Skip links

Sixth Street Sundries

Emily Midgett

masculine

The Return of Man Card Monday!

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!

At some point, long ago, before having my second set of twins (feels like a lifetime ago!), I planned to do a monthly feature called “Man Card Monday.” Then my little boys appeared, and I kind of forgot about it. Whoops! I spend the majority of my crafting time working with beautiful floral stamps and dies, but I think we all find ourselves needing the occasional masculine card! They are not the easiest theme for me, admittedly, but I have a few tricks and techniques that I like to reserve specifically for masculine cards. My philosophy when it comes to masculine cards is simple: keep things graphic and colorful, with lots of texture, some metallic elements, and if possible, some sass! (What guy doesn’t love a sassy, funny card?) Let’s get started with the details!

I began my card by blending Spring, Cadette, Galaxy Pawsitively Saturated inks from Simon Says Stamp on a panel of plain white cardstock, making sure to saturate the cardstock and achieve a smooth blend with these quintissentially masculine colors. Once I had finished blending, I ran the colorful panel through my die cutting machine with the Spun Glass Embossing Folder. I also added some silver watercolor splatters for good measure using Metallic Watercolor. Color and texture: check!

Next, I die cut a chunky sentiment using the Basic Box Card Happy Birthday dies and some holographic foil cardstock, backing the detailed sentiment die cut with a heavyweight vellum. I trimmed some of the Sassy Birthday sentiment cards down to smaller sentiment strips. (What guy doesn’t enjoy being a smart aleck?) Graphic sentiment: check!

Before I assembled the card, I trimmed a 1/4″ strip from one side of the blended, embossed panel and backed it with some more holographic foil cardstock. Metallic accents are always a good idea for masculine cards! I popped up the two sides of the blended panels with Foam Tape, creating some height and texture on the card front, and adhered the sentiment pieces with some more foam tape. To complete the “rule of three” for accent colors, I added some Silver Pearls. They remind me of drops of molten silver! Metallic accents: check!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this first installment of Man Card Monday! Hopefully this series will help you create those elusive masculine cards. I am excited for the challenge outside of my regular, unabashedly feminine cardmaking rotation! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!

Ellen Hutson 14th Anniversary+Rainbows and Sunshine!

Hi there! Ellen Hutson is celebrating their 14th birthday, and I’ve created a couple of cards using the newly-released and totally fabulous Big Scripty Happy Birthday die! Rainbows scream “happiness” to me, and these cheerful rainbow cards have a little hint of sass to them to help balance out the sweetness of the rainbows. Let’s get started with the details!

For both of my cards, I die cut the new Big Scripty Happy Birthday from silver glitter cardstock, backing one of the glitter die cuts with heavyweight vellum, and creating a dimensional die cut by adhering two more Happy Birthday die cuts behind the glitter die cut. Both cards also feature Honeysuckle, Grapefruit, Buttercup, Sprout, and Aqua Sky inks from Concord and 9th.

For this first project, I began by stamping the rainbow from the freebie You Are Awesome (a gift with purchase during last weekend’s anniversary sale, but you could also recreate this using the Better Days Ahead stamp set) using Honeysuckle, Grapefruit, Buttercup, Sprout, and Aqua Sky inks from Concord and 9th to create a fun panel of custom patterned paper. I filled in the areas around the rainbows with some little hearts and stars included in the freebie set, then added some black dots to help fill in the white space further.

For the greeting, I heat embossed the sassy sentiment from That Thing You Did on some black cardstock using white embossing powder, then trimmed it down into thin strips. I adhered the dimensional glitter “happy birthday” die cut to the rainbow patterned panel, then added the sentiment strips with foam adhesive, finally adding some iridescent gems to add some sparkle!

For my second project, I wanted to allow the gorgeous Big Scripty Happy Birthday to stand on it’s own. It’s such a generous size that you don’t really need to add too much to your card front to create a quick, fairly gender-neutral birthday card! I created a colorful background by blending Honeysuckle, Grapefruit, Buttercup, Sprout, and Aqua Sky inks from Concord and 9th with blending brushes.

I die cut a rectangular frame from the Essentials Rectangles die set from some more silver glitter cardstock. I adhered it to the blended rainbow panel, then added the “happy birthday” die cuts and another sassy sentiment from That Thing You Did heat embossed on strips of black cardstock. The final touch was some more iridescent gems!

Well that’s all for my projects today. I hope you’ll check out the latest release from Ellen Hutson. So many fun new products, including some great new foiling dies. I encourage you to take a look! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Man Card Monday… Holiday Style!

Good morning! I have a special holiday edition of Man Card Monday! I’ve let the series lapse over the last few months, because I’ve been so focused on creating holiday cards… but I thought this month it might be fun to combine the two! I created this masculine holiday card with a lot of ink blending and a manly striped scarf (ha!), so let’s get started with the details!

I began by die cutting and stamping the cute little polar bear and his scarf onto some Copic-friendly white card stock using Intense Black ink. I added some shadows to his body using my gray Copics, then colored his scarf in shades of dark purple and blue.

I then began work on the wintry sky behind him. I first blended Grape Juice, Stone Wash, and Soft Sky inks on a panel of A2 card stock, then used the Snowflake Confetti Cover Plate from Hero Arts to die cut a snowy backdrop. I backed the die cut panel with some white card stock that I’d spritzed with Hero Arts Shimmer Spray to give it some subtle sparkle. I also spritzed a strip of white card stock and added it to the bottom of the front of the blended panel upon which the polar bear could stand. I also stamped a greeting from the Polar Greetings stamp set onto a strip of white card stock, which I then trimmed to create two separate strips.

Once I had assembled all of the components, I adhered them to the front of the card using dimensional adhesive.

Well, that’s all for October’s Man Card Monday! I hope you enjoyed this holiday rendition of a masculine holiday card… You could easily switch the Christmas greeting for a Happy Birthday or other occasion. Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a marvelous Monday!


Man Card Monday: June Edition!

Good morning! Happy Monday! It is impossible for me to believe that it’s the final week of June. Where in the world did this month go?? Summer is flying by! (Except I am totally fine if fall temps want to arrive early. I am over the heat and humidity and we’re only technically a few days into summer.) It’s the last Monday of the moth, so it’s time for Man Card Monday! Today’s card is really more of a “gender neutral Monday,” but I still say it counts for a man card haha! Let’s get started!

For my project today, I did a little masking and a little ink blending so that I could have a seamless, one-layer card that also had some Copic coloring on it. I started by stamping the super cute little Alpaca Stamp and Cut from Hero Arts using Intense Black Ink on Copic-friendly white card stock. I also stamped him once more on some masking paper, then fussy cut the image quite close to the black lines of the image.

After I’d colored my festive alpaca with a variety of colorful Copic markers and added some gray shadows here and there, I applied my masking paper over the top of the stamped and colored alpaca, then used my foam blending tool to blend Soft Sky ink from Hero Arts over the entire card front. I chose to do the extra step of cutting out the mask and blending the pale blue ink in the background (instead of just using the die cut) because I wanted a screen printed look, something that you might find in a stationery shop or something. 

The final step was to stamp a greeting from the Alpaca Stamp & Cut set onto a strip of white card stock and mount it on the card front using foam adhesive.

I love the simplicity of this card. I think that, and the lack of flowers (ha!) make it more man-friendly, or at least not overtly feminine… if you exchanged the pink for a dark blue, it would take any question of masculinity out of the equation, but I don’t think my hubby would be offended by this minuscule amount of pink. 😉

That’s all for me today! I hope you’re enjoying Man Card Monday… I like having an “excuse” to step outside my normal comfort zone each month. Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous week!


Man Card Monday: May Edition!

Good morning! Happy Memorial Day! It’s the last Monday of May (ahem, how did that happen!?), so it’s time for Man Card Monday! Today, I’m using some new products from Hero Arts (you might have seen this project if you’ve peeked at the new Hero Arts catalog. 😉 ) to create a handsome cowboy sunset scene.

I started by die cutting the new Desert Sunset die from some plain black A2 sized card stock. It creates a lovely silhouette, so I had to back it with a beautifully blended sunset. I created the sunset by blending Red Royal, Soft Apricot, and Butter Bar inks. I added a sentiment in white embossing and a cowboy silhouette both using clear embossing powder from Hero Arts’ Cowboy Adventure.

Well, that’s all for me today! I hope you have a wonderful holiday. Thanks for stopping by!