Book-themed Birthday Wishes with The Greetery Shelved

Morning all!

I'm back with another book-themed birthday card.

A few weeks ago, I shared a project featuring the True Story bundle from Concord & 9th here, which has a bold contemporary look and a lot of die-cut details.

This week, the focus is on the wonderful Shelved collection from The Greetery which definitely embraces the vintagey vibes I associate with the Penguin cloth-bound classics.

The collection includes:

• A die set for cutting out the book stack

• A set of 4 layering stencils for colouring the book spines

• A stamp set packed with sentiments big and small (also perfect for the Have a Spine products), label frames, and plenty of pretty details

• Plus a separate detailed die set that cuts out many of the labels and other decorative details, which you can find here

So plenty of scope to personalise your project for the book-lovers in your life and create different looks depending on how detailed you want to get.

But as this is the first outing for my stash of supplies, I leaned into the design guide included with the stamps. I find this a great way to get to know the products better and just find a feel for what I want to make in the future.

I started out by cutting the book stack out with the outline Shelved die and while I was at it, I cut all the little spine edging details in that set from metallic gold cardstock.

My grip mat held the book stack nicely in place as I worked through steps 2 through 4 of the layering stencils (I skipped step 1 as it would be hidden by the gold spine details I'd already cut).

Then it was time to add the stamped details in monochromatic shades from the same colour families. When I needed a bit more contrast, I used black ink for the text.

There's definitely scope to add heat embossed details to the book spines, but I kept it simple this time round – the gold spine details provided enough pop for me.

Finally, I trimmed down an A2 card base to just under 4.25 x 5 inches so that it would be nicely concealed behind the book spines - and there we go, card complete!

Until next time, happy crafting!