Hearts Come Home Crafty Friday projects

Crafty Friday was a packed one last week, so it was a challenge getting this card – more complex than our usual Crafty Friday projects – completed in time.

It’s inspired by the hugely talented Sandi MacIver, who created this beautiful project. For this CASEd version, I watercoloured the houses and trees but decided for Crafty Friday to switch to Whisper White cardstock and colouring with the new Stampin’ Blends for speed. I loved how everybody’s project turned out differently, so am kicking myself that I forgot to photograph them.

For the border, we mounted the Merry Music paper onto some cardstock and then cut out the centre to create a frame. But the middle bit wasn’t wasted, oh no...

We cut this into two 2" strips to create some cute matching tags. (I only managed one, hence the photo!)

Hometown Greetings eclipse card

You don't have to use letter dies to make an eclipse card - this one uses the Hometown Greetings dies, along with the Snowflake Sentiments stamp set... which handily has a little swirl which works just as well as a wisp of smoke.

I love the clean simplicity of this project - and so did the Crafty Friday ladies last week.

Hearts Come Home illuminated card

After lunch at Saturday’s workshop, we went straight into Christmas mode, with this stunning festive scene made from the Hearts Come Home bundle.

It’s really quite simple... take half a sheet of cardstock, cut lengthways and scored at the centre point. Cut 5in off and attach vellum to replace the missing front.

Take the 5in piece and score at 1in intervals to create the zig-zag piece at the front, to mount those beautiful houses.

And the beauty of this card is that you can light it from behind using a battery tealight...

Forest scene with Card Front Builder Dies

This card was inspired by our summer holiday in Scotland, so features:

• Wooden boards - made with the Pinewood Planks embossing folder)
• A little red house in the woods - made with the Hometown Greetings Edgelits 
• Lots of Scots pine trees - Card Front Builder Dies, with each tree hand trimmed to expose the long trunks
• A shy deer - Cart Front Builder dies again.

Two of the main products I used are from the Autumn/Winter catalogue and are actually Christmas products... but don’t let that stop you; as I’ve shown here, they are suitable for year-round use, especially when trying to recreate the Abernethy Forest in paper form!

Sneak peek: Hometown Greetings Edgelits

What I would like to know is this: how come, when a German demonstrator (any German demo – they all seem to have this talent) creates a project using Sahara Sand (or Crumb Cake) and one other colour, it looks fabulous and stylish and gorgeous... but when I try it, I never seem to be able to pull it off?

But while the cards may not overwhelm, I think the products will. I LOVE the Pinewood Planks embossing folder, which I have only just purchased, and I LOVE these new Hometown Greetings dies.

I made a batch of these for this month’s club ladies, to thank them for their orders. I wanted to showcase some of the new Autumn/Winter products but in all honesty, I’m not quite ready for Christmas just yet. I know if I start on the Christmas cards this early, I’ll be sick to the back teeth of it by November.

But these little die-cut houses are good for lots of occasions. They are part of a border, so I had to cut off another house, and they are one of my favourite products in the upcoming catalogue. I have lots of ideas for these, and a trip to Ikea may be in order.