Greeting cards for guys

With the warm weather we've been having lately, it doesn't surprise me that I've been drawn to making cards filled with flowers, birds and butterflies. That's all fine and dandy, but it leaves me with a lot of "girly" cards and not very many that are appropriate for guys. So yesterday I focused on making a few masculine cards.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^®, unless otherwise stated):
Stamps: Papa's Pocket, Sincere Salutations
Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Bordering Blue, River Rock
Ink: Bordering Blue, River Rock, Jet Black StazOn, Going Gray, Soft Suede
Accessories: Large oval punch, Decorative Label punch, River Rock stitched grosgrain ribbon, brads (unknown), Dimensionals

I love to use this stamp set for making collage backgrounds -- just pick a different color for each image and stamp away. (The piece of Naturals Ivory card stock I stamped was actually twice this size; I cut it apart and made two very similar cards.) I matted the stamped piece with River Rock card stock, added a piece of ribbon, a greeting and a brad. The neutral colors and simple accessories are great for masculine cards.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Plane & Simple
Paper: Blue Bayou, Very Vanilla, Newsprint Designer Series Paper (DSP)
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Blue Bayou
Accessories: 1/4", 1-3/8" and 2-1/2" circle punches; Dimensionals

I think the antique map print from the Newsprint DSP works so well with this stamp set. For this card, I stamped and cut out the airplane and compass and adhered them to circles of Bayou Blue card stock with Dimensionals. I stamped the greeting on a thin strip of Very Vanilla card stock, trimmed a V in the end and made the top and bottom edges "wavy" so it looks like a banner flying behind the airplane. I sponged the top and bottom edges of the card, the punched circles and the "banner" with Blue Bayou ink. This card doesn't have any accessories at all; I'd wanted to use brads in the upper right corner, but since I didn't have any that were the right color, I made do with punched card stock circles instead.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Dream Catcher
Card stock: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Naturals Ivory
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Real Red
Accessories: Red hemp twine, Dimensionals

I've always really liked this stamp set, but I haven't used it often because I struggle with using the images effectively. I decided to focus on the dream catcher for this card, so I stamped and colored it and then tore the card stock around the edges. I also glued a small torn piece of Soft Suede card stock behind the dream catcher. For the card base, I tore off the bottom edge of the Crumb Cake card and adhered to it a stamped piece of Soft Suede card stock. (The stamp I used for that strip is only about an inch wide; I just stamped the image repeatedly along the piece of card stock.) I stamped the image of the American Indian with Crumb Cake ink so it was subtle in the background and then tied a piece of red twine around the card. (It's hard to see, but there are little touches of red in the colored dream catcher, and the red twine picks up that color nicely.) Finally, I used Dimensionals to adhere the focal image over the twine. I felt like this card needed something in the upper right corner, but I couldn't decide what. So rather than adding something and wishing I hadn't, I figured I'd better just leave well enough alone.

I hope you got a few ideas for some masculine cards. Thanks for stopping by!