This week has been all about masculine and I did not want to forget the younger set… the boys! Little boys are whirlwind of energy! They command attention with their playful ways. I’m a big fan of little boys… after all, I have one! When I think of a boy, I think bright and colorful… I think whimsical cards that will catch the attention of the young ‘lad’ receiving the card.

Today I wanted to create a fun and playful card suitable for young boys. My color palette of red, purple and blue is unexpected but a happy combination of colors for the special boy in your life. I used a lot of different stamps for this one… 7 to be precise. For a touch of whimsy I added some twine and ribbon for the kites tail & used a thought bubble stamp to make clouds. I showed it to my son and he thought it was ‘neat-o’… so I guess he liked it!

Here is the card:

Supplies:

• Bird on a branch
• Circle Graphics
• DesignBlock Floating Leaf Pattern
• Long Branch
• DesignBlock Happiness Grows
• DesignBlock Reversed Leaf Pattern
• Bird Greetings
• Clear Designs: Travel Journal
• Crimson Notecards
• Baby Blue Notecards
• Green Apple Notecards
• Violet Notecards
• Memories Ink Pad - Cherry Red
• Versacolor Royal Blue cube
• Memories Ink pad - Violet
• Other: ribbon, twine, patterned paper

Next I wanted to share with you this terrific card made by Lisa Spangler. Isn’t this adorable with the felt detailing? I think any young boy would be thrilled to receive this handmade card. Lisa says: “The weather is beautiful and cool here in central Texas — it was only 88 F yesterday. It’s finally fall, woo hoo! The squirrels are having a field day, the monarchs are migrating, and the sky is that wonderful shade of blue. So, when Leslie asked me to create a card for boys and I saw her color scheme, I knew just what I wanted to do! I played down the purple a little (it’s in the ribbon and some of the “acorns”) and used a little more orange instead. I think this would be a great card to tuck in a lunch box for boys of all ages!”

Supplies:

• Clear Design Live Simply (for the tree)
• Clear Design Tree, Birds & Messages (for the squirrel)
• Clear Design Happiness Messages (for the “yippee!”)
• Gemstone Adhesive Crystals
• Gemstone Adhesive Crystals
• Memories Inkpad - Artprint Brown
• Lemon notecards
• Baby Blue notecards
• Other: Green felt, sewing machine, pinking fabric shears (Fiskars), ribbon (unknown), colored pencils (Prismacolor), paper edge distressor (Tonic for Tim Holtz)

I’m sure you all remember Kelli Crowe from Tuesday’s post?! Well, she was having so much fun with our stamps that she made a couple extra cards for your viewing pleasure. Aren’t these two cards just fantastic?! What little boy wouldn’t love to receive that playful monkey card, and boys are usually into all things ‘transportation’ from trains, planes and automobiles. Kelli played off that theme in the second card and created a really cool peek-a-boo cloud card for some lucky boy at her house. Kelly says: “One of the fun things I found with making these cards is that I could use travel stamps for any-occasion masculine cards because my boys like trains and trucks and planes.”

Supplies for Little Monkey Card:

• Basic Lowercase Letters
• Playful Animals
• It’s Your Day  (I used the center portion of the “It’s Your Day” stamp for the round coconut. Then I stamped the letters in the center of them.)
• Other: watercolors, journaling pen, cardstock, green wire, small hole punch, foam tape

Supplies for Hi (Airplane) Card:

• Airplane
• Memories Inkpad - Black
• Other: white flocked paper, white cardstock, water colors, black stamp pad, thin wire

Now… for something REALLY fun and playful — another giveaway!

I love all the 12″ long clear stamps Hero Arts have brought out and I especially love the long blocks to mount them on before stamping.

You have until Saturday, October 11th at 11:59 pm (PST) to leave a comment on this post. Since this week has been all about masculine, please leave a comment telling us what color combination you like best when creating masculine cards and projects. I will post the winner of the contest on Sunday, October 12th morning, right before I start my Thanksgiving feasting — which us Canadians know is this long weekend!

Hi everyone!  I’m back to announce the winners of last week’s Deck the Halls Challenge.    I know that I always say this — but WOW — what truly incredible entries!  The judges had a super hard time narrowing down their favorites.

So, without further ado…

…drumroll…

Third place goes to wteresa15 for these fun Halloween doorknob hangers!  Aren’t they the cutest?

Second place goes to murphy_latrice for this super duper decorated mailbox/advent calender.  Love it!   She and her daughter created it together, and they plan on checking it every day.  Too fun!

Finally, first place goes to Gigi 001 — she outdid herself on this advent calender.  Just look at all the little yummy details — each time I look, I see something else that I didn’t notice!

Winners, please email us at the address in the blog sidebar so that we can get your gift certificates right out to you and you can start shopping.  Please put “Deck the Halls Challenge Winner” as the subject line so that we can find you.

Since the judges had such a hard time choosing the winners — and since the challenge was a little more more involved than creating a card or scrapbook page, we decided to feature several honorable mentions.

We’ll start off with this ornament by sarahjane4kids — she stamped the Holly Bird with StazOn and then stitched him — too clever!

Next, the judges loved how becs attwood created this fun lantern from recycled envelopes!

Look at these super cool shadowboxes that scrapperjjb created as a display for her hallway.  Love how she embossed the Clear Design Long Seasonal Borders + the owls + corrugated cardboard!

Next, feast your eyes on this candle that judkajudi created. Wouldn’t it look simply stunning as the centerpiece of a fall table setting?

newkidfish’s sparkly snowman sun catcher really caught the judge’s eyes.  It’s sure to brighten any day!

Now feast your eyes on this festive angel tree topper by leapfroglbna! WOW! Love the glittery gold embossing powder.

Finally, designs by diana turned family heritage photos of her grandmother, mother, and aunts into beautiful, meaningful Thanksgiving place cards.

Honorable mentions, I have some goodies to send to you!  Please email us at the address in the blog sidebar with “Deck the Halls Challenge HM” as the subject line and I’ll have them sent right out.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered — hope you had tons of FUN!   I think there’s going to be some very festive houses all around the world.  See all the great entries by clicking HERE.

Hope that you are enjoying Leslie Lightfoot’s week of masculinity! I know that I sure am. There’s still plenty of time to enter her challenge — click HERE for full details.

Until next time,

Crafting projects for men and boys is a little trickier than it is for girls, especially in the ‘decorative’ department. We tend to like to embellish our cards with flowers and pretty feminine touches. When making cards and layouts for the boys in our life, the question becomes… how do we add details and special flair to our masculine projects?

I suggest you think about all the details that make you think of a man and/or a boy. Think about what their tastes include and maybe even what their wardrobe involves? What are their hobbies and favorite things in life? The details that we can add our masculine projects include: textures, materials such as leather and denim, distressing, metals, wood and cork materials, paint, masculine themes, etc. Any and all these special details can take an average card or layout and crank it up a notch to something fantastic and high voltage!

For me, one of my favorite things to add to a card or scrapbook page is the ‘details’… all the special little touches. I’m never satisfied until I can find the perfect balance when embellishing my projects and making them something special.

For this scrapbook page, I had this beautiful boy to work with… isn’t he sweet? He is my first nephew and we are so excited to have another boy in the family! For me, one of the things that define little boys to me is blue jeans. My son was in overalls from infant age til he got old enough to say “no more, mom!” - now he is in blue jeans every day. Also, my favorite thing on my husband is a comfortably baggy pair of denims… sigh. Denim became a natural part of my page. I stamped blue ink directly onto denim adhesive backed paper. The effect is sort of faded which I found appropriate since I was going for a faded blue jean look. You can see this if you look close on the blue jean material above and to the right of the photograph. For more detailing I stamped (with white) branch images onto black cardstock and added some metal in the form of brads/fasteners, corrugated textured paper, patterned paper, etc. I really like the look I acheived - it is certainly all boy.

Supplies:

• Long Branch
• Circle Graphics
• Bird on a branch
• DesignBlock Reverse Leaf Pattern
• Assorted Circles
• Brads/Fasteners
• Tree, Birds and Messages

As always on Wednesday’s, the Hero Arts blog is extra special because it is Video Day! Jennifer McGuire is sharing a video today I think you will find really fun and informative. In her card design, she added the masculine detail of faux metal! The results are really extraordinary and not too hard to do once you learn - follow along in her video below to see how you can incorporate this ‘metallic’ technique onto your next card.

The floor is all yours Jennifer…

Supplies:

• Branches
• Quotes Background
• Sparkle Clear Messages
• Silver Embossing Powder
• Versamark Ink
• Fall Chalk Ink Queue
• Spring Card Buttons
• Bazzill Dotted Swiss Cardstock, Cosmo Cricket (green) patterned paper, EK Success punches, jute and string

Everyone - there will be another drawing in the coming days so be sure to check back daily for more on masculine stamp design and for your chance to win MORE!

I would like to congratulate the winner of yesterdays contest!  I loved reading all the comments and finding out who your special little and big men are. I think from the looks of it we all have some really fantastic men in our lives.

Now… for the winner! We did a random draw (I had my 7 year old son do it) from all the MANY wonderful posts submitted yesterday and I am pleased to announce that comment #79 Avital is the winner! She posted: “What a gorgeous stamp set. I’d love to play with it Thanks for a great post, by the way. My favorite of the male species is my husband Nadav - he’s my well of support and unconditional love. As I am living away from my family (which also provides me with unconditional love), Nadav is taking a great part in keeping me happy and sane.”

Congrats to you! Please email us so we can get your information and send your prize package on its way! You can find the email address at the bottom of our sidebar to the right.

Wow.  I am in love with these amazing colors!  To find out more about this fabulous layout by Sheri Reguly, click HERE.

Today we are going to discuss masculine color palettes. When you think masculine, I am guessing that blue is the first color that comes to mind. Nothing says man or boy like the color blue. It instantly lends a masculine feel to the mood of your project.

Here is a layout I did for my husband to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. The navy, red, and yellow color scheme is very masculine and an easy color combination to put together.

Supplies:

• DesignBlock Reverse Leaf Pattern
• Circle Graphics
• Decorative Bamboo
• Happily Ever After
• Sparkle Gems Hearts
• Memories Ink Pad - White
• Memories Ink Pad - Cherry Red
• Colorbox Chalk Queue - Misty Meadow
• Medium Accent Pearl

Below, I’ve also linked several great cards and layouts at Hero Arts where blue takes center stage and the results are terrific masculine designs:

There are a lot of fantastic color schemes that say MANLY and not all of them need to include the traditional color of royal blue. Today I want to show you 3 different projects… all of which use masculine color combinations in terrific ways.

For my project today, I created a card that does not include the traditional color of royal blue – just to show you that it can be done and still look masculine in nature, I played with a soft blueish-green color along with browns and oranges. The specific colors I implemented are: cantelope, teal green, kraft and rust. These colors work together because they give the card contrast and visual impact while remaining earthy and gender neutral.

Supplies:

• Clear Design: Asian Elements
• Long Branch
• Sparkle Clear: Just Wanted
• DesignBlock Floating Leaf Pattern
• Memories Ink Pad: Artprint Brown
• Kraft notecards
• Fall Mixed Notecards
• Assorted Clear Circle
• Antique Round Standard Fastener
• Other: antique brown buttons, twine, patterned paper.

Next up we have two wonderful guest artists!

Sande Krieger is an accomplished artist in the scrapbooking industry. She designs digital kits and pages for Two Peas in a Bucket, works on the Scrapbooks Etc Creative Team and designs crafting products for 7 Gypsies. Sande has 3 sons ranging from 14-20 years of age… so she knows a lot about boys!

Here is what Sande had to say about her card, and crafting in general: “I made this card for my son’s 15th birthday. I wanted to use some orange (his favorite color right now) and other fall colors since his birthday is in October. My boys love it when I make stuff for them - they see me creating all the time for others and so it makes them feel special when I do something for them. My husband has kept every card I’ve ever made him! Isn’t that sweet? I don’t think you can go wrong using nature stamps on cards or layouts for boys.”

Supplies:

• Enjoy Your Birthday
• Scroll Tree
• Fall Mixed Notecards

Kelli Crowe is well known for her whimsical and experimental designs. Kelli has been featured in several magazine and idea book publications. Like Sande, she is also the mom of 3 boys. Her children are a younger set (age: 11, 10, and 6) and her layouts and cards reflect their fun personalities and boyish charm. Kelli says: “I get most of my color combination and paper piecing ideas from kids’ clothing catalogues. The You Rock Guitar card is based on a sweatshirt from the pages of Mini Boden. Also, using shades of gray and black when I stamp can really make most any stamp image look masculine. I just add a few staples, inked edges and string and then I have a great masculine look (says a girl wearing 2 shades of pink at the moment).”

Supplies for Play Hard GuitarCard:

• Smile Play Love
• Memories Black Inkpad
• Black gemstones
• Other: Ribbons, patterned paper, silver cardstock, needle, black thread, black stamp pad, journaling pen

Supplies for Play Hard Skateboard Card:

• It’s Your Day

• Smile Play Love
• Kraft notecard
• Brown Ink
• Other: Clear Resist pad, patterned paper, staples, water colors, journaling pen, scissors

Supplies for You are NUTS Card:

• It’s Your Day
• Other: String, ribbon, journaling pen, silver packing envelope

Now… just for fun I thought I would share some other color combinations that would work well on male cards and projects.

Also, a little splash of pink is more than okay when it is counter-balanced with masculine details… remember – real men aren’t afraid to wear pink… or at least that is what my husband says!

Now… who wants to enter a fun give away? We have this great, geometric stamp set along with Green notecards and a versatile ink queue to share with you!

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post (you have until Tuesday, October 7th/08 at 11:59pm PST) — tell me the name of your favorite member of the ‘male species’ and why they are special to you. I’ll announce our three random winners on Wednesday, October 8th.

UPDATED: Thanks for all that entered. We have a winner and the contest is now closed.

Good luck!

This week is going to be fun!

We have heard your outcries for more masculine design ideas and this is the week you are going to get them! We are hosting a full week of masculinity – from boyish charm to rough and tumble to clean cut and stylish. It is going to a week that is chock full of hunky cards and scrapbooking inspiration and I am hoping you will go away from this week with a plethora of new ideas to create for the special men and boys in your life. Lets get started!

Today I wanted to concentrate on Masculine prints and patterns. Lets get familiar with our stamps and patterned papers that can add wow to your page but remain masculine in look and feel. Patterns that work best on masculine designs include: dots, stripes, paisleys, leafy designs, harlequin and diamond patterns, stars and plaids. Adding these to a card made for a man add aesthetics to your project but steers clear of femininity.

Below is a card I made for today. Here I pulled together some of my favourite patterns to create a simple but very manly and mature design. I used a star pattern, dots, paisleys and a leafy design to execute a special card for my husband.

Card by Leslie Lightfoot

• Supplies:
  DesignBlock Reversed Leaf Pattern
  Sparkle Clear: S
  Clear Design: Robot
  Card Buttons Clear
  Card Buttons Summer
  Memories Ink Pad: Artprint Brown
  Memories Ink Pad: Baby Blue
  Assorted Clear Circles
• Other: twine, patterned paper, circle punches, embroidery floss.

Check out this amazing card by Shari Carroll. It is beautiful! I love how she created her own decorative patterned paper with her star and paisley pattern stamps. Men love earthy colors like the green, blue and brown she used here. Shari took inspiration from Jennifer’s dainty card here, I love seeing both a feminine and masculine take on the same sketch.

Card by Shari Carroll.

• Supplies:
  Small Paisley Designs
  Green Notecards
  Card Buttons Neutral
  Chalk Ink Queue Fall
• Other: patterned papers, corrugated pape, Distress Ink, sewing machine and thread

For those of you looking for cards with a more masculine flair to them, check out the links below for some of our Hero Arts stamps that will work wonderfully on your next projects:

…and many more!

Now for this week’s challenge: using at least one Hero Arts stamp, create something for that special male in your life! It can be a card, tag, project or layout. Please submit it to the Hero Arts Flickr Group Photo Pool by Sunday, October 12th at 11:59 PM PST. Tag your project with the code word “masculine”. Be creative and I can’t wait to see what you come up with! Don’t forget… if you use a stamp from the 2008 Winter Catalog, you can also submit it for the current “Win A Day” contest! Just add a second tag “winter2008″. Click on the link by the Santa Owl over there in the sidebar for full details.

Here are the prizes for this weeks contest:
• 1st place: $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2008 catalog
• 2nd place: $25 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2008 catalog
• 3rd place: $10 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2008 catalog

Be sure to check back daily for more great information on creating masculine cards and crafts, as well as some great giveaways throughout the week!

Yep, you read that right!  This week we have FOUR Cards of the Week, plus a video!

First, feast your eyes on these elegant Thanksgiving cards by Jacki featuring the Clear Design Happy Thanksgiving set

Next, Leslie and Laura both created  a card with the Clear Design Robot set.  This set is perfect for masculine cards!

Here’s Leslie’s card — love how she used brads for wheels on the dog robot — so cute

And here’s Laura’s card — it’s a slider card — you pull on the tab and the rocket slides forward to reveal it’s “far out” message!  Too clever!

Laura created a video so that you could see how it’s done — this is one of those things that is easier to show than it is to explain:

Full materials and  instructions for each card are HERE in the Cardmaking section.

Enabling alert!  The Clear Design Robots set is HERE in the store, and the Clear Design Happy Thanksgiving set is HERE.

Enjoy!

WOW!  As of this morning, there were 1,097 comments entered for the World Cardmaking Day giveaway!  Tami and I really enjoyed reading them — each and every one.  It’s so great to be a part of such a giving, caring community of stampers.

I used random.org to pick the winner of the giveaway…

And…

…drumroll…

The winner is…

#365, Kristisb, who said on October 4th at 9:32 am:

My favorite thing is that the people I send/give the cards to really know I took time and effort to make the cards, instead of just buying a card and signing it. These are really gifts in themselves.

Hoo-ray, Kristisb!  We will email you to get your address and get your goodies right out to you.

Many thanks to everyone who stopped by for World Cardmaking Day Weekend!  Hope to see you around the blog again soon,

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Welcome to day two of World Cardmaking Day Weekend!    Tami and I are back as your hostesses — and today we’re being joined by the fabulous Sally Traidman!   We have bunches of ideas to help you get started on your fall and winter cardmaking.

Let’s start off with this fun cardmaking idea that can be adapted to any season or occasion.  Tami often makes small cards to tuck in her kids’ lunchboxes as a little surprise.

They are quick and easy to create and make great use of the small paper scraps we all tend to accumulate.  The card above measures a wee 2×3 inches.  Lunchbox notes can be any size since there’s no need to worry about envelopes.  (Tip: simply wrap the mini card inside a folded napkin!)

You can also attach the mini card to the front of a standard size card panel and send them through the mail.  The flap lifts up to reveal a message — in this case “BOO!” — a fun interactive twist.

Featuring:

• Clear Design Happy Halloween
• DesignBlock Flourish
• Green Apple Notecards
• Christmas Queue
• Memories Black Ink
• Orange Gemstones
• Other: patterned paper (Bo Bunny, Pebbles Inc.), ribbon, white pen

Quick Instructions:

For the lunchbox mini card, stamp the haunted house directly onto Halloween patterned paper. Adhere to top-folded white card.  Stamp message inside.  Embellish with ribbon, gemstones, and white pen dots.

For the standard card, just attach the mini card to a black panel that has been layered to a flat white card.

Tip:  Makes LOTS of mini cards ahead of time.  When you need a last minute card, attach one to a flat panel and voila — instant card!

Next, take a look at this beauty by Sally!  It can be used for Christmas or all winter long — just change out the message on the inside!

Featuring: 

• DesignBlock Poinsettia & Birds
• Clear Design Owl Christmas (for the little tree ornament)
• Green Apple, Pool and Kraft Notecards

Quick Instructions:

Sally created the tree with her “Paint it, stamp it, cut it, collage it” technique.   She has a video HERE to show you how the technique is done.   Tip: Want to see more videos?  Just click that video camera over there in the blog sidebar to the right.

Here’s another card by Sally in her fun style: simple, but with a twist!

Featuring:

• Pattern Joy
• Felt Poinsettias
• Christmas Queue
• Large Brads

Quick Instructions:

Ink the “J” of the Pattern Joy stamp with red and the “Y” with green.  Stamp on the front of a trimmed white notecard.  Here’s the twist: Punch out a scallop from a Green notecard and add it where the “O” would go.  Then attach a Felt Poinsettia with a brad,  and a gem to the center!

Now for a super cheery Christmas card by Lisa!   Lisa says, “When I get stuck in a cardmaking rut, I like to switch things out a bit by playing around with different color combinations and shapes.”

Featuring:

• Santa Owl (enabling alert — just added HERE in the store!)
• Christmas Tree Brad
• Clear Design Owl Christmas (for the Merry Christmas message)
• Clear Mixed Gemstones
• Christmas Queue (for the gold pigment and red inks)
• Black Gemstones
• Other:  ribbon (Strano Designs), glitter glue (Frosted Lace,  Ranger), paper edge distressor (Tonic for Tim Holtz), patterned paper (Bo Bunny), permanent marker (Bic), circle punch (EK Success), scallop dies (Nestabilities), die cut machine (Cuttlebug), pom pom (Tree House Studio), colored pencils (Prismacolor)

Quick Instructions:

Stamp Santa Owl a little left of center on a white cardstock circle.  Color with pencils.   Stamp again with red, cut out the hat and adhere in place.  Stamp one last time with black, cut out the brim and adhere.  Stamp “Merry Christmas” with brown on a white strip.  Distress the edges of the circle piece and the message piece and then rub with gold pigment ink.  Assemble card.

Now the fun begins!  Use an awl or a heavy duty needle to poke a hole through all the layers and add  a green tree brad.  Color two clear star gems with a pink permanent marker and adhere one to the tree top and one to the dot of the “i” in “Christmas”.  Add ribbon and pom pom with glue dots.  Add black gemstones for eyes.  Finally, create a snow drift for the owl to stand on with glitter glue, then add more glitter glue to the hat brim and pom pom.

Tip:  To make the base card, use a die cut machine + dies to create two 3.5″ scallop edge circles, one out of white cardstock (for the back) and one out of green patterned paper (for the front).  Score the top of the white scallop about 1/2″ from the top and fold, then apply glue generously and adhere green piece in place.  This way the score line will be on the back, and won’t mess up the card front.   You can hang things off of the circle and it will still fit in a standard envelope, too!

Another tip:  The Santa Owl is our mascot for the Holiday “Win a Day on the Hero Club Blog” Contest!  Look for it over there towards the top of the blog sidebar, then follow the link for more!

Now for one last card by Sally!

Featuring:

• Clear Design Let It Snow
• Clear Design Joys of the Season (for the little tree)
• DesignBlock Stunning Snowlakes
• Sparkle Clear Warm Wishes (for the message)
• Winter Mixed Notecards
• Other: white acrylic paint, glitter glue, a twig
• LOTS of gems!

Quick Instructions:

Use a foam brush to “ink” the DesignBlock Stunning Snowflakes with white acrylic paint and stamp on a dark blue notecard.  Trim and layer to a baby blue notecard.  Stamp snowman with black on white and cut out.  Stamp a hat with red and cut out.  Create a little sign.  Assemble card, adding the twig for an arm, then bling it up with glitter and gems!

Want more card ideas?  Check out these great resources:

• The Cardmaking Section HERE on HeroArts.com.   There’s a new card (or more!) EVERY week, plus SEVEN card galleries, including one with 18 pages full of holiday cards!
• Browse our digital catalogs - they’re all right HERE.   Then click on any sample to see a complete materials list + instructions.
• Search for samples! Find samples made with a stamp by going HERE to the Catalog page and typing the stamp name or product number in the search box (next to the holly bird).  The product number is right on the stamp label.  There’s a sample for EVERY stamp, starting with the 2008 Catalog!
• Watch our videos!  See that video camera over there in the blog sidebar?  Click on it to go to our archive of videos, featuring cards, techniques and more!
• Click on over HERE to the Hero Arts Flickr group – it’s loaded with creative cards from the Hero stamping community!  Join the group and join in the fun!

Hope you’ve enjoyed World Cardmaking Day Weekend as much as we have!  Don’t forget to enter the great giveaway that’s going on and claim your Sparkle Clear Cupcakes set by adding it to your shopping cart!  Check out THIS POST for all the details.

Happy cardmaking,

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