Rustic book stacks make great additional decor. They can be created to match any season. Your creativity with these can be endless. They really are super simple to make. In this blog I will show you step by step how to make a rustic book stack.
Materials I used
Books – I bought mine from the charity shop 3 for £1
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Choosing the right books
For the books, I head down to the local charity shop. They always have a selection of books for sale. Try and choose books that are all the same size in height and try to find them the same thickness too. For this project I chose to make my stack 3 books high.

Removing the covers
Carefully remove the front and back cover of the books. Try to remove as much of the cover as you can from the spine of the book. This will make it easier for the vinyl to stick.

The picture below shows how the books should look.

Measure the books
If you chose to add vinyl to your book stack you will need to measure the spine of the books. This will allow you to make your vinyl the correct size to fit perfectly.

Creating the design
Load up design space and click on the text icon. This will bring up a text box.

Start adding any text that you wish to be placed on the side of the books.

Changing the font
If you wish, you can change the font. This could be a cricut font or a font you have purchased. Click on the font box and drop down the list. You should see the list of fonts.
If you wish to use a font you have purchased all you need to do is click on system. This will allow you to scroll down and select the font you wish to use.

Changing the size of your design
Now you are happy with the text and font you will now need to change the size of the font.
This can be done by heading up to the size box and changing the height of the text. The height of the text should be within the size that you measured. Cricut will change the width of the text in proportion to the height.

Now you have your font to the size you need it you are ready to click on Make It.

Choosing the cutting options
You will now need to choose how you are cutting your vinyl. I chose to cut mine on the mat. If you are also cutting yours on a mat, just select on mat and click on continue.

You will now be able to see how your design looks on the cutting mat. This will allow you to make sure that you have the vinyl placed on the right part of the mat.

As I am using self adhesive vinyl I do not need to mirror the design.
Next select the material that you are using. I always select the setting for premium vinyl as I find that this gives me consistent cuts.

Next select the pressure, I like to select more as I find it gives a clean cut.

Cutting and removing the vinyl
Place the vinyl onto the mat and press down firmly. Next load the mat into the maker by clicking on the flashing arrow buttons.

Once the mat is loaded begin by pressing the flashing cricut button and the cricut will begin cutting.
Once it has finished cutting, press the flashing arrow button and the mat will be ejected.
To remove the vinyl from the mat, flip the mat over and remove the mat from the vinyl. This should prevent the vinyl from curling.

Weeding the vinyl
Trim down the vinyl as this allows you to save any vinyl that has not been used at this time for another project.
Weed the vinyl carefully, make sure you remove all the inner parts of the letters you don't need.

Once you have weeded all the letters cut a piece a transfer top to place over the top.

Peel the back off the transfer tape and place the transfer tape over your vinyl words. Burnish well so the transfer tape stick to the vinyl.

Cut in between all the words to separate them. This will make it easier to stick them to the spines of the books.

Carefully remove the backing paper from the vinyl.

Adding vinyl to the books
Take one of the books and carefully position the vinyl onto the spine of the book. Once you are happy with the position start to carefully burnish the vinyl to the book. Repeat this process for all your books.

Finishing touches
I added jute to the edge of my book stack to help hold it all together and to add a bit of decoration.
Wrap the jute around the book stack several times and tie it with a bow.

I kept the tails of the bow quite long and to these I added beads to just make it look a bit more rustic.
You can finish your book stack off in a way that will suit your decor.

I really hope you enjoyed this blog. I love these cute book stacks and they really do make a fab addition to your decor. The best thing is you can switch them as each season changes.
If you want to watch how I made my book stacks then click on the video below.
Also if you enjoyed this blog them please take a look at some of my other blogs:
How to tie a perfect bow every time
Happy Crafting xx