Cards for Men

It would appear that Google searches for "cards for men" bring the majority of readers here. Most cardmakers seem to like making cards for men the least; certainly in the cards section of UK Scrappers there are fewer cards for men than any other category.

I quite like making cards for men. It's a challenge on two levels: firstly, to pitch a card the right way so that they appreciate it, without it being too over-the-top or unintentionally girly. Secondly, to hold their interest or intrigue. Women are easily pleased with blooms, bling or pretty papers: men are more demanding in terms of what they like and whether or not it appeals to them.

When I'm making a card for a man I think about their interests and age. For a teenager, I don't want to fall into the trap of trying to be cool (and failing) so I keep cards fairly innocuous and generic, with no mention of "groovy" or anything potentially embarrassing. Here are a couple of examples:


If they have an interest - football, golf, dining out, etc - it's easy to create a card around that. Sometimes I've used decoupage: it's a simple technique and men are always quite impressed by it.

They also like cards that have pictures of themselves, or their name on the front.

Using Photoshop, I've made several cards for John that feature a picture of him. His Valentine's card last year had a picture of him in a heart-shaped frame from PhotoShop.
And virtually any man appreciates a collage card or a card with a respectable stamped image, like the lighthouse (top left) painted with Twinkling H2Os.