"GUY GREETINGS" TO THE RESCUE

Over the weekend, I remembered that I needed to put a masculine birthday card in the mail.  Anyone who enjoys making cards would probably agree that the most challenging cards to make are masculine.  It is so hard to avoid bows and other frills (embellishments) that typically cater to the female persuasion.  I had some uninterrupted time alone at home on Saturday, so I busied myself with the task of creating a fantastic masculine card--one fit for a special 89-year-old man.  I knew what kind of card I was going to make, so I only needed to choose "the right" designer paper and a couple of stamps.  I didn't expect the process to take as long as it did, and I had a real "what the heck!" moment as I pleasantly held the finished card in my hand and wondered WHY I had put not one--but TWO--bows on it.  People say they "lose themselves" when they get a creative vibe, and I'd say that I really lost myself/my focus.  While I thought that the die-cut dragonfly on the front of the card was gender neutral, I'm not sure what possessed me to add the pretty Wink of Stella glimmer to the wings.  The card that I had spent all afternoon working on turned out to not be what I needed and, if you must know, I decided that the designer paper wasn't all that masculine, either.  The next day, I guess I found myself and was able to create this card, which I considered masculine enough--even with those pretty sequins.  At least they're a nice gun metal gray, right?

 

 

I think my favorite thing about this card is that it's so full of texture.  There's layered washi tape, watercolor paper (which has been embossed and distressed), linen thread, a vellum layer, and the fibers in the cardstock for the sentiment were weakened to give it some texture and make it pleasantly pliable.  And those sequins, of course.  Sequins are my current obsession.  I simply can't get enough of them, and I want to put them on every card that I make. 

 

I wasn't even going to share a picture of the masculine card that turned out to be not so masculine, but this is part of the front of it:

 

 

The inside was much more detailed.  And . . . prettier.