dot paper from my scrap bin.  I added the red gingham ribbon and bow before placing the printable stamp on top.  Then I printed the little journaling sentiment tag and popped it up with dimensionals.  I added a little doodling and it was finished.  It truly doesn't get easier. 

The Cutting Cafe One Spring Day

There's a fabulous new set out at The Cutting Cafe called One Spring Day.  Regina's really outdone herself with this set.  This set features 90 plus images in black/white and color.  I used colored images for this card.  The red, yellow and blue are just so vibrant and crisp against the white.  I put several images together here...the red scalloped frame with the yellow and blue flowers, the banner with the sentiment and the birdhouse.  I layered a few of the flowers for dimension and simply added a yellow gingham ribbon and button to the birdhouse.

BBTB2 Paisley Dachsund

This week at BBTB2 our design team sister Melissa asked us to use the Dachsund cut from the Paisley cartridge.  I was able to whip this page up quickly using my Cricut Imagine and the Imagine More cartridge along with the Paisley cartridge.  I used DCWV Pets stack for the top and bottom border and the heart and large paw print.  The frame and title were printed and cut from my Imagine.  I also cut the dachsund with my Imagine so I could use the fill feature to print and cut the dog pieces with my choice of papers from the Imagine More cartridge.  Remember, if you play along with the BBTB2 challenge this week and you don't have the Paisley cartridge you can use a dog from another cartridge.

Paper Cutz Anything Goes

This week at Paper Cutz Challenge Mary told the DT it's anything goes.  Thank goodness because I have plenty of scrapbook pages to use.   If you follow my blog at all, you know that I've been working on a Dr. Seuss scrapbook for my 9th grandchild.  My daughter-in-law's baby shower is this weekend and I have to say I'll be glad to move all the Dr. Seuss shower favors, decorations and scrapbook out of my house.  I've been working on them for months now.  I had a great time designing them all but I most enjoyed the scrapbook.  It was certainly a labor of love and I can't wait to get my son and daughter-in-law's reaction.  This is the layout I made to document baby's first steps.  I did the entire album in red, white and turquoise to keep a uniform feeling throughout.  I used my Cricut Expression, Imagine and SCAL to design this double page layout and titled it First Steps.

I started this layout with turquoise cardstock then used my Imagine to cut the white cardstock shape from the Best Friends cartridge.  I centered a 6" strip of red polka dot paper and added two turquoise mats with a Dr. Seuss quote in the middle on each page. I printed the quotes with my computer using a Dr. Seuss font. On the top and bottom edge of the polka dot paper I added a gingham checked ribbon that I knotted in the middle.

The banner was cut with my Imagine and the Imagine More cartridge.  The original banner on that cartridge has multi-colored flags but using the printing feature of the Imagine I was able to change all the flags to print in red.  I added polka dot paper onto the flags then used my SCAL to cut the letters from the Dr. Seuss font that I found on the internet.  I added gingham bows to the ends of the banner.  The last piece of this design was cutting the footprints.  I used the B is for Boys cartridge. 

I put a lot of research into this album to find all the Dr. Seuss quotes.  One day I went to the children's side of our local library and checked out a stack of Dr. Seuss books.  That filled in the gaps to go with all the Dr. Seuss books I still have from when my children were small.  I discovered that Dr. Seuss said a lot of cool stuff that could translate to adults.  Isn't it true that life is a great balancing act for all of us?

Cricut Cardz Challenge #66

 Happy Wednesday, we're moving closer to the weekend!  Today's challenge at Cricut Cardz is for a Thank you card incorporating a border cut from any Cricut cartridge using the colors white, blue and yellow.  I used Just Because Cards to make a set of scalloped Thank you notes that I placed into a clear pillow box to give to a friend of mine.  The card is the cut from page 46.  I cut four cards at 5.25" from white cardstock then I cut two cards from the blue patterned paper and cut these in half for placement on the fronts of the four cards.  I cut four scalloped yellow borders using the shift cut also on page 46 and attached onto the front edge.  Now moving to the emblem and thanks sentiment.  The emblem is cut from the Home Accents cartridge.  It's actually the welcome sign on the cartridge and I used my Gypsy so hide the contours to just get the sign.  I used white cardstock for the shadow and they're cut at 2.5".  The thanks sentiment is cut from the Cindy Loo cartridge at 1".  I added a couple rhinestones to the top and bottom of the emblem and added a little doodling on the yellow border with a white gel pen.

I packaged them up with envelopes into this clear pillow box.  I added a sheer white ribbon and a white daisy.  I inked the edges of the flower with turquoise ink to tie in with the card color and then added a yellow button to mimic the flowers on the patterned paper.  You can order these clear boxes at Clearbags.com.. They are reasonably priced at $11.00 for 25.  My box is 5 1/4 x 7".  This is also a great source for clear  goody bags.  I hope you'll get a chance to play along this week at Cricut Cardz and thanks for stopping by.

BBTB2 Easter Chick

Happy Monday!  Isn't it so nice to have started Daylight Savings Time and know it's going to be staying light later in the day?  I know it's just an illusion but it makes me feel like I'm getting closer to warmer weather.  I'm also elated that it will officially be Spring in a few more days.  That's why I was so excited when our DT sister, the ever so sweet and talented Penny, chose a nice Spring cut for us to work with this week.  Penny chose the little chick from the Easter 2010 cartridge.  Just precious as can be!  I've got a few Easter cards that I wanted to finish up so, of course, I went with an Easter theme.  All my papers I used are from my scrap bin.  My little chick is flipped, as you may notice, if you have the cartridge, and cut at 3".  Remember, if you want to play along with the challenge and you don't have this cartridge you can use a chick or duck from any other Cricut cartridge.  I wanted to put an Easter bonnet on my little chick so I used a hat from the Freshly Picked cartridge.  I found that cutting it at one inch was the perfect size to fit on the chick.  I also tied a little bow around her neck.  My scalloped frame was cut from Just Because Cards.  It's found on page 45 and I cut it at 3".  My sentiment is computer generated.  The eggs are cut from scraps at 1.5". 

SPRING is coming!  Daylight Savings Time and the calendar tell me it's almost here.  My Pink Stamper has a challenge asking to use the colors of Spring.  This layout says it all for me...the colors and the activity.  My husband and I think our granddaughter Payton is old enough (4 1/2) this year to take to the park to show her how to fly a kite.  Instead of waiting until after the event, I decided to get the page ready in advance for a change.  I used my Imagine for this layout.  This page is one of the bonus features on the Nursery Tails cartridge.  The scalloped frame also came from Nursery Tails.  The little girl is from the Best Friends cartridge as well as the kite.  I used the layer feature on the little girl and the kite.  I used Lyrical Letters to cut out the title at 1.5".  The only additions I made were pink rick rack, Stickles on the sunshine, some doodling with a white gel pen and the string on the kite.  Quick and easy to put together.

Paper Cutz #82 Color Challenge

I was a little skeptical (okay, more than a little) when I got Mary's DT challenge for this week at Paper Cutz.  It's a color challenge using black, white, red, blue and yellow.  I saw those colors and thought, what the heck am I going to do with those colors.  I really had to put my thinking cap on since these aren't colors I would normally use together.  But then it just came to me...black and yellow...a bee.  I didn't have any stamp images of a bee (not unusual, I don't have that many stamps) so I looked at my Cricut cartridges and low and behold, my new Birthday Bash cartridge had a bee image on it.  I love polka dots so decided to use some polka dot papers I found in my scrap bin.  I started with white cardstock and made a standard A2 card, added a black mat, and a red polka dot mat.  I cut my bee at 3.5".  The sentiment came from the same cartridge.

Dr. Seuss Splish Splash Layout

Anybody wondering where I've been?  I'm seeing Dr. Seuss everywhere, including my dreams.  Between making 65 pillow box favors and decorations for my daughter-in-law's Dr. Seuss themed baby shower and furiously working to finish the baby's scrapbook, I've had little time for anything else.  I thought I'd post a couple pages from the album today.  Can you remember giving that newborn baby the first bath?  That squiggly, squirmy, slippery little body.  I remember how terrified I was with my first, so afraid she would slip out of my hands.  By the time I got to baby number five, nothing phased me anymore.  The visual on this page shows the Cat in the Hat sitting in the tub eating a piece of cake.  I thought to myself--that's not a bad idea.  I might try that some day.  LOL  Maybe on my next birthday....

Beauty in Simplicity

Today I decided to put a card together for my aunt for Mother's Day and to enter it in several challenges.

The Callenges:

• Alphabet Challenge - Ribbon
• CRAFT - Mother's Day
• Craft You Days Away - Black and White
• Cute Card Thursday - Spring
• Delicious Doodles - A card you'd want to get
• Digi Doodles Best - Black and White
• Digi's With Attitude - Anything Goes
• One Stop Craft Challenge - Black and White plus one other color (a touch of silver from the charm)
• Paper Crafting Journey - Wings
• Pile It On - Things you see in the sky
• Simply Create - Flowers
• Stampin' For the Weekend - Spring
• Top Tip Challenge - Favorite embellishment or technique

I decided to go with a scalloped oval card.  I made the base of the card from white cardstock welding two ovals together with my Cricut Gypsy.  Then I used the Lacy Labels cartridge to cut my scalloped ovals.  My digital stamp is from The Cutting Cafe.  This is absolutely as favorite as a technique can be and I use it as often as possible.  Simply print a digital image directly onto my cut shape.  I just print onto scrap paper then tape my precut shape over the top and run it through the printer again.  I simply added an organdy bow, a few pearls to the butterflies, a butterfly charm and some Stickles to the stem.  The hardest part of this card was finding black ribbon.  I discovered I have almost no black ribbon.

BBTB2 Ladybug

Another week, another Monday, another BBTB2 challenge.  This week our fearless leader, Heather, asked the DT to use the ladybug from Boys Will Be Boys.  I don't have this cartridge so I used the ladybug from Doodlecharms.  An oldie but goodie.  I think Doodlecharms is the first cartridge I bought after I got my original Cricut.  It's hard to remember back that far.  Now ninety-some cartridges later...I don't even want to think about the fortune wrapped up in this...neither does hubby.  LOL  I just happened to have this ladybug  patterned paper from Making Memories in my stash.  I started with an A2 card made from kraft cardstock.  My ladybug is cut at  2 1/2" with a shadow from brown cardstock and patterned paper from Heidi Grace.  I cut two layers of the patterned paper so I could layer.  I found my cute little ladybug poem on the website quotegarden.com.   I typed it up on my computer and printed it in dark pink.  I added some cat's eye embellishments to the ladybug's body and a tiny bow and pink button.  Of course, it wouldn't be one of my cards without some doodling with a white gel pen. 

I'll be sending this card off to my granddaughter Payton.  She loves to get mail from Nana.  Now remember if you'd like to join the BBTB2 challenge but don't have Boys Will Be Boys you can use any cartridge with a ladybug and there are quite a few.  Thanks for stopping by.

Blog Hop Candy Winner

Thanks to all of you who visited during the monthly BBTB2 Blog Hop.  I'd like to announce the winner of my SPRING blog candy package:

Random.org picked:

#8 VeronicaA said...

The doily on your card really helps to make

the birdcage and bird stand out.

Beautifully done. Thanks for sharing and

the opportunity to win.

Thanks so much Veronica for your wonderful comment and congratulations.  If you will email me @

thomasjeri55@yahoo.com with your mailing address, I'll get your prize off to you in the mail so you can start creating with some wonderful Spring embellishments.  



The Cutting Cafe Let's Go For A Ride

I wanted to make a quick card today to send to my granddaughter.  I haven't seen her in awhile and wanted to make sure she didn't forget how much I love her.  I whipped this card together with a couple new sets from The Cutting Cafe.  I used the BICYCLE BACKGROUND PRINTABLE STAMP SET and the LET'S GO FOR A RIDE SET.  The scalloped black frame came from the older set ANIMAL AND BUG LOVE PRINTABLE STAMP SET.  The thing I love most about The Cutting Cafe sets is the quickness and ease of putting together a card on the spur of the moment.  For this card I started with a black cardstock A2 card and topped it with a kraft cardstock mat.  All of my printed elements are done on kraft cardstock.  First I printed the scalloped frame and cut it out.  Then I printed the little bicycle right on this scalloped frame.  I did that by first printing the bicycle on a scrap piece of printer paper then placing my scalloped frame over the top of that printing, aligning it so the bicycle would print on the bottom half of the scalloped frame.  All I had to do after that was print out a sheet of the background words and trim a piece to fit inside the scalloped frame.  For a little pop of color I added a scrap of red polka dot paper to separate the words from the image, added a piece of black rick rack and then placed the sentiment (from the Let's Go For A Ride set) on some pop dots.  I added a little red Copic marker to the flowers on the bicycle and a little doodling with a white gel pen to finish it off.   I know Payton is going to love getting this card in the mail from Nana.

Paper Cutz Challenge #81 St. Patrick's Day Treat Cup



I'm not Irish nor do I know anyone who is Irish, but Mary asked the Paper Cutz DT to create a card, layout or project this week for St. Patrick's day.  I recently obtained round plastic treat cups from  Stampin' Up and was anxious to use them.  I knew I could cut any size circle I wanted with my Cricut so began to think about how I could go about it.  I started looking through my Cricut cartridges for something circular that I could incorporated into my treat cups.  I found this particular cut on the Celebrate With a Flourish Lite Cricut cartridge.  After cutting and discarding a few scraps of paper I managed to get the look I was going for.  The hole for the treat cup is 1.75".  It was just a matter of getting the circle to line up on the paper where I needed it to be for the "O" in the sentiment. As you can see, I placed the "O" on top of the treat cup.  I filled the treat cup with white M & Ms so the green "O" would show up.    

I hope you're able to join Paper Cutz this week with a little luck o' the Irish of your own.  Glad you've visited today.  Just a reminder that I have some blog candy up for grabs.  You can see that post here.  I'll be drawing a winner tomorrow so you still have 24 hrs. to leave a comment on that post.

The Cutting Cafe Book Box

There's a new set out at The Cutting Cafe and I just love it.  If you're looking for a clever and unique way to give a book for a gift...you've found it here.  This set is called the BOOK BOX TEMPLATE/CUTTING FILE.  There are some special cutting instructions that come with this box.  You need to set your printer to print an 8 1/2" x 14" piece of paper.  I used a 12" x 12" piece of DCWV textured cardstock and trimmed it down to 8 1/2" x 12" before placing in my printer tray.  After assembling the box cover and bottom I cut a scalloped rectangle using my Cricut Storybook cartridge to place on the cover.  I wanted my box to look real girly and feminine.  I used pink tulle for my bow and tied it around the scalloped rectangle before attacing it to the box.  Now I had my basic structure and it was time to decorate.  I used a sketch from Mojo Monday to get me started.  The scalloped circle base was cut at 5" with my Cricut using the Easter 2010 cartridge.  On top of this I placed a circle cut from pink cardstock at 4 1/2", then a piece of patterned paper from DCWV Nursery stack for girls cut at 4 1/4".  I punched a pink lace edge with a MS punch and placed a strip from the Book Box set printed with I LIKE BOOKS phrases.  I changed the color of the words from black to dark pink using my computer and Word 2007.  Regina has instructions on The Cutting Cafe site on how to change the size and color of her digi stamps.  Then I printed out the circle sentiment which says, There's nothing like a good book.  I punched it out with a circle punch measuring 1 11/16", punched a pink cardstock circle at 1 1/2" for the center and then printed the Just for You from another new Cutting Cafe set called EVERYDAY 1 INCH GREETINGS.

Here is a side view of the box showing the depth.  It's the perfect size for a paperback but I'll be using it for picture book for my four year old granddaughter.  I have another box in the works that will have a Dr. Seuss theme.  My daughter-in-law's baby shower is coming up on March 19th and it's going to have a Dr. Seuss theme and everyone was asked to bring a book for the new baby.  I think mine will look so cute presented in a box.  After the shower the box can be used for baby keepsakes like the identification bracelet and birth announcement. 

Cricut Cardz Challenge #64

Today is Dr. Seuss's birthday and we're celebrating at Cricut Cardz Challenge.  It's also Read Across America week and in many school's they are celebrating Reading Month.  As a retired educator, this is a cause dear to my heart and I remember fondly many of our Reading Month activities.  This week's challenge at Cricut Cardz is to make a bookmark incorporating any Cricut cartridge and using any colors.  I used the bookmark feature from the Animal Kingdom cartridge and some clip art of Dr. Seuss that I found online.  Some of you may know that I have been working on a scrapbook for my ninth grandchild (a boy) that is due in May.  My son and dauther-in-law are doing the baby's nursery in a Dr. Seuss theme. I have posted some of the pages from the scrapbook here on my blog.  I've been working on making  shower favors for the baby shower on March 19th.  So I've had lots of exposure to Dr. Seuss lately. 

I designed a little pocket on the front of the card for the bookmark to slip into.  The colors I used here are the colors from the Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat book.  The red polka dot paper is from October Afternoon.  This card measures 6 1/2 x 5" and I used white cardstock for the base.  I topped it with a turquoise mat cut at 4 3/4 x 6 1/4" and a polka dot mat at 4 1/2 x 6".  The pocket for the bookmark is a piece of turquoise cut at 5 1/2 x 2 1/4" and polka dot cut at 2 x 5 1/4".  The bookmark is cut at 5" width. (It cuts sideways on the mat).  I placed another Dr. Seuss image on the bookmark and topped it with a big red button for easy grabbing.  The quote on the front is from Dr. Seuss' book The Places You'll Go.  I used my computer to type it up with a Dr. Seuss font I downloaded from the Internet.  It was a free font and I've used it a ton in my scrapbook for the baby with my SCAL software to make titles for the pages.  If you'd like to see some of my Dr. Seuss scrapbook pages they are here, here and here.  You can look at my baby shower favors here.  I hope you can join Cricut Cardz this week and make your own bookmark.  Thanks for looking in today.