Masculine Birthday

Have you ever gotten into a crafting rut? Sometimes I find myself doing the same thing over and over again; it takes an outside influence to snap me out of it. That is the case with the swap theme for March’s Card Club; the theme being “masculine birthday.” This is not what worried me; what did worry me was that it was “suggested” that we not use any ribbon, flowers, etc. on our card. Though I do not completely agree with the banishment of such accents (for example, I think that ribbon, used in the correct manner, can be masculine) I thought I would do my best with the guidelines.

Recently I have been taking what precious spare “crafting” time I have available to see what everyone else has been up to with their crafting; I think this card is the culmination of all of that “research.” I have seen so many projects with only opposite corners rounded and am glad that I was able to take advantage of that “new” shape. Also, color is so much fun for me; I fell in love with Soft Suede when Stampin’ Up! introduced it last year and enjoy seeing it used with various colors. I saw it used with Certainly Celery and Night of Navy and thought it was so striking a combo that I wanted to use it myself; adding the Bashful Blue, I thought, brought just the right balance to the darkness of the rest of the card. Among other things, I have seen lately a vast use of oversized background stamping; I had this birthday background set and thought it took advantage of this recent trend. Finally: embossing – who doesn’t like embossing? I thought this helped to keep the colors coherent and not detract from the overall look.

One last thought on this card: my original plan was to have another “rectangle” in the lower corner in So Saffron; I asked my husband what he thought and he said that it, “makes it too girly.” What do you think? Would you have added the saffron?

Oh, ok…there is one more thing (sorry): since I am usually in such a rush most of the time, I do not always note from where my ideas/inspirations come. If you see an aspect in my design/project (or any other project) which looks like something you created (and I hadn’t given you credit already for it), then let me know and I will be sure to recognize the oversight; I apologize in advance.

Recipe: Happy Birthday Greetings and Four Square stamp sets, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, and Soft Suede card stock, Versamark ink, Crystal Clear embossing powder, corner rounder punch, 1¼” square punch, heat tool, and dimensional spots.