two dude cards

Hey hey hey -

My dad and uncle have birthdays pretty close together, so every year at this time I'm stuck making two dude-appropriate cards within the same week or so.

I used to think that guy cards were hard to make, but then I realized that I don't need "masculine images" to make masculine cards...which is good, because I have no real desire to have a stamp collection full of golf clubs or tools or elk or whatever. Instead, here's what I do:

This one's for my uncle (who happens to be an optometrist, though I only had my own selfish desires in mind when I got the stamps!) I used some Tim Holtz goodies on this one -- a couple different stamp sets, plus his ticket die for Sizzix. I used Matte Accents for some, well, accents (a bit manlier than glitter, no?). I also made that little flower-that-isn't-really-a-flower-because-it-looks-so-rugged out of some vintage pattern tissue. Here it is in close-up:

Nice. Rugged. Vintage. This one also happens to be for the Embellish Magazine color challenge, which you can see below and read about here.

 Very manly colors, don't you think?

But there's more!

Here's my dad's card:

I made my own background for this one using Papertrey's Distressed Stripes (fun and easy, I might add), but my fave is that Polaroid-esque focal point, made with the stamp from last month's Studio Calico kit (my first -- and I like it!), along with some vellum. Totally different than the last card, but equally manly, don't you think? More fun and graphic, and a tad retro.

So, happy birthday to both dudes. I hope they like their cards!

A quick post...

...and a happy birthday!

Not to me, though: to my husband! This day marks the beginning of the one month and 5 days that we're the same age. Then, I get old again ;)

Used some paper from Basic Grey's Obscure line -- an oldie but a goodie. It was just too white, so I hit it with some brown Glimmer Mist. The focal point is die-cut from cardboard (very manly), inked and stamped with PTI's Say it with Style. Speaking of oldies -- see that big ol' grommet? Remember them? I dug out my old Making Memories tools for setting them, couldn't remember how, gave up and used a 1/2" circle punch and a screwdriver instead. Inventive!  The die (and the inked-up tissue tape) are Tim Holtz. Card is 9 by about 3 inches.

Well, we're off for some birthday-fun outings. Hope you're having a lovely day!

Manly-ish

Here's another page from the weekend:

This one uses some very man-friendly papers from Scrap Within Reach. The argyle-ish pattern on the left is actually trimmed from a different sheet and layered over the dotty pattern. I like how the noteblock has the same pattern, only on the other side. Ah, the mirror image.
The photos are accented nicely by a transparency from Little Yellow Bicycle -- it was 12" long, so I trimmed off one of the frames to make it work.
Other supplies: Adirondack/Ranger paint dabbers, jillibean soup alphas, Unity stamp, ribbon from the stash.
Thanks for taking a look! You can also find this page in the gallery at Scrappy Chic.
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