Masculine 30th Birthday

I am back today to share a 30th birthday card I made for my brother-in-law.

The "happy" I die cut and stuck onto the white card, whereas the "birthday" I sunk into the white card, just to add different textures.  The 30 I coated in Glossy Accents to make it a little more interesting.

Jacqui x

Supplies:

Dies - Spellbinders: Nestabilities, Memory Box: happy, birthday, Large Typewriter Number Set, CBS: Honeycomb Die
Cardstock: Core 'dinations "brights
Glossy Accents

Masculine Valentine

Sorry for being absent for so long...life has gone manic recently but I have managed to find a little time in between for crafting but not blogging.

Today I am sharing the card I made my husband for Valentine's day.  As with many people I really struggle to make cards for men.  I used an earthy colour pallet for this card which helped stop it being too feminine.

Supplies:

Heart - free cut from core'dinations "darks" cardstock
EF - Swiss dots by Cuttlebug
Embellishments - from my stash

Sentiment - Personal Impressions - Everyday Words Happy Birthday

Ink - Memento - Pistachio 

Die - Circle - Spellbinders Nestabilities  

Little Thank You's

I made these little thank-you cards a couple of weeks ago for my husband to give to family but I never got round to sharing them.  As a needed to make a few I wanted something really simple and fairly quick to make.  I had just bought some 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" Dovecraft card bases in a local craft shop which are a perfect size for thank-you notelets.

This is also the first outing for some brads that I bought, I remember using brads in school but had seen them on a few cards around blogland so thought I'd give them a whirl - I quite like them.  I think they make the cards seem a bit more masculine.

Jacqui x

Supplies:
Card base - Dovecraft - 240 gsm 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" white cards and envelopes
Coloured card - Core 'dinations cardstock "Darks"
Brads - Bringing Crafts-Too You - "Vintage brads"
Stamp - Crafty Impressions "Thank You"
Ink - Memento - Tuxedo Black

Wedding Anniversary

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but we were away on holiday for a couple of weeks, it was so good to get away after having a hectic couple of months.  Anyway the card I have to share with you is an anniversary card.  It was our 3rd wedding anniversary earlier in the month, and this is the card I made to give to my hubby.  I always find anniversary cards for men hard to make - trying to find a balance between getting across the sentiment of love without being really girly.  Here's my card:

I saw the below card on Pinterest and decided to use the elements of it in my card.  I wanted to use a heart as the cut out shape, and due to a lack of a die I printed out a heart shape and cut it out using my craft knife, after assembling them together I stuck it on using foam pads to add some dimension.  The circle shape I free cut from card and coloured paper.  I stuck the strips of coloured paper to a piece of paper and then onto the card base.  The sentiment I printed directly onto the card.  To finish it off I couldn't resist a few rhinestones!

Inspiration:

Jacqui x

Father's Day #2

The second card I made was in a different style.  I used papers from my stash, trying to pick my most "masculine" colours.  I added some interest to the blue paper by using the Swiss Dots embossing folder from Cuttlebug.  All of the cutting was done by hand except for the circle which I used a 2" punch to cut around a sentiment I had printed on my printer (lack of suitable stamps!).  I lifted the sentiment using foam pads to make it more of a focal point.

Hope you are enjoying celebrating Father's Day...unfortunately I won't see my Dad again for a few weeks but we can celebrate together then!  Thanks for visiting today. 

Jacqui x

Fathers Day #1

It's Father's Day today...so I have two cards to share with you as hopefully my Dad and my Father-in-law have both received their cards by now! I struggle with masculine cards, which is a common problem I think. 

For the first card I cut out the word "Dad" from card, and overlaid it over some stripes of different blue paper I has embossed using Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots folder.  I raised this on foam squares and left it at that, keeping it simple as usual!

Jacqui x 

Mini Bunting

Wow, where did the last week go! It's Friday already tomorrow and I feel like the week has only just started.  

I thought that today I'd share a card that I made for my brother-in-law's birthday.  I really struggle to make cards for men (a common problem I think!), so when I saw this mini bunting card when I was perusing Pinterest I couldn't resist having a go at recreating it.  There is a great description of how the card is made on the link above, but basically you make little hinged triangles that you fold and stick around the twine and voilà  you have your cute mini bunting.  I printed my sentiment onto card using my printer as I wanted a fairly plain font that wasn't too feminine, which I mounted and added to the card on foam pads. 

Sorry the photo isn't the best, as well as improving my card making skills as I go along I'm trying to improve my photography skills too (they are none existent at present!).

Thanks for reading, please leave comments - I'd love to hear what you think.

Jacqui x