Because not all cards for men have to be navy or brown….
I have to confess to a crime against craft. This week, whilst once again braving Stash Mountain, I came across a couple of sets of dies I had never used. Actually I have quite a few sets like that, but these ones I had also forgotten about. Tsk! I believe I may have mentioned this before, but the rule is, in order not to further upset the Gods of Craft, once such items are discovered, you gotta make something.
These are simple silhouette dies, all of a sporting ilk. I seem to remember they were a bargain, hence the purchase. Also we have quite a few ‘young men’ (translate as ‘significantly younger than us‘) in our family and I am just never prepared with cards to give them. A bit rubbish really, considering how much kit I have to hand. But stuff for younger people seems to date so fast. The ‘technology’ that was a feature of card toppers I bought, say, five years ago now probably looks to them like it might have been used to steer a tall ship in the 1800s. But hey, a shadow remains constant. Well, no, not at all really, always changing in fact…but last time I checked we all still had one…unless you live in Britain, with no sunshine…and I think there was an issue with Peter Pan…heck this is not going well at all…
Ahem. Let’s get this back on track. Anyone want to see a card? I decided to go bright, and bright-ish for these. Why not? Colour is fun and silhouettes lend themselves to a splosh of the primaries.
For the first card I used the basketball player and three different splat stamps in the primary colours. I was OK with it but though it just needed a little more, so stencilled some grey spots at the top for a bit more interest. I also stamped splats onto the envelope and one behind the greeting on the inside. In the photos the red looks a bit pinkish. It isn’t though!
For the second I was considering doing pretty much the same, but in slightly softer tones and with a footballer (soccer player, to my North American pals). But recently I have seen a few examples of cards with a partial circle cut out at the edge and thought this might be fun for a change. Because the black layer looked a little austere just left plain I also used my Halftone stencil, this time with embossing ink (Versamark) and clear embossing powder. This gives it a bit of texture without (hopefully) being too girlie. Again I decorated the envelope a bit. Well, why not?
I still have tennis, rugby and golfer dies to play with! I will probably make at least one blue or brown card. Ah well.
Supplies: Trimcraft Sporting Silhouettes dies; Altenew Birthday Greeting and A Splash of Color stamps, Halftone stencil
The basketball design I really like 😊👍🏼
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Thank you so much!
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Do you sell them?
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No. I am being nudged to start an Etsy shop but I am a big coward!
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You should 🙂 I want to buy the basketball one. You start it 👍🏼👌🏼
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Hmmm. Where do you live?
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California
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OK. If you are happy to contact me by email and give me an address I will post it to you. Totally free, of course! I am in the UK so it would take a little while to get to you but I would be very happy to do it.
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Aww you’re so sweet. 😊 might be too much work for and not free pls. Creat an etsy shop 😊
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Ok! Let me know if you change your mind!
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Hi Gillian, ok I change my mind. I would love it if you could send me the card but please charge me even just for the shipping. Here’s my email. jhansky_10@yahoo.com
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No problem. I will email you tomorrow!
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Ok thanks 😊
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I love the contrast in texture of the dots on both cards with the splats and the silhouettes! They definitely don’t look girlie or dated (to these un-hip eyes) – well done!
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Thank you. It is so hard to tell if something would appeal or not. My eyes suffer the same condition!
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Very striking design and colour, great cards, pun intended! As for Peter Pan…the crocodile in the film terrified me!
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Thanks. And yes, about the crocodile, that fact that it ticked made it even more menacing, I think. Probably not the intention…
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Never liked ticking clocks…or crocs…
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Great job!
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Thank you!
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Great cards, Gillian! Your design is really on point! The recipients are very lucky! And I completely agree with your thoughts on not upsetting the Gods of Craft – upon finding forgotten supplies, one must make!
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It’s true, isn’t it? Otherwise the universe might start unravelling….
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These are very nice designs! It’s kind of fun to find something on Stash Mountain that you’ve totally forgotten about. That is a neat technique with the Versamark dots on black card stock. I’ve made a number of black, white and yellow cards; it’s a great combination.
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Yes, I like that combination too. I used to do this with Versamark a lot, because I was a bit fixated on Oriental style. Everything had glossy dragons, lanterns, bamboo, coins, you name it!
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These turned out GREAT, Gillian!! I love the spots!
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Thanks Kathy. It was fun to do something a bit different for me.
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Those cards are spot on for the youngsters Gillian, and they way you designed them makes them so hip that any of my kids friends would love them! You should sell them, just on your blog and people can pay you thru Paypal family and friends. You should check it out. Anyway i now have to get those stamps so thanks so much for adding to my stash! 😣😆
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Two apologies: first for the late reply but my app seems to have lost a chunk of likes, comments and posts from other bloggers. Secondly, for potentially influencing a purchase, but hey, we both love Altenew so maybe that is not so bad? Also, thanks so much for the tip about PayPal. I had no clue!! I will investigate…
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Oh was it Altenew? And here I thought Trimcraft was a stamp brand! I found it on Amazon Uk tho.
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Sorry, I may have got muddled. The splat stamps are Altenew and the silhouettes are dies from Trimcraft. Just in case anyone is reading through the comments for clues!
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Thanks for the precision!
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As a mom of three boys I am so glad you are addressing the crafts industry’s lack of cool supplies for boys,guys, teenagers and everything in between. I think your cards are creative and cool. I am particularly enthralled with the last one since it shows crafters shiny or textures can be used on masculine cards. It’s not just for tools. Lol. Hopefully your stash mountain is becoming more of a hill.
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Thank you so much! Sorry for the late reply but a chunk of messages seemed to go missing on my tablet app. I am glad these might be considered as cool. Frankly I have no idea myself!
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Excellent cards, I especially love the clear embossing through a stencil on the football one. I’m sure they will be appreciated! 😊
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Thank you. Sorry for the late reply- some of my notifications went AWOL!
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The 3d background of the second one would be perfect on a terracotta paper with the basketball die, looks like a basketball texture.
These are great, and I agree that the gods of craft must be satisfied
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Really? I have no familiarity with a basketball. I will have to try it – thanks!
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I worked n a school, that’s my exposure to basketball, but I know they’re a burnt orange colour with teeny bumps all over
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Bit like me after being out in the sun…
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I don’t even get the orange! Just lobster red, then it all peels off and I’m glowing white again
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Well yeah, me too actually. I was optimistically swapping the orange for ‘boiled’. It is the red hair to blame BUT we don’t wrinkle so quickly. A long time to wait for the payoff, I know…
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A similar reason to not curse my chubby cheeks – the fat keeps the skin looking younger. I’m now flattered that I still get asked for ID at 32 instead of offended as I was at 22!
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LOL, Absolutely!
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Hello Puff! 🙂
Cooo, these are brilliant. I think my absolute favourite is the black with the embossed dots. I LOVE clear embossing and love to do little fun things with it which make people ask questions. “How did you do that?”.
Both truly great cards. The boys (men) will love them.
~ Cobs .x
Whilest writing … do you use a hot glue gun at all?
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Sorry for being so late to reply but some messages didn’t show up in my notifications. Glad you like the card. And I have a hot glue gun but have never used it. I am intrigued why you want to know?! Something marvellous to share?
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weeeelll…… I was sent some Tonic stuff as part of a promotion on a crafty magazine. There was part of the shipment missing, so … they sent the whole shipment again. Sadly, when that arrived, the same part of the shipment was missing. So they sent the whole shipment again. When THAT arrived the same part … well, you get the idea.
I never received the missing part of the shipment, however I was then in receipt of three brand new, never used, Tonic Glue Guns, and they didn’t want them back. Soooo… I parted with one of them, (to a fellow crafty blogger) but when I saw them in my craft room a couple of days ago I did wonder if you already had a glue gun … and, as I’ve now found out, you do, so I won’t burden you with another. lol.
Now to the message thingy …
I don’t know about you but normally (underlined three times) the little bell in the top right corner, has a little orange dot on it when there is a notification of a message, reply etc. However, the orange dot will sometimes appear on my blog, for a moment but then disappear. I’ve now trained myself to click on that bell whether the orange dot is there or not, because most of the time the bell is a great big liar and pretends I don’t have any friends and tells me no-one loves me, not even enough to say hello.
I’m not friends with that bell anymore, and I don’t share me chocolate with it either. 😠
Me mom warned me about bells like that. . . . . or was that boys?
😆
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Ooh, lucky you! Thanks for thinking of me though. But yes, the Notification button…it was one of the things that worked ok for me, but now it too has failed and I have to find yet another work around. Some replies to comments just didn’t show up there. I realise some of my issues might be different because I didn’t set up the site. But it is the fact that they keep on changing that throws me! Now I have to check so many things, in so many screwball ways that some of the fun is rather diminished. Ah well, happy glueing (is that the right spelling?) and no sniffing..not even a bit..
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I know exactly what you mean about the fun being diminished because of the changes and silly stuff which is happening because of the changes. I’m trying to kind of ignore the irritations and seek the joy in different places instead.
I haven’t though, worked out where the maps in my admin have gone. I found them once, but don’t know how I found them so can’t find them again! [sigh]
BUT …. we are BRITISH! BRITISH I SAY! We shall let no blog site beat us.
lol. C x
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Those are so cool! I love the splats….it really sets of the silhouettes. Great Cards….and envelopes!
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Thanks. I just gussied up the envelopes for a bit more colour. And to give a postman something to look at that wasn’t Brown…
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that is good work-and I think the guys will like them!
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Thank you!
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I always struggle with men’s cards but these are fab! They are very modern in design and I especially like the bright colours on the first card! Super cards Gill!
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Thanks Karen. They were fun to do!
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Love these! Great job and inspiration! I always tend to go navy or brown 🙂
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Thank you, and yes, navy or brown are my default for men pretty often too. What can we do…!
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Great cards. The men will be lucky to get these
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Thanks. I have actually missed most of the birthdays for this year. I am a really bad card sender!! These are advance stash in the hope I pull my socks up.
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I was asked if i am late starting my christmas cards ! Wish i could start but got so much other things to do also lol
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Oh Puff! These cards are absolutely ‘Splat-tastic’!! Well done! 😀
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HaHa! I like Splat-tastic! Good word. And thank you.
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I think you did very well with this cards and I love the backgrounds you created. They look very modern to me.
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Thank you. Hopefully they hit the brief then!
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Really love these cards! Especially the backgrounds you made. I tried to get this stencil but it was sold out, but your cards look brilliant and can be used for many things. Just love ’em 🙂
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Thanks. I expect the stencil will be back again soon. It is bloomin’ handy!
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I shall keep an eye open 😀
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The embossing on the second card reminds me of the studs on the bottom of football boots. Lovely cards 😊
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Thanks. I knew there was some connection in there somewhere. Then I thought I might have got confused with golf balls!
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I thought it had been intentional until i read on. Love your card makes
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Ah well, I am more of a ‘happy accident’ kind of crafter than one with a creative purpose!
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Trying to plan things too much just leaves you disappointed best to go with the flow ☺
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I have some splat stamps that I have never used! I go to make something with them, and then just have no idea of what to do. The primary colors might be a good place to start.
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I felt the same about these. Now, having used them, I have a few more ideas. Take the plunge!
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Oh these are great cards! I need some masculine cards….like about 6 in the next two months! Any chance I can borrow some of yours? LOL!
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HaHa! Thanks Nancee. Get colouring!!
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The splats are so much fun! And the texture on the football card reminds me of bubblewrap 🙂
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Oh yes, the joy of bubble wrap. Love popping that stuff’. So cathartic…
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These are great for sporty types – I could have done with the football one for one of my nephews (he’ll probably be into something else next year) – the embossed dots are perfect! I’m about to have a sort out of my dies and I know there are a lot of unused things in there…
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Ah, a fellow offender. Let’s hope we get away with it…
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I loved them! Great job!
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Thank you so much!
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Love, love, love these cards. The splash of colour is perfect.
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Thank you! Not my comfort zone but it was fun.
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My dad is turning 97 soon, Must make a special card for that. Your cards are always lovely and these are no exception.
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Wow, 97 is a good age. What changes he has seen! I know you will make something really special for him. And thanks for the kind words!
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Hahah, love your post!! I have so many dies I’ve never used as well so you’re not alone girlfriend!! I can’t remember, do you play along during the NBUS Challenges (Never Before Used Schtuff)? A woman named Darnell does this challenge semi annually, sometimes more and it’s great for people like us who have stamps and dies that have never seen the light of day yet. It’s a great way to get some use out of those unused but had to have stamps and dies.
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No, I have never entered any challenges – I am a big chicken! I haven’t heard of the one you mention but it sounds like a great idea. I could probably enter several times over with the amount of stuff I have!! I will check it out. Thank you!
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I’m not sure, but I think I’ve figured out why you aren’t receiving notifications for my blog ….
When W.press did all the updates, I think you (and others) lost some of the blogs that you follow on your list, and mine was one of them.
This would also explain why I’ve had to click to ‘unfollow’ then click to ‘follow’ again some of my favourite people. Because I wasn’t getting notifications for them.
(This was a trick I picked up from someone else, and I read it in a comment on another blog – so can’t take credit for it.)
I’ve gone down my list of followers, and your name doesn’t appear. So it could be that you’ll have to click to follow again so that the messages pop up on your ‘Reader’ feed.
(Pssssst….. by the way … I think you might have missed two posts this week…. but no worries about that).
Not sure if this will help, but it’s worked for me, and for others. so it might work for you too.
Squidges ~ Cobs. x
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I like how you used these Splash of Color stamps! They add so much energy and are a great fit for the ‘sports’ and ‘leadership’ themes. Clear embossing on black looks very modern.
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Fabulous cards. What a great effect with the embossing on the second.
Hope all is well.
Hugs Flo x
P.S. Lovely post as always.
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