Colourful cards for men

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

 

Flamingo-a-go-go

Some bright and juicy colours today. This card is made using a paper pad called Paradise Crush. It is really strong greens, oranges, pinks and teals, plus a few more muted colours. Not something I would usually be drawn to, but I am a fan of the designer Louise Tiler’s artwork and, hey, it’s good to step out of the comfort zone and challenge yourself a bit.

The flamingo paper caught my attention first. Flamingos are everywhere at the moment. Well, not literally obviously. There isn’t one sitting on the sofa reading a paper, or driving a mini cab, or working at the local chippie (he’d eat all the fish, right?), but you know what I mean. Anyway, I wanted to feature it, and not cover it up too much. Then I remembered I had a few templates to make quirky shaped cards. Given that flamingos are, themselves, the quirkiest of shapes, I thought it might be fun.

I have had these templates since the internet was a toddler, and they are probably are bit redundant now that we can download anything, but it was nice not to have to do the research and make the template myself, just draw around and cut.

I used a second sheet of card from the same pad for the inside layer and fussy cut a couple of elements from other pages for a bit more interest. The ‘hello’ was left over from yesterday’s post, so I just added 3d foam and Glossy Accents. I need to neaten up the glossy Accents a bit before I can give it to someone!

A template for an envelope is also included. It needs A4 size paper at least and the pad is much smaller, so I searched my Louise Tiler digikits in Serif CraftArtist and found a splodgy (technical term) design to coordinate.

I really enjoyed doing this one, and I love the interesting shapes the templates offer.

Supplies: Trimcraft First Edition Paradise Crush 6 x 6″Paper Pad; Serif CraftArtist Louise Tiler Fashion Florals digikit; Altenew Superscript dies and stamps; Ranger Glossy Accents; Ribbon Room Baker’s Twine