May 28, 20213 min read

For the Guys

Happy Friday, Unies! This is Julissa of Paper Gems by Jules on the blog today with some ideas for masculine cards. I recently asked my fellow Unies what they’d like to see more of on the blogs. The majority of you said you’d like to see more masculine card ideas. There were some other great options as well that I’ll do in blogs to come, but for today, let’s make some manly cards.

Today I’m sharing three different cards using the “For the Guys” stamp set. It’s such an all around awesome stamp set for masculine cards. And I’d love to share three cards with different techniques to use with masculine cards. This card is clean & simple. I simply stenciled the cloudy background and stamped the plane and sentiment. Keeping to the same colors, I backed the piece with the new Black Licorice card stock. It could be done there, but I wanted to add an element of metal so I used black staples on the edge and some clear enamel dots. So yes, you can still have an embellish a card and keep it masculine.

For the next card, I was inspired by my fiancé and his love of biking. Before the pandemic, we took many trips through out the year to ride mountain bikes. It’s been a while, but we’re back to getting our groove back. I stamped the background using the cool map stamp called “Explore” on the new Unity Spearmint card stock and inked the edges with green and brown ink. I used craft stock to stamp the bike and sentiment using a metallic ink. (It’s not clear in the photo, but it looks good in person.) Using the same ink edging creates it more of the focal point. But to add some masculine features, I crumpled the paper and then flattened it out. I pinned the piece down using bronze brads and added some wooden sequins.

This… this is kind of my favorite technique. Repeat stamping!! So this isn’t a masculine technique, but it’s a great way to maximize your stamps. I stamped the airplane with a dark brown. Next I used a lighter brown to stamp it multiple times behind it. If you don’t have a lighter brown, stamp the brown off on another piece and then stamp it on the piece. This is called second and third generation stamping. Now, there’s one more technique that I absolutely love and works perfectly for masculine cards.

I took a piece of scrap paper and heat embossed it several time using a dull gold embossing powder. By layering the embossing powder 4 times or more, you make the embossing thick and smooth. So on your last layer of heat embossing, stamp into the piece. Your red rubber will not get damaged, but rather engrave itself into the embossing. The greatest part of this technique is that if you mess up, just heat it up and it’ll melt back to a fresh start!

Here’s a quick summary of some elements that help create a masculine look to your card:

Earth tones: Browns, blues, greens and black
Metallic Elements: Metallic embossing powder, brads, staples, clips, etc.
Transportation Theme: Planes, trains and automobiles
Nature Theme: Wood, sky, forrest animals such as deer, moose and eagles
Distressed Look: Splatters and deckled edges

Now please don’t feel limited to these suggestion. These are just some ideas to kickstart your creativity. I’d love for you to share some of your ideas with me!