Masculine Birthday Cards

If you are like me, you may find masculine cards challenging to make. But the best way to begin is by choosing a color scheme based on patterned papers, and I went with brown, green and cream. 

I used DCS Discount Card Stock: Vanilla Bean Brown Card Stock and different sheets of Basic Grey, which is a limited edition designer paper from years back. It’s called Sweet Threads, a light colored fabric-like print with one bold green and brown design, which I used on every   card.  On one of the cards, I used green laser cut mat that I had on hand.

To give the card some depth I used two different embossing folders: a woodgrain Sizzix and sort of framed border from Sizzix’s Tim Holtz Alterations. I ran the brown card stock through the Big Shot. Right now there are a lot of manual die cutting machines on the market, and favorites become controversial. Some people are die cut traditional while others embrace the new machines. They are wider, some automated, and others emboss easily. I still have my ten-year-old (or more!) black Big Shot, and I find with a few shims, I can do most of what the new machines do. I am waiting for the machine to break, and then I have tough decision on which brand and make to use.

I love to use up a stack of patterned papers and this one was no different. I selected five different patterns from the paper kit and layered them on the card front. I found that the white edges detracted from the card, so I did some inking. Typically I use ink daubers, but I had purchased new sponges that have fine bristles and inked the edges in brown ink.

One of the the sentiments is from older Stampin’ Up! stamp sets. Sometimes I pull stamps from different stamp cases (and makers) and organize them by category — and I pulled my birthday sentiment case. The Stampin’ Up! cases are slim plastic cases with spines and cover reflecting the stamps. I had bought a few blank cases and used my label maker for the spine.  It sure beats looking through my whole collection of stamps.

On all the cards, I used a variety of embellishments from rhinestones to sequins. Thank you for stopping by the blog today!