DIY Valentine's 'Home' Card

​So here we are again, another year, another Valentine's. After being with my hubby for 7 years now (5 years of marriage) I find myself this year only looking forward to Vals because we'll get an excuse for some extra babysitting! Now we have a son and life has more responsibilities, it's not the great fluttery event it once used to be. All the more reason to use it for quality time whilst the 'rents look after the boy, hurrah!

Every year I find it harder to come up with a theme. I like to make my husband's card if I can. Previous themes have been 'you're my cup of tea', 'you have the key to my heart' and last year, quite aptly, I did a Superman card!

We moved house in June last year and it got me thinking about the word 'home'. I felt this should be my theme for this year. I tried to Google image 'home' for some inspiration as I felt I needed a phrase to go with my theme. Wherein I found that very old chestnut 'home is where the heart is'.

We can have our literal house that is our home but I really love the idea of finding home either in your partner or in your Faith. I believe and follow Jesus and when I'm out of my depth, He certainly brings me home. It comes back to feeling secure and loved. Because you can be yourself at home. You can let it all hang out, vent frustrations behind your closed doors and rant away, have a cry if you need to or just be down right silly because no-one else is watching and you know your close loved ones will not judge you.

So this is where I'm coming from with my theme. I chose the phrase 'With you, I'm home'. To encompass all the waffle in one simple sentence! I knew I wanted to keep it simple and have a picture of a house as the front design. I then used my Google image search as inspiration.

So if you want to have a go, follow my simple DIY steps below.

You Will Need

• A white card blank
• Some coloured card and decorative background papers/card
• Scissors, scalpel, cutting mat and metal ruler
• Glue
• Calligraphy pen and ink or your computer and printer
• Some good quality white paper

The Steps

• Cut out a square shape from your decorative paper/card. This will be the main body of the house.
  
• If using decorative paper you will need to glue this onto some plain card stock to re-enforce it. If using decorative card, this will be strong enough for our purposes.
  
• Next, cut out a roof shape that will sit on top of the house. Measure the same length as the body of the house, draw a diagonal line each end going inwards. Then connect at the top.
  
• If you're using a plain colour you can also draw wavy lines using a black fine liner for the tiles as I have done.
  
• Cut out a small rectangle for a chimney.
  
• Now we need to cut out the window and door.
  
• Sketch with a pencil how and where you want your window and door.
  
• Bear in mind the door needs to be big enough to hide our sentiment of 'With You I'm Home' behind it.
  
• For the window, to make the cross shape, cut out the four squares on each corner.
  
• With the door, we want it to still be attached so your recipient has the pleasure of opening it to see what's behind it!
  
• In which case, just score down one side and cut the bottom, top and opposite side.
  
• The scoring will then help you to fold at this point for easy opening. Be sure not to go too close to the edge of the card or it will become flimsy.
  
• Also cut out a small semi circle on the side your door is opening.
  
• This will then be folded back and act as the door handle to open and close.

• Place the body of the house on your piece of white paper.
• Mark with a pencil the inside outline of the door.
• If you are using a calligraphy pen and ink as I did, write your sentiment here of 'With you, I'm home' making sure you don't go outside the lines or it will be obscured.

• If you're using a printer, measure the size of the door, type the words in line with this (taking note how far across and down) and type accordingly.
• Then stick the printed words into the pencilled outline. You may need to test it a few times and re-size to get it right.
• Once you are happy the words are in the right place, glue the house to the white paper and cut out to remove any excess white paper.
• Glue some small quarter circles cut out of a card colour of your choice, to your window, to act as curtains.

• Finally, glue the house, roof and chimney to your card blank and it is finished!

The black card with gold hearts I happened upon on a well timed trip to Lakeside. Bought from Paperchase. I also purchased another card which I loved the sentiment of that I felt also tied in. So I thought I'd stick this on the inside of my card.

I love this. A sense of searching for something. In our case, searching for that security, the one I can feel at home with. A nice way to round off the theme. Well, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Feel free to post your own efforts on my Facebook page and I'll be happy to share them. Enjoy your Valentine's, whatever you're up to 😀

Useful links credits for inspiration:

Here's a link to an Etsy listing that I took the bulk of my inspiration from:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/175082699/valentine-card-home-is-where-your-heart

Original Google image search:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=you+bring+me+home+valentines+card&biw=375&bih=628&prmd=ivsn&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&fir=R1pc9UjHaJc6_M%253A%252CZdG836218ACFuM%252C_%253BAGnIebBpASJ4WM%253A%252CHVVw09Oxi440uM%252C_%253BWbtSN3F7Awp4_M%253A%252CQpPPQX5TjCR-pM%252C_%253BgufYryMESHYwOM%253A%252CZdG836218ACFuM%252C_%253BVBz2wMwFXroxYM%253A%252C7L-Xa1WUlrK58M%252C_%253BIp3gHuSwQIxnvM%253A%252C9JISww6lMwza-M%252C_%253BB-4L1BtjuLeu7M%253A%252CQpPPQX5TjCR-pM%252C_%253BPC3ju86GeZJpgM%253A%252CTNz-bELprilfcM%252C_%253BzH0KWYj8cUk-kM%253A%252Cl4nWhEV8QeZElM%252C_%253B8XGoBjcfk4D86M%253A%252C7fh04XsUmNV72M%252C_&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj9kMy_2uHKAhXEIpoKHfWoA84QsAQIJw&usg=__6m8Lp7Nyb20Dmx8ZdWJMLU4ve4M%3D#tbm=isch&q=home+is+where+the+heart+is+valentines+card