Birthday Cards for Men

Many cardmakers find that making cards for men is more difficult than making "female" cards.  There are so many beautiful floral papers, lace trims and ribbons, fancy die cut shapes and other blingy things that appeal to women but don't really "work" for many men.

My husband has two brothers with January birthdays and the colors for their cards were inspired by the national-home-improvement-store-with-the-orange-logo gift cards that will be inside the cards (hint, hint...).  I  was feeling a bit lazy and a bit guilty about the number of Cricut cartridges I own that I haven't used so I went to the "Birthday Bash" cartridge to find a sentiment.

This is another one of the "cute" cartridges and it contains lots of whimsical animals celebrating birthdays.  I was just looking for a quick sentiment and settled on "Happy Happy Birthday" on page 41.

 I have taken to using the Cricut machines primarily for plug and play cutting of images - I rarely use any of the Cricut Design tools these days.  I have found that other software programs give me much more freedom to create what I want but if I just want to cut out something quickly, I can usually find a cut that will work in my (too large) collection of cartridges. 

This phrase was meant to be used on the flag so I had to think about the sizing.  I was making a regular A2 card so I used "fit to length" and set the dial for 4 1/4 inches.  I had to make it longer to compensate for the flag pole being part of the image on that key.  The machine calculated a size of 5 3/4 inches for the cut.

I cut two mat layers for the card.  The base layer is orange cardstock and the top layer is a lighter gray.  I recently bought this embossing folder with the hexagon pattern.  I thought it would be suitably "hardware-like" since the shapes reminded me of nuts and bolts.

Whenever you use an embossing folder, you "emboss" one side (raise up the pattern) and "deboss" the other (press the pattern down into the cardstock).  The look can be very different.  In this case the debossed side (on the left) looked more like hardware nuts to me so I chose to place that side up one the card.

One problem with the sentiment I chose was the lack of a shadow layer.  In the Silhouette software I can add a shadow or offset of any shape or group of shapes with a quick click.  Despite years of requests, this is not possible with the Cricut software.  If there is not a true shadow, you can cut the same image twice and glue the two cuts together slightly off center to give a "sun shadow" effect.

You can see the dark gray shadow layer on the orange word cuts here.  I wanted the card to be more rugged and grungy so I used some Pumice Stone Distress Ink to ink the sentiment edges and the embossed hexagon layer.

 Here is a closer view of the "shadow" layer and the inking.

I didn't want to pretty up the card with ribbon but I remembered that there was an interesting trim in my last Webster's Pages warehouse sale box (the one at the top of this card of trims).

I cut a short length of the trim to fit the card front and clipped one row to make a three row stripe.  This width fit in the hexagon pattern more neatly and odd numbers are always better, right?

I had saved the dot for the exclamation point but I decided to cut just one shiny "rivet" from the extra trim and use it to make a more noticeable dot.

I needed a pocket to hold the gift card inside so I cut a strip of the orange cardstock at 2 x 5 inches and punched one edge with a deep edge punch.

The punch I used is from the Martha Stewart line and it is called "Triple Chain."  I think it looks like a chain link fence.  I am not sure if this is in stores yet, I fell for the HSN sales pitch and bought it as part of a multi shipment plan (as if I needed any more punches...)!

I used Scor-Tape on the bottom and sides of the pocket to hold the card securely.  On the top edges of the punched area I used a glue pen to hold the corners flat.

I keep this cardboard credit card from a mailing on my craft island so it is handy to test sizing for any gift card holders I want to put inside my cards.

I inked up the edges of the pocket with the same Pumice Stone distress ink.

I don't usually make two of the same card but since the birthdays are less than a week apart and the same gift was going to be inside each card it seemed like a good plan to make duplicates.  One card has a little extra decoration inside to mark a "milestone" birthday.

I was motivated to try to use a Cricut cartridge that I hadn't tried before but, in hindsight, I think I might have preferred to make my own sentiment using a stencil font from my computer and cutting it with the Cameo to get a better match for the "look" of the national-home-improvement-store-with-the orange-logo...  yup, totally wishing I had done it that way now(!)

Do you find it difficult to make cards for men?  What are some of your tips and tricks for keeping the cards from getting too frilly?


Thank you all so much for the kind words and prayers for my Dad.  He has improved considerably and we are hoping for a full recovery.  Please be careful and try to avoid catching this flu.  There are a lot of people affected and the germs can last for more than a day on surfaces so be sure to wipe things down and use hand sanitizer!

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Junk Mail Christmas Card Upcycle

When  get the mail I try to open and dispose of everything right away.  Bills go in one spot to be paid, magazines go to the family room to be read, and junk mail should go directly into the recycle bin.  Every so often, something in the junk mail catches my eye and goes into the "crafty" pile.

A couple of days ago, we got a mailing from Consumer Reports - the typical "send a gift subscription" pitch that every magazine sends at this time of year.  Included in the envelope were two "postcards" to send to the recipient if you ordered a gift subscription.  I thought the image was very nice and decided to save the gift notice to make a card.

The first thing I did was to trim off the message at the top.  The remaining picture measured 3 1/2 x 5 7/8 inches and I trimmed it to 3 1/2 x 5 inches.  I trimmed different amounts from each side to keep the main parts of the picture intact (if I had trimmed it all from the right side the little red car would be cut off awkwardly, if it was trimmed all from the left side the house would be chopped off).

Since the 3 1/2 x 5 inch size was not proportional for an A2 card (normally the layer would be 3 3/4 x 5 inches) I set about finding a way to add a border to even things up.

I punched a scrap paper with this Martha Stewart border punch with a scalloped snowflake design.  The punch is called "Skylands Snowflake."

I liked the border effect but I needed to trim the image a bit more to make everything align properly.  I cut about 1/8 inch from the top and the bottom of the picture so it would center properly on a 4 x 5 1/4 inch mat layer (in dark blue here).

Once I had the sizes figured out, I decided to use some glittered cardstock for the border.  This is the Core Couture cardstock by Core'dinations.

I punched a section of the border on a scrap piece of the glitter cardstock.  Then I adhered it to the picture, centering the border design.

When I trimmed the straight sides the ends looked a little untidy.

I trimmed the edges so finish the curve of the border. 

I added some gems at the two ends to finish the cuts on the border and also added a few more with a slightly larger gem in the center.

I added Diamond Stickles to the rooftops, along a few of the land contours and on the snowman.  I left this photo dark so you could see the sparkle the Stickles create.

The blue mat layer is shimmer cardstock from The Paper Company.  The front and back are two shades of blue.  I had worked with the dark blue side right up until I was ready to assemble the card.  I flipped the mat over and found that the lighter blue was a better match for the colors in the picture.

The card base is white gemstone cardstock, also from Core'dinations.

Why not take a second look at some of your "trash" - there may be some crafting potential in the things you toss!  There were two of the gift post cards in my mail so I am adding one to the giveaway box for someone else to try an upcycle.

November Giveaway update...

Here are the updated contents of the box that one lucky reader will win at the end of the month.
in the box so far...

1.  2 sheets of the sticky paper I used for the glittered ornament card
2.  A new set of the same Inkadinkado Autumn Leaves stamps I used on the card
3.  An 18 inch piece of the brown leaf ribbon - enough for a few cards.
4.  A small bag of plastic gems like the ones I used on the crystal glass.
5.  Two pieces of the blue holographic paper I used for the fish on the wreath.
6.  A small piece of the white and silver mesh I used for the nets.
7.  The "gift subscription postcard" that you can use to make your own upcycled project.

All comments on posts in the month of November will be eligible for a random draw at the end of the month.  One lucky reader will receive the small priority mail box full of bits and pieces.

You can leave a comment on every post to increase your chances but please just leave one per post and make sure that you give me enough information so I can contact you if your comment is drawn.


The Thanksgiving Shopping weekend is drawing to an end - did you buy a little or a lot? (or nothing at all...)



Blitsy is celebrating their first anniversary and they have a huge assortment of  items on offer this week - some of them have been "blitsed" (sold out) but there are still a lot of bargains to be found.  You need to check back if something you wanted is marked "blitsed" because they sometimes add more items to a category and the item is then available to order again.


The Cricut.com deal for Sunday is a discount of up to 30% OFF all physical cartridges!

Don't forget about the Creative Memories "Stuff Your Stockings" sale - you can read all of the details in the post HERE.  The sale ends at 10 p.m. Central Time on Monday, November 26th (tomorrow).

Have a wonderful Sunday - there is talk that we may soon have snow here.  It is definitely much colder and windy - winter is arriving!


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Glittering Delicate Diecuts

Some of my favorite things about the holiday season are the lights and the sparkle.  Since the winter months are so dark, we need to brighten up our surroundings as much as possible.  I think that glitter is magical and when it catches the light it always makes me smile!

Along with glitter and things that sparkle, I have a fascination with intricate cuts.  I often design and cut delicate designs that I can cut with the Cricut or Silhouette machines but they can take a long time to cut and are prone to errors, particularly when there are lots of curves that might cause the blade to "hang."  There are a number of companies that make intricate cutting dies - some of my favorites are by Memory Box.

I recently bought this die - the "Emma" ornament which has the added attraction of a snowflake design (if you have been reading my blog for a while you know that I am a little bit obsessed with snowflake patterns!).  I wanted to cut out the shape and make it as sparkly as possible.  I have various glitter papers in my stash but the twinkle of actual glitter is hard to duplicate.

 I recently bought some of this sticky back paper at my local stamp and scrap shop, Ink About It.  It is from Art Glitter and there are lots of ways you can use it (see the Art Glitter site HERE).

There are fifty card size sheets in the package - you can also buy single sheets but it actually turns out to be a little bit cheaper to get the precut package.  This paper has an edge to edge very strong adhesive on one side.

I taped the die to the paper side of the sheet and ran it through the Cuttlebug.  I needed to put it through several times to make sure that all of the fine details were cut through.  (I have noticed that sometimes my Cuttlebug leaves one area not quite cut through - I wonder if I've worn the rollers down from overuse!  Next time I'll try it with the Vagabond - the Cuttlebug was handy when I started on this project...)

I chose this beautiful blue shade of glitter from a collection pack of Martha Stewart glitters.  I  peeled off the protective backing paper from the ornament cut and poured glitter over the adhesive to get a layer of glitter on the ornament.  I poured the glitter onto a piece of scrap paper and after the top was coated I pressed the sticky side of the ornament into the glitter to be sure it was fully covered with glitter.

I was so excited to get the glitter on the ornament cut that I forgot to take photos at each step.  Here is a photo of one of the letters as I glittered it.  Once the cuts were covered in glitter I put them flat on the table and placed another piece of scrap paper on top of the glittered side and burnished the cut to make sure the glitter was completely secured.

I cut the letters using the "Jolly" font from the Holiday Frames & Tags cartridge. There are three fonts on this cartridge with upper and lower case letters.  The Jolly Font has some additional letter options so you can choose upper case letters with straight lines or curls.  I used the curly options for the "N," "E" and the "L" but decided to make the "O" in the simpler shape with no curl.  The card base is Core'dinations textured cardstock and the mat layer is shimmer cardstock from The Paper Company.

To add more texture to the card, I embossed the mat layer using the "Snowflakes" Cuttlebug embossing folder.  I put the starburst design at the top of the card and aligned the letters to the shapes along the bottom of the card.

When I bought the ornament die, I didn't see a background plain die for that shape.  I checked online and found that Memory Box does have a plain die so I may try to order that.  I decided that I could make my own shape using the die that I already own.

 I cut the ornament again from a scrap piece of pink cardstock to make a template for the background.  I placed this "stencil" over the piece of shimmer cardstock I wanted to use for the background and traced the shape.  I made sure to do my tracing on the back side of the cardstock so any pen lines wouldn't show.

Then, I did something a little unusual for me these days - I cut the shape out with a pair of scissors!  I was careful to stay exactly on the line and moved the paper instead of the scissors to get around the curves smoothly.

The hand cut shape fits the delicate ornament cut very neatly.  Since there is so much open space in the design you have a little bit of stretch as you add the top layer.  I used the Creative Memories Precision Point Adhesive pen to adhere the glittered cut to the background shape.

The ornament is popped up from the card front with some foam circles.

It might be nice to make the ornament removable so it could be hung on a tree by the recipient.  You could make it two sided by adding another glittered shape and attaching it to the card with a ribbon, ready to hang.

I tied a small bow from shimmery ribbon (I think this is from May Arts) and attached it with a glue dot right at the top of the ornament.  Even though it was slightly off center, I made sure to have the top highlighted by the starburst shape in the embossing.

If I was planning to make a lot of these ornaments I would definitely but the plain die but since I discovered that it is not very difficult to cut it by hand I may use the money to buy another one of the ornate shapes.  There are so many pretty Memory Box dies that I'd love to add to my small collection.

I am very pleased with how firmly the glitter seems to be attached to the ornament shape and the letters.  I have handled the card and rubbed my fingers on the glittered parts and nothing has come off.  None of these photos can show just how sparkly and pretty the card is in person - you'll just have to try making one yourself!

I had planned to finish up the post about this card yesterday but some "real life" things kept me away from my computer.  I hope you didn't mind the wait too much.  I am shopping for a new laptop as this one is several years old, has been used very heavily and is starting to give me a few too many problems.  There are a lot of choices so I am trying to decide whether to stick with an HP model or try something new...any ideas?

If you can't find the Memory Box dies locally you can order them from Simon Says Stamps (affiliate links)

InLinkz.com

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