Masculine cards...

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope your weekend is fabulous!

Recently, I was creating a selection of cards for my daughter to have on hand, and I wanted to include a few masculine cards. First, I wanted to try some stenciling, since said daughter had given me a selection of stencils for Christmas. I purchased some finger daubers for this purpose, and I have to say I LOVE both the stencils and the daubers.

I decided to tray this arrow-like pattern on my card front with some deep teal ink. Then I added a couple pieces of coordinating Washi tape and a sentiment that was cut out with an old Cuttlebug die.

On the inside, I added a little more of the stenciling, a strip of my cardstock and a computer-generated sentiment.

This was a super-quick card to make, and I know I'll be doing more stenciling in the future. It's definitely a fun technique!









For my next card, I selected some masculine patterned paper.

 My daughter had also given me a package of these cute little white banners that already had an eyelet in one end. They are the perfect size for some of my smaller sentiments, and I liked this design where I used one word per banner--no struggle to make sure the words are all perfectly aligned!

If you look closely, you'll see that a little piece of black ribbon is threaded through each eyelet hole, and then those ribbon ends are tied together with some heavy yellow thread (I think it's the kind that's normally used for crewel-type embroidery). I also wrapped this thread around my DSP three times before adhering it to my card front.

The inside of this card is very simple - just a yellow mat and a stamped sentiment from Fiskars.

I like using strong colors and graphic patterns for masculine cards. How about you? Do you have any go-to design methods for masculine cards? I'd love to have a few more ideas to lean on when designing these kinds of cards.

Thank so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little of a lot--every day.
Cheryl