Lost stash alert

I've been busily creating a scrapbook album as a present for the last few weeks and have used up a lot of stash, so I decided to treat myself to some new goodies. Unfortunately the postman came while I was out, left a card....but it seems they have lost the parcel! Quelle horreur. Fortunately it was sent Recorded Delivery so I have every hope of recovering the money spent, if not the stash (I can't quite remember what I ordered!)

I'm not going to share the scrapbook pages yet until the recipient gets the album at the weekend. In the meantime, here are a couple of cards created recently for men - one for a cricket lover and the other a badminton player. I find it easier to make cards for men when I can focus on one of their interest areas - and these Duflex hologram effect decoupage motifs are great for sports fans. I am obsessed with feathers at the moment so the badminton card was great to indulge that passion!

Cards for men

Arty Girlz is looking for projects for men.

I have to create quite a few male cards for the men in my life and they are quite a challenge. Here are some cards with men in mind. The "rockstar" card is aimed at a teenager whereas the others work for older men. I think collages and stamped images work particularly well for men.

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.