Masculine cards

It is always a challenge for me to make a really masculine-looking card because I make so many more cards for women than I do men, but this week I got busy on three cards I needed, all for men this time, and I am pleased with the results.

I have seen the idea on Pinterest quite often for making what looks like a man's shirt with a pocket so I decided it was time to try it for myself.  The pocket has a tag in it that says "Happy Bithday."  I added the placket for the buttons on the front and also attached a button-down collar.  Inside the card I made a small pocket in which you can put either a little note or some money.  Here is a close-up of the card:

For quite some time I have toyed with making some masculine cards using metallic paper since it seems so appropriate for some reason (who knows why??).  So I got out my silver and copper mettalic papers and started playing around with them.  Here is the first card I came up with:

The silver paper has a linen-look and the copper paper was a matte but otherwise plain look, so I embossed the copper paper with the honeycomb design to give it a little extra "character."  I added two little screw brads to add some masculinity and I really like the outcome.  It is a design I think I'll try again with some feminine color schemes.  I have lots of pinks, purples, blues and golds in metallic papers that may look really pretty.

Anyway, I used the same silver and copper papers for a totally different design:

On this one I embossed the silver with a grid design.  If you look closely, you can see it.  It totally changed the look of that silver paper!  I die-cut the word in silver and in black so I could offset the effect on the white banner.

All in all, it was a very productive and fun week for me and card-making!