From OOOPS to TAH DAH! Valentine’s Day Card 2011

So, I got my butt in gear and made my husband’s Valentine’s Day card.  I still have to decide what to put on the inside, but I was very glad that I got it done.  I make cards whenever I can but most of the ones I make I do for listing in my shops.  I don’t often get to make for myself.  Figures, right after I finished this one I realized I have a little boy’s birthday card to make that is even earlier than Valentine’s Day!  Gotta get a move on!  I actually have three male birthdays in February for which I should be making cards right now.  Boy, if shopping for men is hard, crafting for men is too!

I have long since realized that artful projects for men are difficult.  I’ve said before that scrapbooking papers take their cues from the fashion industry and that statement holds true for the relationship of men’s fashion choices to women’s.  There are A LOT more products geared towards women.

Lucky for me, I have a tonne of papers for our wedding album.  Since I am making slooooow progress at those scrapbook pages, I occasionally raid the papers for other projects.  This project actually started out as a scrapbook page for my wedding album.  However, once I cut the scalloped edges, I felt they were too small for my page.  I was a little disappointed because it’s a lovely paper and I only had the one sheet.  I had cut two mats (for facing pages) and now it was ruined.  OOOOPS – sigh.

Or was it?  The smaller scallops suit a card very well because the card is small.  So, I repurposed the lovely paper and trimmed it down for my hubby’s card.  I tied a knot instead of a bow because knots are more manly.  Plus too, I felt a knot was appropriate as a little “love knot”.  TAH DAH!

A little birdy told me I might have a bridal shower to attend this winter, so I made a second one for that.  It’s a perfectly gender neutral card!  The stamp image is from Hot Off The Press.  It’s a small, very affordable set and I fell in love with it when I saw it.  In my view, trees can be seen as masculine (for their strength and rigid steadfastness) or feminine (for bearing fruit).  I knew I wanted to use this love tree stamp for my male-oriented love cards.

I like the design.  I based it on a sketch but the stamp was too big for the sketch, so I altered the design to accommodate it.  Now I can play around with the colours of the paper, the card base and the stamp ink to make variations!

Oh yes, I have plans for this card.