Graphically Masculine Birthday Card

Inspiration comes unexpectedly.  For instance, I was at Starbucks the other day and saw their bold and graphic, beige and black paper napkins.  Since I have a hard time coming up with masculine cards, I thought I could incorporate Starbuck's simple bold design.  I used a Cricut cartridge called Simply Sweet to cut out the letters.  Three non-fussy elements to do the job of wishing any male in your life Happy Birthday.  How easy is that?

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:

Stamps:  Birthday Bliss

Ink:  Basic Black

Paper:  River Rock, Whisper White, Basic Black

Accessories:  Stampin' Dimensionals

Father's Day Card

Happy Saturday Everyone!  I spent this morning making my dad his Father's Day card.  I incorporated everything I had that was masculine in his card and I'm sad to say I don't have much.  In fact I don't think I own a single masculine stamp set, so I had to improvise by using my Woodgrain background stamp and my Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder to make the circle look like a golfball.  So without a male stamp set, I resorted to making my focal point a "D" for dad.  Spruced it up with some polka dots (sorry had to throw something feminine into the card) and finally the card was complete.  I made the "D" polka dotted by covering a small scrap of Peach Parfait cardstock with various sized circles, then ran it thru my Big Shot using the Serif Essentials Alphabet dies.  I originally wanted to print out "DAD" but the Serif letters were waaaaay too big to all comfortably fit on a 4.25" x 5.5" card.  Here's what the polka dotted piece looked like before going thru the Big Shot.

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:

Stamps:  Woodgrain Background

Paper:  Peach Parfait, Marina Mist, Soft Suede, Whisper White

Ink:  Soft Suded

Accessories:  Serif Essentials Alphabet, Circle Scissor Plus, Stampin' Dimensionals, Perfect Polka Dots, Circle Punches:  1/8", 1/4" and 1/4" 

Masculine Birthday Card

This is the birthday card I made for my brother-in-law.  I have a hard time coming up with masculine designs and it took me a few tries mixing various colors and components.  There'll be plenty of other opportunities to perfect masculine designs with Father's Day next week and my other brother-in-law's birthday coming up next month.

I incorporated more new items that will be available from Stampin' Up in July.  The background paper is called Newsprint and the first thing I thought was I needed to make the paper look old and aged.  Something about newsprint, I guess.  I even went as far as contemplating burning the edges a bit, but with my luck I'd probably set the house on fire.  So I settled with just a touch of roughing up (or shabby chic'ing) around the edges of the background paper.  With the vintage feel of the newsprint, I gravitated towards a "vintage" set called Puns From the Past.  The Grateful For You stamp is very appropriate as my BIL has helped me around my place a LOT by playing Mr. Handyman.  Thanks for building all my bookshelves to hold my collection of cookbooks!

Supplies List

Stamps:  Puns From the Past

Paper:  Sahara Sand, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Newsprint DSP

Ink:  Basic Black

Accessories:  Corner Rounder Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals