Some people have difficulty with masculine cards, whether it is for birthdays, anniversaries or Father's Day. I wrote down some thoughts to help you with your creations for the men in your life...

• Click HERE for some suggestions on how to make masculine cards (216 KB PDF)

Speaking of masculine cards, here is the Father's Day card I made for yesterday. It was inspired by the "friend" card on the bottom of page 93 of the Idea Book & Catalogue.

Stamps: Tiny Tags (wood: 119187), Defining Alphabet (116354). Card/Paper: Basic Black (121688), Tempting Turquoise (108598), Brushed Silver (Brushed Metallic: 106559), Whisper White (106549). Ink: Basic Black (101179), Basic Gray (109120), Tempting Turquoise (100814), Jet Black Stazon (101406). Accessories: Black Brads (Neutrals Brads: 119736), Silver Brads (104336), Linen Thread (104199). Tools: Perfect Polkadots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (117335), Sizzix Big Shot (113439), Jewelry Tag Punch (117190), 1/16" Hand-held Circle Punch (101227), Mat Pack (105826), Paper Piercing Tool (116631), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430).

I love how the Brushed Silver card stock looks like studded metal after it has been put through the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder.

Last weekend I attended a Stampin' Up! training day. During the day we had swaps. In the swaps, I received this lovely Father's Day card from Joanne Jensen...

This card has great techniques for masculine cards - tearing, distressing, daubering and faux-suede. It also uses a variation on the kissing technique to give a distressed look to the stamped "d-a-d". Joanne inked the alphabet stamp with Bashful Blue then, before stamping it, she dabbed the stamp with crumpled paper inked with Chocolate Chip ink. Gorgeous!

We will be using some of these techniques, and more, in the September workshops.

• Click HERE to find out more about the September workshops.
• Click HERE to contact me to sign up for a workshop.