Creation Station: Man Cards!

Howdy friends!  It's the first Sunday of the month (MAY! already!) and the Creation Station Design Team is ready to inspire you.  This month we are up for a real challenge - Masculine Cards!  I think all of us feel like masculine cards are some of the most difficult to create.  Let us show you that we can make things for the men in our lives with a little less stress.

First up - a treat box - a Baker's Box to be specific.

This one was pretty easy to whip up.  My husband is as I've sometimes referred to him - Prince Farming.  And this is farming season (as soon as Mother Nature turns off the water faucet).  My Prince Farming typically leaves the house at 7 am and comes home around 10pm when planting season gets going full swing. He takes a LARGE lunch with him so he doesn't have to stop to eat, and I imagine putting in a container like this as a surprise - full of goodies.

I kept this fairly simple - just watercoloring the deer image.  Don't be afraid of this - it's rather easy with an Aquapainter and ink pads. The key is to not worry too much about perfection.

My next card is VERY simple.  I took a piece of the map DSP from the Going Places Paper Stack as my focus.

When I looked at this piece, I saw all the different directions one could go, and instantly thought about the phrase 'you drive me crazy'.  It's something Prince Farming and I rather lovingly say to each other - in a sarcastic type of way.  

To depict that in this map, I made going from point A to point B the most indirect route that I could.  You'll also notice that my route is in somewhat the shape of a heart.  I used my Rotary Stamp to create the sentiment - using white embossing powder on black cardstock.  I happen to love this look - it reminds me of the old style label maker.  With my color scheme here - Pool Party, Real Red and Black - I think it's plenty masculine enough. 

My last card is also on a simpler styler.  I went with a watercolored Get Well card.  I did a quick search on Pinterest for masculine color palettes and found these colors, and knew they would work well together - Island Indigo, Delightful Dijon, Soft Suede, and Early Espresso.  I think this is the easiest way to change up an image to make it a little manly - just switch out your colors.  

I stamped this image on watercolor paper using Stazon ink.  Then I washed around the entire image with Island Indigo.  Again, you don't need this to be perfect.  I used the Dijon for the soup bowl and some REALLY watered down Espresso for the liquid.  Once I had everything watercolored the way I wanted I dropped splatters of water on top of the image.  Once that sat for about 30 seconds, I used a paper towel to soak up the excess.  This kind of "bleaches" the areas back out and you get those great droplet marks. 

Now.....once everything is good and dry - I went back over the stamped image with a black marker.  I did this because when you stamp onto watercolor paper, a lot of times your image is not solid. (the watercolor paper has a lot of texture)
I also added a punched heart - first I heat embossed a scrap of Real Red card stock with clear embossing powder several times - while it was still hot, I added more embossing powder to it and heated it again.  This gives a good thick coat of shine.

Well - I hope I gave you some ideas to work with. I'm sure you'll continue to be inspired as you hop along thru the rest of the design team blogs.  You won't be disappointed!