I’m not sure what I’m going to use this card for but I feel it could make a masculine card or sympathy or thinking of you or just ‘hello’ or ‘thank you’ for someone who enjoys warm autumnal colours.

It’s coming into Autumn now in Australia and the day I made this card was quite a gloomy cool day so I felt like using some warm rich colours for a change.  The tree image I’ve stamped here is from the Le Jardin Botanique stamp set by Stampin’ Up! and I’ve stamped it using Basic Brown inkpad onto watercolour paper.  To colour in the stamp I simply applied some watercolour crayon onto my aquapainter and then dabbed it randomly over the tree.  The colours I’ve used to watercolour are: Old Olive, Bravo Burgundy, Ruby Red and More Mustard to try and give the tree an autumnal feel.  For the background I stamped other images from the same stamp set randomly over some So Saffron cardstock then scrunched the cardstock up several time to create lots of creases on the cardstock and then ran the So Saffron inkpad lightly over the top of the cardstock to ink up any creases that were prominent – this gives the background a worn vintage feel and it’s just so easy to do.

I feel like I’ve warmed up a bit now so I’m off to make myself a coffee and pull out some more warm colours to see what else I can make.  Do you find you start to use different colours in your cardmaking depending on the weather or season? Please comment and let us all know if you do or don’t.

(All products used to make this card are by Stampin’ Up! and can be ordered through me – just email me for more details.

Rubber Stamps:
Le Jardin

Inkpads & Colouring:
Basic Brown
Creamy Caramel
So Saffron
Watercolour Crayons

Cardstock & Paper:
Watercolour paper
So Saffron
Old Olive (smooth and textured)
Bravo Burgundy (textured)

Accessories:
Playground Designer Buttons
Linen Thread

Tools:
Aquapainter

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals
Glue Dots

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Have you ever had to make a masculine birthday card and not know much about the man you were making the card for? or maybe he just didn’t have any hobbies which means you can’t just stamp a golf club or tool set on the card. I had to make a masculine card this weekend but really didn’t know much about what the recipient enjoyed doing in his spare time so I decided to make something a bit more generic and this is what I came up with.

The centre of the card is two separate rub-ons, one is the martini glasses with ‘party’ under them and the other is ‘it’s your birthday’.  Here’s the interesting thing with the paper I’ve used – one side can be used for masculine cards and the other for female cards.  It’s awesome!  In fact, I could make this card into a feminine card simply by using the other side of the paper and changing the twill to ribbon and the grommet to either a white grommet or some pretty buttons.  What you can also do is pair up the floral sides with the stripes and dots and checks on the back to make cards that are elegant but with a bit of a shabby chic look.  To top it off the patterned paper is textured.  Sigh.  This paper only has two weeks left before it retires so I’m going to stock up on it.  The metal grommet you see there is new and is a little bit of a sneak peak of what’s to come in the new Australian Stampin’ Up! Summer Mini catalogue (I’m not going to show stamps though, you’ll have to wait for those!)  I didn’t press the nails right into the card because I made a knot in the twill so it kind of stood up.  Unfortunately I had to take a quick photo before leaving for the birthday party so I didn’t get to check the photo but in real life the metal grommet does sit straight but slightly popped up from the card.. not sure what was happening when I took this photo!

Like this card? Leave me a comment, I love hearing from you.  If you have any questions about Stampin’ Up! products or would like to order any Stampin’ Up! products please email me.

Cardstock & Paper:
Not Quite Navy
Very Vanilla
Chocolate Chip
Parisian Breeze (patterned paper)

Accessories:
Fashion District Rub-Ons
Twill
Jumbo Grommet (Stampin’ Up! Australia Summer Mini Catalogue)

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

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Another card for the Twilight fans out there, if hope you like it and that it gives you a giggle.  If you’re not a Twilight fan and you’re scratching your head over this card then please pretend that instead of ‘tofu’ that the message on the card reads “For You”.

It’s a bit cool here today in Sydney, seems like Winter is really on it’s way and using these colours on my card warmed me up somehow.  I love the rich tones and I feel that the colours go well with the theme of my card.  If you’re wondering how I did the centrepiece of the card, that’s gloss cardstock which I sponged with ink and sponge daubers.  I simply dabbed my sponge dauber into my Sahara Sand inkpad and then using a small circle motion, I sponged ink into the centre of the card.  I was going to use a template to get a perfect oval in the middle then decided I wanted it to look more natural.  The outside of the main image is sponged again with a sponge dauber but this time Ballet Blue ink… an odd colour combination over all with the other colours but I think it works well.  After I sponged the gloss cardstock completley I went over the edges of the cardstock again just to give definition then stamped the script (En Francais background stamp) using Sahara Sand ink over the top of the background – I only stamped it lightly though so that it wouldn’t be too bold.  Next I stamped the tree image (Le Jardin Botanique stamp set) in Almost Artichoke and the (rein)deer from the Winter Post stamp set is stamped in Bravo Burgundy.  Actually, after I stamped the deer I dabbed it’s body a little with a blender pen so that it would look more ‘furry’ rather than a solid image… just to give it some texture and then under the deer I used a blender pen with some Almost Artichoke ink to ‘ground’ it so it didn’t look like it was floating.  So then the main image was adhered to a piece of textured Sahara Sand cardstock.  The word “tofu” was printed out on my computer as out of all the alphabet stamps I have (around 30 of them… cough, cough), I couldn’t find the size and font I wanted to match my card so I just typed it on my computer and printed it onto Very Vanilla cardstock then adhered it to the oval bookplate.  So, under the main section of my card is a piece of Almost Artichoke cardstock and Mellow Moss cardstock.  You’ll notice the Artichoke and Moss cardstocks are distressed, I did this using Stampin’ Up!’s cutter kit.  A little while ago Kathryn and Julie asked me about the Cutter Kit and this is one way to use it – to distress cardstock. Yes I could have used my fingernail to do this but I find that apart from it being damaging for your nails, you seem to bend the cardstock more than distress it if you use your nails, so I like to use the Cutter Kit for that.  As an aside, I will make some more cards using other parts of the Cutter Kit to show you what else it can do but this is a start.  Back to my card… the base of the card is Bravo Burgundy textured cardstock and I’ve also added some piercing to the top and bottom corners as some added interest.

Here’s a list of all the products I’ve used on my card, let me know if you have any questions – of course I also supply all these Stampin’ Up! products, so if there’s something you’d like then feel free to email me on angelasargeant@gmail.com

Le Jardin Botanique stamp set (tree)
Winter Post stamp set (deer)
En Francais background stamp
White gloss cardstock
Sahara Sand textured cardstock
Bravo Burgundy textured cardstock
Almost Artichoke cardstock
Mellow Moss cardstock
Very Vanilla cardstock (just a scrap to print the word ‘tofu’ onto it)
Sahara Sand, Ballet Blue, Almost Artichoke and Bravo Burgundy inkpads
Sponge Daubers (to sponge colour onto the main image and also sponge ink onto the edges of the green cardstocks)
Styled Silver Hodgepodge (bookplate)
Earth Elements brads (Artichoke brad)
Hemp Twine
Cutter Kit (to distress edges of cardstock)
Crafters Tool Kit (Paper Piercer and template to make holes)
Blender pen (to add texture to the deer and add grass under it’s feet)

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Hmmm, I don’t know whether I should post this as a masculine card or not.   I think it could be for either a woman or a man, it could be ‘thank you’ or ’sympathy’.  I purposely left off a sentiment so that I could make up my mind later what I want it to be.

I just wish I could take photos so that the colours show true to life – this is sooo much nicer in real life.  But right now I’m just happy I could take one that’s not got a big shiny patch in the middle from the flash.  I still struggle to take photos of cards using gloss cardstock.  Aaaanyway, on to the card….

The trees in this card are gold embossed onto white gloss card and then I sponged some Sage Shadow for the grass, Soft Sky for the Sky (genius!) and then sponged some Blue Bayou over the top half of the sky to give some depth and extra colour.  When I finished sponging I just ‘buffed’ up the card with a tissue to remove excess ink on the embossing.  The background on the left is my old favourite that I can rely on anytime – Weathered background – I find as long as I have a crackle-type background and a script background then I’m confident I can make any type of card.  The Weathered background stamp was stamped in Blue Bayou over Soft Sky cardstock and then sponged around the edges with Blue Bayou.  The striped paper on the right is from the Spring Silhouettes Designer Series paper and I sponged the edges of that too then pierced holes around the border.  The golf dots on the background are simply made using a Blender Pen very lightly dipped into Encore Gold reinker – you only need a tiny bit and I’m amazed at how well it cleans off the Blender Pen too… I’ll definitely be using the gold a lot more in the future now I know how easy it is to use.

So that’s it.  I hope you like today’s effort.  As usual, here’s the list of products I’ve used and if you have any questions about the card or the products I’ve used then please feel free to email or phone me (details on the top right hand side of this page).

Lovely As A Tree stamp set (ye olde faithful that gets dragged out over and over and over again)
Weathered Background stamp (another work-horse)
Chocolate Chip cardstock
Soft Sky Cardstock
Blue Bayou cardstock
Blue Bayou inkpad
Spring Silhouettes Designer Series Paper
Brushed Gold cardstock
Gloss White cardstock
Versamark inkpad
Gold Embossing Powder
Heat Gun
Encore Gold Reinker
Blender Pen
Sponge Daubers (to sponge colour on the background of the trees and around the cardstock)
Crafter’s Tool Kit (to make holes around the patterned paper
Antique Brass Hodgepodge (square metal clip)
Soft Sky Double-Stitched Ribbon
SNAIL Adhesive
Glue Dots (to adhere the ribbon with the clip)
Stampin’ Dimensionals (to mount the centerpiece onto the card)

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Masculine birthday card – the three words that often sends cardmakers into a frenzy of “OMG all I have is flower stamps”.  Well I managed to make a birthday card for my dear long-suffering husband that I think is masculine without being overly ‘brown’.  The hubby is extremely supportive of my hobby and business so I hope he likes my card.

Here’s some simple instructions if you’d like to also make this card.

1.  Adhere a piece of striped patterned paper to some Sage cardstock

2.  Using a template and paper piercer, make holes around the top part of the Sage cardstock

3.  Attach some twill where the paper and cardstock meet.  Thread the twill through a piece of Pewter Hodgepodge and secure the ends with pewter brads as shown in the photo.

4.  Stamp the birthday sentiment in Chocolate Chip ink on Very Vanilla cardstock, punch with a large oval punch then chalk around the edges.

5.  Mount the sentiment with Stampin’ Dimensionals to give some ‘pop’.

6.  Stamp the three stars in chocolate chip ink on Very Vanilla cardstock and punch out using a small star punch (note, the Stampin’ Up! star punch matches perfectly with the stamps).

7.  Chalk the edges of the stars with chocolate chip chalk and mount using Stampin’ Dimensionals.

8.  Mount the whole piece onto an A5 folded Chocolate Chip card using Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Here’s a list of the products I used: (all products by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com)

Wanted stamp set (stars)
Sincere Salutations (Birthday greeting)
Chocolate Chip cardstock
Chocolate Chip inkpad
Outlaw Designer Series Paper (stripy paper)
Sage Shadow cardstock
Very Vanilla cardstock
Stampin’ Pastels (chalks)
Sponge Dauber (to apply the Pastels)
Twill
Pewter Hodgepodge (metal embellishments)
Crafter’s Tool Kit (Template, soft mat and paper piercer to make holes)
Stampin’ Dimensionals

If you’d like some more ideas on what you can use to make masculine cards just click here for a heap of great ideas:  Masculine card ideas.

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Ever nearly burn your kitchen down in the name of craft? Okay, so I got it in time but I did panic. I had this cool idea (well I thought it was) to burn the edges of my stamped cardstock. Anyone old enough (and I’m really showing my age here) will remember that great Western TV show called Bonzana – at the beginning of each episode, they’d show the map of Ponderosa (the name of the ranch) and it would burn slowly from the edges. So I thought it would be cool to emulate this on a birthday card that I was making for a friend. I like the effect, but next time I won’t hesitate to turn on the tap to douse the fire rather than worry about having to start again. LOL.

I really enjoyed making this card and although I will say “don’t try this at home kids!”, here are the instructions: I started with a piece of Naturals Ivory cardstock and randomly stamped the swirly smokey stamp around the card using River Rock ink then overstamped with the Marlboro Man (that’s my name for him) in Chocolate Chip ink. Next I lit my gas stovetop and carefully (ahem) burnt the edges of the cardstock. This was then adhered to a piece of Close to Cocoa cardstock on which I dragged Close to Cocoa inkpad over it then distressed the edges. This was then adhered to a piece of Sage Shadow cardstock which I distressed the edges of and also ran the Sage Shdow inkpad around to define the edges. The embellishment on the top right is a piece of Close to Cocoa cardstock punched out with the Designer Label Punch then stamped with the swirl stamp and edged in Chocolate Chip ink. On top of the punched label is a 1″ circle punched from some of the Outlaw Designer Series Patterned Paper and on top of that is a star stamped onto Sage Shadow cardstock with Chocolate chip ink which has been cut out and affixed with an Antique Brass Brad. On the bottom left hand corner I simply added a piece of metal hardware with some twine tied around it. The base of the card is some more of the Outlaw Patterned Paper with a sponged and pierced border and wrapped with twill to ‘ground’ the main section of the card. The whole piece was then adhered to a piece of textured Chocolate Chip cardstock.

So that’s it – quick easy instructions, I decided not to stretch it out and bore you too much this time but if those instructions aren’t clear enough then please feel free to email me on angelasargeant@gmail.com to ask me any questions.

If you’ve made it down this far, it’s your turn to tell me, have you ever nearly burnt your kitchen or done any damage to it (or yourself!) in the name of craft?

(All images copyright to Stampin’ Up! 1990-2008 – Card designed by Angela Sargeant)

All products by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com

Here’s a list of the products I used:

Bronc Buster (man on horse stamp)
Wanted stamp set (star stamp)
Natural Ivory cardstock
Sage Shadow cardstock
Close to Cocoa cardstock
Chocolate Chip Textured cardstock
Chocolate Chip inkpad
Sage Shadow inkpad
River Rock inkpad
Close to Cocoa inkpad
Outlaw Designer Series Double-Sided Patterned Paper
Crafters Tool Kit (for the paper piercer, mat & template to pierce the holes around the perimetre of the patterned paper)
Designer Label Punch
1″ Circle Punch
Sharp scissors
Antique Brass Hodgepodge (brads and fastener)
Hemp Twine
Twill
Cutter Kit (for distressing the edges of the cardstock)

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Just when you thought I was going all pretty-girly on you I’ve made another masculine card. When I started this card I intended to give it to my husband this evening for our Wedding Anniverary (13 years today!!!) but now I’m looking at it and wondering if it would make a better Father’s Day card or Birthday card. If I get a chance this afternoon then I might try to russell one up with hearts on it or something. I don’t know – I thought that “The One and Only” that’s on the stamp would suit… anyway, just rambling now.

So I actually started this card by stamping the “Genuine” stamp (from the Bronc Busters stamp set by Stampin’ Up!) onto some Brushed Silver cardstock with Versmark then silver embossing it, though you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at it. I altered the colour of the silver cardstock by swiping my Blue Bayou inkpad over the embossed silver card and then used a sponge to work the colour in – this changed the silver to a sort of metallic denim. I then used a sanding block to sand the edges of the card then edged the card with a bit of Night of Navy ink to give it some definition. Some paper piercing around the border of the card finished it off by adding some extra texture and interest.

The background is one of the sheets from the ‘Outlaw’ Double Sided Designer patterned paper by Stampin’ Up!, it’s a lovely pale green with a bit of a rustic feel to it. I was going to use the patterned paper on it’s own (it has a bit of a light print on it) but I do love the look of stamping on patterned paper so I overstamped it with the star and swirl motif (which has a real cowboy feel to it) using River Rock ink. To finish the background I lightly sponged some Blue Bayou ink around the edges to give it only a touch of colour and depth. I then adhered some twill to the right of the patterned paper and used the Crop-a-dile to punch three holes in it and set three jumbo pewter eyelets. Yes! the Crop-a-dile punched right through the twill and cardstock together. Granted it wasn’t the cleanest of holes but it certainly worked… I just had to trim a little bit of the excess twill on the back of the paper with some small sharp scissors to neaten it up so you wouldn’t be able to see stray bits of twill thread through the eyelet holes. This whole piece was then adhered to a piece of Blue Bayou cardstock folded in half and then I mounted the silver stamped piece on top using Stampin’ Dimensionals to give it some lift. By the way, I know in the photo it looks like that piece of metallic cardstock is cut crookedly, it’s very straight – it’s just an optical illusion because of the dark blue ink with which it’s edged with.

Well now I’m officially in love with Blue Bayou and River Rock. I’ve been using Purely Pomegranate and Wild Wasabi to death and although I still love those, I really enjoyed using the Blue Bayou and River Rock – they’re awesome colours for masculine cards although I’m sure if I challenged myself I might be able to use them in a girly card too.

If you liked this card then you’ll want to sign up for my newsletter by entering your email address up the top right hand side of this page. My newsletters go out once a month and there’s always more cards, ideas and tips along with regular competitions.

As usual, if you have any questions please feel free to email me on angelasargeant@gmail.com. Of course I’m also happy to help you if you would like to purchase any of the Stampin’ Up! products I’ve used here:

Bronc Busters stamp set
Brushed Silver cardstock
Outlaw Double Sided Designer Patterned Paper
Blue Bayou cardstock
Blue Bayou inkpad
River Rock inkpad
Versamark inkpad
Night of Navy inkpad
Twill
Jumbo Pewter Eyelets
Crop-a-Dile (to make the holes and set the eyelets)
Paper piercer and template (to make holes around the centre piece)
Silver Embossing Powder
Heat gun
Sponges

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Looking for an easy masculine card to make? I made this card for my Uncle’s birthday today:

It was quick, easy and looks really cool in real life. I decided since my uncle isn’t used to receiving handmade cards (yes I know, I’m slack) that I’d keep the edges nice and straight and not do anything ‘too weird’ looking.

Quite simply I stamped the Marlboro Man, as I call him, onto some patterned paper that has that ‘Western Cowboy look” using Versamark ink then gold embossed the image. The edges of the patterned paper were swiped with a gold inkpad to give some interest and to make the dark patterned paper blend better with the gold image and the cardstock that it’s been layered on. The stamped paper was adhered to a piece of River Rock card (nice natural colour with a slight tinge so it doesn’t look too cardboardy. I wanted some sort of masculine embellishement and was about to go for the usual brass brads when I remembered that I had some new Jumbo Eyelets. These are so cool! I wasn’t totally sure about them when I bought them but figured I’d find somewhere to use them. I must say that after I set the first one I could see how they along with the Crop-a-dile become very very addictive – I started having thoughts about cool scrapbooking layouts and altered items I could use them on. Aaaaanyway, I digress…. to set the jumbo eyelet I simply punched a hole down the bottom of my card using the Crop-a-dile’s large hole punch, placed the jumbo eyelet in the hole then set it with the Crop-a-dile. Let me now make a confession that I didn’t even check to see if my Crop-a-dile was on the correct setting – I just went for it and it set it so beautifully! To tie in with the Western cowboy theme, I wrapped a length of twine through the eyelet and around the card to emulate some lassoing (is that a word????). This piece was then mounted with Stampin’ Dimensionals (double-sided foam tape) onto another piece of Western-style patterned paper which I had swiped around the edges with Chocolate Chip ink. The whole piece was then adhered to a folded piece of Chocolate Chip card. I added the sentiment last – for those of you who can’t read Greek (no doubt most of you!), it says “Many Years” which translates to Happy Birthday in English. This sentiment (by Buzz and Bloom) was stamped with Versamark ink onto Chocolate Chip card, gold embossed then the edges swiped with a Gold inkpad. Then I did something I’ve not done before (yeah, daring aren’t I? LOL), I mounted the sentiment back onto Chocolate Chip card again. Having swiped the sentiment edges with the gold, I found that mounting it onto the exact same cardstock worked really well as it gave depth and a clear outline while still blending in and not looking too overpowering. The sentiment was adhered onto the top piece of card just with adhesive, no foam tape. That’s it! Sounds like a lot but it wasn’t – I just rambled on a bit too much in the instructions.

If you’re looking for some more ideas for masculine cards then click here: Masculine Birthday Card and Masculine Card Ideas.
Here’s a list of products I used in case you’d like to recreate this card:

Card created by Angela Sargeant, all images (except the Greek sentiment) copyright to Stampin’ Up! 1990-2008.

Bronc Busters stamp set (cowboy on horse stamp)
Grecian Elements Unmounted stamps by Buzz and Bloom
Outlaw Double-sided Designer Series Paper (seriously cool paper, perfect perfect perfect for masculine cards and scrapbooking)
River Rock cardstock
Chocolate Chip cardstock
Chocolate Chip inkpad
Gold Ultimate Metallic Encore inkpad
Versamark inkpad
Jumbo Antique Brass Eyelet
Hemp Twine
Crop-a-dile (to set the eyelet)
Stampin’ Dimensionals
SNAIL Adhesive

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It’s the husband’s birthday so I whipped up this quick vintage style card for him.

Lots of people find it difficult to make masculine cards so I have a post here on my blog that can give you some ideas on what to use to make a masculine card. The reason I found this card quick to make is because I knew I wanted some earthy colours so I went for Cranberry Crisp, Buckeroo Blue and Chocolate Chip. I also figured that using lots of hardware on a card would be good for a man’s card which gave me the idea of doing a row of brads. Finally the choice of stamps wasn’t too hard as most of my stamps are floral or feminine so this one which is called ‘Stamp of Authenticity’ by Stampin’ Up! was an obvious choice.

To make this card I took some Kraft cardstock and stamped the Canvas background stamp using Cranberry Crisp ink. I purposely didn’t try to get a perfect image to give it a bit of a ‘rough’ look. I then stamped the small circle “Proof” stamp five times down the right hand side of the Kraft card using Chocolate Chip ink, punched some small holes into the middle of each circle and inserted the Antique Brass brads.
The library card from Stamp of Authenticity was stamped using Buckeroo Blue ink onto Confetti Cream cardstock, cut it out and roughed up the edges with a distressing tool and then edged it with Chocolate Chip ink by dragging the inkpad around the edges of the cardstock. I then stamped the words ‘happy’ and ‘birthday’ from the Everyday Flexible Phrases stamp set using Cranberry Crisp ink and stamped the husband’s name using Chocolate Chip ink with the Classic Alphabet stamp set. The ‘Authentic’ stamp was stamped with Chocolate Chip ink onto Buckeroo Blue cardstock – you can’t see it in the scan very well but I went around the perimeter with a perforating tool to add texture and interest. This was then cut out (just a couple of millimeters past the perforating) and attached to the library card using an Antique Brass spiral clip and mounted onto the Kraft card using double-sided foam tape. The bottom of the Kraft card was stamped with “100 percent” and the ‘original barcode’ (both from the Stamp of Authenticity stamp set) using Chocolate Chip ink. The whole piece was then layered onto a folded piece of Cranberry Crisp cardstock.

Here’s a quick list of the products used:

Card designed by Angela Sargeant
All images copyright to Stampin’ Up! 2000-2007
All products available for purchase through Angela Sargeant on angelasargeant@gmail.com

Stamp of Authenticity stamp set
Canvas Background stamp
Everyday Flexible Phrases stamp set
Classic Alphabet stamp set
Cranberry Crisp cardstock
Cranberry Crisp inkpad
Chocolate Chip inkpad
Buckeroo Blue cardstock
Buckeroo Blue inkpad
Confetti Cream cardstock
Antique Brass Hodgepodge (brads and spiral clip)
Cutter Kit (Distressing Tool and Perforating Blade)
1/16″ Handheld Punch
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals (double-sided foam tape)

Well I think I was successful in making a masculine birthday card and was very pleased with the results. If you have any questions on this card or cardmaking in general or would like to purchase any of these products then please feel free to e-mail me on angelasargeant@gmail.com

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One of my downlines recently sent me a list of ideas that could be used to make masculine cards. I suppose it’s one of those themes that lots of cardmakers struggle with since we tend to make so many cards for other ladies or for children. I’ve reproduced this list here and edited and added my own ideas too. I hope that it’s helpful to someone out there. Please feel free to add to this list by leaving a comment.
IDEAS for MASCULINE CARDS

Images of clocks, clock faces or actual mini clock parts (try garage sales for old watches you can pull apart)

Images of cars, trucks or motorbikes, trains, aeroplanes, boats & ships – the older the better – or anything to do with these ie ships wheel (also try Set Sail stamp set by Stampin’ Up!)

Images of musical instruments, sheet music and musical notes

Images of architecture, famous building ie Eiffel Tower, Tower of Pisa

Images of travel, copies of passports, travel documents etc

Images of favourite sports and colours of favourite teams in the shape of ie a football

Copies of old maps, old newspapers, old magazines of favourite images (you can Google maps, print them then age them by sponging with brown ink or dipping in weak tea or coffee – alternatively you can buy cheap books from your local charity shop).

Images of lighthouses, the sea, fishing, or underwater images

Images of wine or beer – consider soaking the labels off bottles of beer,wine or spirits (I’ve used labels from beer and they work great! Try James Boag)

Images on serviettes – wine, grapes, vineyards (remember to use only the top layer of the serviette and adhere with Jac Paper or paint over the top with Mod Podge or gel medium)

Images of animals – lions, leopards, tigers, horses etc

Collect old postage stamps with masculine images

Collect old house keys – the older the better – paint them and add to cards (or try Artifacts stamp set by Stampin’ Up!)

Cheap packs of playing cards – add cards to the front of a card – ie royal flush

Search for flat screws, nails or washers that you can paint or distress

Textured cardstock, Rough surfaces like sandpaper, plaid or argyle patterns (try Flannel Plaid background stamp by Stampin’ Up! or Sentimental Journey scrapbooking papers also by Stampin’ Up!)

Copy old sepia postcards or old sepia photos and alter them

Copies of famous old paintings ie Da Vinci

Images of old shoes or boots

Images of trees, leaves, gardening tools, fruit & vegetables from botanical books – make copies at the local library (try Lovely As A Tree stamp set by Stampin’ Up!)

Old coins or images of old coins

Make your own masculine backgrounds by scrunching up some cardstock into a tight ball a few times and then smoothing open, ink over the wrinkles with a pale brown inkpad and sponge with a creamy coloured inkpad. I like Creamy Caramel and More Mustard with So Saffron by Stampin’ Up!

Weathered Background stamp by Stampin’ Up! is great for masculine backgrounds but works equally as well for feminine shabby chic. Just change the colour scheme to suit.

Distress edges of cardstock by running your fingernail around the edges. Leave as is or further distress by dragging your inkpad over the edges too.

Use an emery board for sanding over cardstock to give a distressed look.

Try Twill Tape (Stampin’ Up!) for a clean masculine look.

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