Hi everyone, I am here today to announce the winner of our Make it Masculine challenge from last weeks Masculine blog week. There were so many wonderful entries and it was so difficult to choose. I loved seeing so many of you creating cards and projects that incorporated a lot of what we talked about last week!

Now, for what you are all dying to know - the winners (randomly chosen from our top picks) are:

Third place goes to kathyrosecrans. This card is just so much fun!  I really like how the vine was cut from a large block stamp image and who can resist this spunky owl?

Second place winner is Susanne Nilsson. This card is a terrific example of a masculine birthday card that is perfect to have in your card stash for all the special men in your life.

And drum roll please……….. First prize winner for this weeks Make it Masculine challenge is elana k. Irresistible is the word I’d use to describe this sweet crocodile creation! The use of plaid and polka dot prints on this card, along with the adorable croc really made me take notice.

Can the winners please contact Hero Arts by emailing to the email linked in the blog side bar under “Drop us a line.” Be sure to indicate “Make it Masculine Challenge” in your subject line. Congrats again and thanks for contributing! It was a pleasure to see everyone’s amazing artistry at work!

Like I said, it was hard to choose only three so we have a few more to show you…our Honorable Mentions are:

Heather Ruwe created this fun but masculine scrapbook layout and I’m in love with the details she added to her special page. Great job Heather!

Leslie D. Moore (lesliescraps) also deserves an honorable mention with this terrific and very masculine card. I really love the office supply usage on her card and the blues with browns work wonderfully together.

Alnette did a fabulous job mixing a masculine color palette with a playful boyish theme. I think any boy would be thrilled with this birthday card!

Honorable Mentions - we have something special for you so please email from the link in the side bar and include “Make it Masculine Honorable Mention” in your subject line.

Thanks again to all that participated and I hope you had as much fun last week as I did hosting. Keep your entries coming…we have an All-Star Paper Week challenge on right now and there is still plenty of time to enter - see details by clicking here. It looks like Jennifer and Tami are having a lot of fun this week with all the wonderful product lines they are featuring. I am a huge fan of patterned paper and of all three companies shown thus far.

It’s time to announce the winner of Friday’s contest! Thanks to everyone that posted and shared your favorite masculine color combo’s.

Congratulations to Anne Gaal with post #179
Anne Gaal said: October 10th, 2008 at 1:03 pm = Thanks for another fun giveaway! Yay! I especially like blue and brown for masculine cards. I also tend to use fall colors, like tan, rust, copper, and gold. The squirrel card with the felt grass is just TOO CUTE! Thanks for sharing it!

Anne, please email the Hero Arts email (you can find it at the bottom of the side bar here) and we will get your information and send off your fabulous prize!

It has been a great week. I really enjoyed thinking out of the box this week and challenging myself to create masculine designs and to think about what appeals to the men and boys in my life.

This week we learned that patterns when carefully selected can change the feel of a card and create a more masculine feel to it. Color also plays a very important role in male gender cards and projects - don’t feel intimidated and boxed in by using just the traditional ‘boy blue’ in your work. Men tend to like nature colors and brighter primaries work well also (red, blue and yellows). Detailing on a card or scrapbook page isn’t always easy when designing boy projects but we learned that there are many, many, many ways to add embellishing and aesthetics to your designs without compromising the masculinity of the project… think buttons, metals, wood, and texture. Finally, let’s not forget about the playful side of men and boys alike. Have fun creating and try making something whimsical and ‘light’ - you will have a happy card when you are finished that will delight someone special.

There are a few things I wanted to leave you with as we end this week of “Manliness”!

I had so much fun this week that I wanted to try one more masculine card. I’ve been loving all the Hero Arts owl stamps and had to give this one a whirl.

Supplies:

• Manuscript Background
• DA: Owl set
• Bird Greetings
• Memories Inkpad - Artprint Brown
• Memories Inkpad - Orange
• Fall Mixed Notecards
• Lemon notecards
• Antique Round Mini Fasteners/Brads
• Assorted Clear Circles
• Other: Patterned paper, twine, chipboard label holder, letter stickers “HI”

I also wanted to introduce you to Todd Mullins, Hero Arts VP of Sales. Check out the swing Todd made at home with his daughter! He shows that not only do men like to stamp… but they can do a really good job at it too!

Todd says: “People have asked me; “Do you use stamps?” It’s a totally fair question, and the answer is; “Yes I do”. By nature I am a creative person. By the nature of the profession and my role I have at Hero Arts, I don’t think I would have much credibility if I did not use our products. Last spring, my daughter had an idea to make a tree swing for the front yard. After making the swing seat, I told her I had an idea to make it really cool by stamping on it. She took her favorite Hero flower stamps to stamp the top. After she was done, I brought the wood to my office and used the beautiful DesignBlock Tree with green and brown ink to create the keepsake image on the bottom of the swing. I also took an alphabet set to write my daughters names and the title “Swing Under the Tree”. Seeing how happy she was swinging on her new creation was quite fulfilling. It was a father/daughter experience we will always remember doing together.”

Lastly I wanted to leave with you with a few more masculine color schemes you may like to give a try.

Have fun and happy weekend! Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian friends!

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!

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.

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!