Mastering Masculine Cards

Boys

Men

Fathers

Brothers

Uncles

Sons

Cousins

Grandsons

Grandfathers

We all have some of them and they all have birthdays and other card-worthy events. If you ask a bunch of card-makers which kinds of cards give them the most challenge to make...invariably they will say "man cards"!

I suppose people find it challenging because you can't just slap a flower and some ribbon on it and call it good. I don't know. Nevertheless, we are going to jump head-long into the topic of man cards because it's a topic I care about. Deeply. Because there are many men in my life! And they require cardage from time to time! 

If you want the easy answer, I'm going to spill the beans right here at the start.  My genius card-making skills summed up for all mankind--

You can never go wrong with stars!

If you truly are stuck on the creation of a card for a man of any sort--old young, tall, short, baby, teenager, warrior or writer...you can never go wrong with a design based on stars. Think of it like this: stars are to man cards what flowers are to feminine cards.

Stars can be simple or complex, 

one or an arrangement of many,

A single color or a rainbow,

Large or small,

Glittery or not.

Am I right?

For any holiday...or occasion. Stars can do the job!

Truly. Star cards rock!

Making use of photopolymer stamps--an extra tip

Have you ever noticed that the clear index sheet that photopolymer stamps come with can be used in the design process? When deciding if a stamp will fit in a certain space of it looks right, lay the index sheet over your project, placing the image over the spot where you might want it to go.

For example, in the cake project above, the index image allowed me to see that the flags would indeed fit over the top of the cake on the card.

Learn as you go...

Build a Birthday and so much more

Invariably, when a new Stampin' Up! catalog is released in the summer, one or two stamp sets are insanely popular right out of the gate and, like an over-played song on the radio, they get tons of airplay and not a lot of variety. Build a Birthday is such a set, especially among demonstrators.

It's an awesome set that is great for all kinds of card-members--from beginners to advanced card-makers. 

Hundreds of users have already created the birthday cake made of mixed layers stacked on the cake stand and adorned with candles or flags. A basic search of Pinterest reveals many many incarnations. Here's my first interpretation:

Pretty basic stuff. Fun and festive. Excellent for any recipient--male or female, young or old. Any birthday, any time!

I did a few of these and then I got a little fascinated with building a fanciful cake out of multiples of the largest "layer".

Like this:

And these:

And then just using it as an element to ground things, this happened:

Don't forget to look for alternative, out of the box uses for individual stamps within the sets. Don't get locked into just the obvious.

Build a Birthday pairs well with many sets but especially Love is Kindness. 

Live a scrapworthy life!

--Sarah