Readers and "Cars" fans alike!

All right everyone. Here's a twist to make reading more fun for the beginning learner. Our designer Katie just finished making this charming reading race track, which features the amazing artwork from Provo Craft's Cars Cricut cartridge, among others. Who wouldn't want to rev up their engine and power through a whole bunch of books with a chart like this?

So fun, huh? Wanna know how she did it? Who wouldn't? Well just so you know, these instructions are pretty detailed, so if you get lost, you can e-mail Katie and ask her any questions you may have. She's great to help explain things. Her e-mail is Katie at ohmycrafts dot com.

So here we go.

Supplies:

Bazzill Papers

Toronto

Nightmist

Hillary

Bumblebee

Hong Kong

Cashmere

Brown

Smoky

Thunder

Juneberry

Saltillo

Bazzill White

Black OP

Yosemite

Other supplies:

Making Memories 12x12 Metallic Paper

Making Memories 8x8 Vellum Paper

We R Memory Keepers Large Gromlets (yellow, green, red, blue, orange)

American Crafts Memory Markers

Scrap Paper

Cricut Personal Cutter

Cars Cricut Cartridge

Jubilee Cartridge

Paper Trimmer

Adhesive

Step 1: Here's the part that takes the longest. Cut all your paper as follows, and organize piles according to where it will be placed on the chart (Mater, Lightning McQueen, phrase, etc.) Some of these pieces are very small, so make sure not to drop or lose anything.

• You'll need two full sheets of Toronto. Set aside. These will be your base pages.

• Nightmist: With your paper trimmer, cut into two 4-inch strips. With the Cars cartridge, cut "Let's Cruise" at 1 1/4 size in your Cricut (Ramone1, Spare Parts Blackout).

• Hillary: With your paper trimmer, cut four strips—two strips 1 inch wide, two strips 1/2 inch. With the Cars cartridge, cut Mater1, detail in 3 1/2 inch, and Mater1, eyes 3 1/2 inch. With the Jubilee cartridge, cut the shadow of your letters.

• Bumblebee: With the Jubilee cartridge, cut your letters. With the Cars cartridge, cut the shadow of Mater1 (3 1/2 inch) and McQueen7 (4 inch), "Let's Cruise" (Ramone1, spare parts) in 1 1/4 inch size, McQueen7 detail (at 4 inches), and your road blackouts. If you choose to do the road as it is shown, cut 20 straight roads (SnotRod Spare Parts Blackout), 13 curves (Wingo Spare Parts Blackout), and 2 intersections (Boost Spare Parts Blackout) at 1 inches.

• Hong Kong: With the Cars cartridge, cut McQueen7 detail in a 4-inch size and Mater1 shift Body/White/Windows) in 3 1/2 inch size.

• Cashmere: Cut Mater1 Body/White/Windows in 3 1/2 inch size

• Brown: Cut Mater1 detail in 3 1/2 inch size.

• Smoky: Cut Mater1 shift detail in 3 1/2 inch size.

• Thunder: Cut Mater1 Tires/Eyes in 3 1/2 inch size.

• Juneberry: Cut Mater1 shift detail in 3 1/2 inch size and McQueen7 shift detail in 4 inch size.

• Saltillo: Cut Mater1 detail in 3 1/2 inch size.

• Bazzill White: Cut Mater1 shift Body/White/Windows in 3 1/2 inch size and McQueen7 shift Body/White/Windows in 4 inch size.

• Black OP: Cut McQueen7 Tires/Eyes in 4 inch size.

• Yosemite: Cut McQueen7 shift Tires/Eyes.

• Metallic Black: Cut McQueen7 in 4 inch size and Mater1 in 3 1/2 inch size, "Finish Line" (Doc1 Spare Parts) in 1 1/4 inch size, and your road top. If you're following the road as shown, cut 20 straight roads (SnotRod Spare Parts), 13 curves (Wingo Spare Parts), and 2 intersections (Boost Spare Parts) in 1 inch size.

• Metallic Red: Cut McQueen7 Body/White/Windows in 4 inch size.

• Metallic Gold: Cut the Piston cup (TheKing1 Spare Parts) in 3 3/4 size.

• Vellum Red: Cut the Finish Line Blackout (Doc1 Spare Parts Blackout) in 1 1/2 inch size.

Whew. Still with us?

Step 2: Now that you FINALLY have all your pieces cut out, it's time for the fun! Assemble Mater, Lightning McQueen, road pieces, letters (with shadow), and "Let's Cruise." With the Piston Cup and "Finish Line" we will be making a shadow effect but since there isn't the shadow option in this cartridge, we just cut bigger sizes and have to alter the pieces we cut to make them work. So, with the "Finish Line," you'll need to trim the end off of your Metallic Gold and Vellum Red rectangles to make the Metallic Black "Finish Line" phrase center in the middle of them (the gold piece is 4 3/4 inches long and the red piece is 4 1/4 inches after cutting). For the Piston Cut, you will want to cut the Vellum Gold shadow piece right underneath the "cup" where the stem starts.

Step 3: Adhere your Hillary green 1-inch and 1/2-inch strips to your Nightmist 4-inch strip. Make sure the Hillary strips match up on both Nightmist strips. Now take your Toronto pages and adhere the Nightmist strips.

Step 4: Arrange your road, letters, cars, Piston Cup, "Finish Line," and "Let's Cruise" on your page. Adhere all the pieces. with a navy blue Memory Marker, outline your letters, road pieces, cars, and phrase pieces.

Step 5: Pick your large gromlets and arrange as you please. Push through and secure.

And wal-lah. You've got yourself (and your kiddos) a super-fun reading race track!

Happy crafting!