The Our Story card is the perfect card for anyone who loves to read or loves books…especially the classics. While designing it, the intent was to make the books look like the beautiful leather-bound classics that my Mom has. For example, their covers are dyed in deep, rich gem tone hues of red, blue, and green. And, what really makes them special is that they have gold accents.

To make the card we'll start by making a white A2 size (4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″) side folding card base. If you need tips on how to do so, you can find them HERE.

How To Make Patterned Paper

Next, we'll go ahead and create the background. This is a fun way to achieve a unique background in any colors that you want or need. What we're going for is something we can use as a backdrop to the focal point of our card. Therefore, we want it to be subtle, but we also want the colors in it to coordinate with the stars of the show, the books.

Starting with an A2 size piece of Dune cardstock. Now, we're going to apply ink directly to the cardstock. To duplicate my background you'll want to use the following inks:

Lumberjack Plaid Distress Oxide
Rustic Wilderness Distress Oxide
Faded Jeans Distress Oxide

Lightly brush the ink pad over the Dune cardstock while overlapping colors. Then, turn the cardstock and repeat going in the opposite direction. As a result, you should have a nice, rustic plaid to use for your background.

Our Story Die-cutting

The next step is to die-cut the books from cardstock that matches our background. These are the ones that I use on my card:

Pomegranate – Spellbinders doesn't carry this anymore, but you could use Crimson instead.
Indigo
Forest
Spellbinders Brushed Gold

Once you're done with the die-cutting, you're going to want to blend along the edges of each of the books to give the them some dimension. I just use the brown ink that is on my blending brush. Another thing that you can do to make the books look more realistic is bend them with your fingers.

And finally, we'll assemble the books using liquid glue.

Building the Our Story Bookshelf

To make the bookcase, you swipe dark brown ink directly on a half sheet of Dune cardstock and then blend it. You want to make the inside of the bookcase darker than the edges.Trim the cardstock into two panels. The one that you'll need for the back of the bookcase should be 3 3/4″ x 5 1/2″, and we'll use the rest to create the bookshelves and side. Then cut five 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ strips of the blended cardstock and layer them using liquid glue to create the side of the bookshelf.

Lastly, we'll cut four 1/2″ x 3 1/4″ strips and layer them as well.

Our Story Card Sentiment and Assembly

The sentiment that we're using is from Sketched Lines, the Glimmer Plates of the Month for March 2024. And, we'll make it using gold hot foil on a scrap of white cardstock.

To put the card together, we'll begin by attaching the plaid background to the cardbase. Click HERE for tips on how to get it aligned. Next, attach the back of the book case to the card front using a tape runner. Then, it's best to fasten the bookshelf 1″ from the bottom with liquid glue. Now, you can attach the side the same way.

The last things to do are to fasten the books and the sentiment to the front. To demonstrate, you can use extra layers of die-cuts or foam tape to add dimension if you want to. And that is it for this “classic” card.

Would you rather just buy a card like this? Click HERE if your answer is yes.

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