Fun Notebook With April Showers Cart & A New Sketch

I am so ready for the spring to come and warm us up.....we have been having below average temperatures and I am ready to thaw out.  I received the April Showers cartridge from ScrapbookPal and for my first project this month on the ScrapbookPal blog, I thought that it would be fun to do a bright and happy notebook as a gift for a loved one (or maybe even for me).  Here's how to re-create this notebook:

You will need:
-5 x 7 notebook
-Cricut and April Showers cartridge
-Patterned paper to use on the notebook cover (mine is from Echo Park)
-cardstock in various colors to match your patterned paper (I used Bazzill and Stampin' Up!)
-ribbon (I used Stampin' Up! and Creating Keepsakes ribbon)
-twine
-Signo Uni-ball White Gel Pen
-Crop-A-Dile

Let's get started:

• Cover your notebook with the patterned paper.  I carefully took out the spiral wire and then adhered my paper to the cover.  I then used my Crop-A-Dile to punch the holes out.  You can easily see where the holes need to be punched from the back side of the cover.  Put the book back together with the spiral binding.
• Using your Cricut and April Showers cartridge, cut the house (2 3/4 inches), tree (2 1/4 inches), and cloud (1 1/4 inches) and their corresponding layers and adhere the layers together.  Cut the solid banner at 1 1/2 inches in two different colors and cut some of the flags off of one to layer onto the other.
• Using a Signo Uni-Ball White Gel Pen, draw lines or stitches to accent the cuts.
• Add the cuts onto a 2 3/4 x 4 1/4 inch piece of white cardstock.  You can add strips of green cardstock that you have snipped into one side with some scissors to resemble grass at the bottom of your cuts.  Layer the white cardstock onto a 3 1/4 x 4 3/4 inch piece of colored cardstock and tie the a ribbon around the pieces near the bottom.
• Center and adhere the cardstock to the notebook cover
• Adhere the banner in the top right corner as shown in the picture.  Use a little twine if you would like to go across the top of the flags.
• Tie various colors of ribbons along the spiral binding.  Staple some tabs to the inside pages (I used a punch for mine, but you can just cut a rectangle and fold it in half if you want).

Here is the sketch I created for this cover, but you can use it for a card if you would like.  If you do decide to use this sketch, leave a comment here so that I can come and see.

If you are a member of facebook, hop on over to the ScrapbookPal facebook page to check out the fun crafting contest they have going on right now.  "Like" their page and upload a craft project and you can have a chance to win a Cricut cartridge or a Tombow dispenser and 6 refills.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Hugs,