Masculine cards using Autumn Splendor

Some people don't like making masculine cards but I'm not one of them! I'm not really much of a frills and furbelows kind of a girl and so these are the kind of cards I like.

Here are some of my top tips for masculine cards:

* Keep it clean and simple
* Don't include bows or flowers!
* Keep any ribbon natural (eg twill or linen thread) or masculine in colour
* Try earthy, darker or nautical colours
* Vintage brads, hodge podge hardware, dry embossing, piercing are all good embellishments
* A simple sentiment in a frame is a good focal point
* Other useful focal images include trees and leaves, animals, birds and insects (realistic ones, not cutesy ones) vehicles etc

I've got three masculine cards to show you today, two using my all-time favourite stamp set - Autumn Splendor and the other using Baroque Motifs.

The first card uses one leaf stamped in Garden Green ink on Whisper White and tucked into a folded piece of Chocolate Chip card stock. The fold is given a bit of texture with Dot Dot Dot and the edge is pierced for interest. The card is finished with a sponged sentiment tag, corner rounded edges and clear button embellishments before being mounted on a Whisper White card base.

I love these clear buttons! They're backed with circles punched from Garden Green card stock then linen thread is fed through holes pierced to match the button and tied in simple knots.

Next is a simple, one layer  card. It's an A2 card base made from Kraft card stock and stamped with the same leaf as before in Garden Green ink. I love that green against the Kraft! I coloured the leaf stems in faded Chocolate Chip with a blender pen - it's quite subtle but gives a little detail.

The sentiment is from Trendy Trees and I positioned it with my Stamp-a-majig. How did I live without one? (The answer is that I often ruined cards with wonky sentiments!!!)

Here's the final card for today:

The gorgeous swirl from Baroque Motifs was stamped in Sage Shadow ink on Whisper White, then the bottom half covered with this stunning striped paper from the Sweet Pea designer stack. The squarish image from the set was stamped in Pumpkin Pie ink and cut out, then topped with a square clear button, this time backed with a Taken With Teal square and threaded with linen thread. The sentiment is from Happy Moments - and yes, I did position it with my stamp-a-majig!

Whew! That was quite a lot of male cards!
Hope you are inspired to get in touch with your masculine side.
See you soon!