After a run of flowers, animals and birds I decided that it was time for something a little more masculine. Other papercrafters often tell me that making cards and gifts for the man in their life is incredibly challenging. I’m not immune to this either. Some projects are easier than others and I specifically look out for products that will help me. So buying the stamp set, dies, paper and embellishments in the He’s The Man Suite Collection was a bit of a no-brainer. This birthday card uses it all.

HE’S THE MAN

I began my project by looking through the He’s The Man 12″ x 12″ Specialty Designer Series Paper (DSP). Two of the sheets are full of images that simply pop out ready for use. Today however I was after a subtle background design and settled on dark brown plaid. This gave me the idea for a colour scheme in shades of brown.

All I needed of the DSP was a 2-3/4″ x 4″ section, along with a 3″ x 4-1/4″ piece of Sahara Sand Card. Then using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I mounted the DSP onto the card. To add a bit of shine I cut 4″ of Gold 1/4″ Shimmer Ribbon and wrapped it around the layers 1-1/4″ from the bottom edge. Finally after securing the ribbon on the back with a little Tear & Tape Adhesive I set it aside.

Next, using my Paper Trimmer I cut and scored some Early Espresso Card for my card base. I folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder. Then I used Stampin’ Dimensionals to attach the ribbon-wrapped piece onto the front.

HE’S ALL THAT

By this point I’d worked out what I wanted to do for the sentiment. I chose the combined “Happy birthday to a classic” sentiment and car image from the He’s All That Stamp Set. Then with Early Espresso ink I stamped it onto a piece of Sahara Sand Card.

Next, turning to the All That Dies set I chose one of the label-style dies that was perfectly sized for my sentiment. After cutting out the sentiment I added three of the Rustic Metallic Adhesive Backed Dots at the bottom. Finally, using Stampin’ Dimensionals I added it to the card front to finish off that part of the project.

That just left the inside of the card and envelope to decorate.

NICE CAR, MAN!

At first I considered just using more of the He’s The Man DSP, but then something a little more creative came to mind.

I love that vintage car image and definitely wanted more of it. As before I inked it up with Early Espresso ink, but this time I covered the words with pieces of sellotape. Then I when I stamped onto the flap of a Very Vanilla Medium Envelope only the car appeared.

With that done I removed the sellotape, re-inked the stamp and covered up the words with sellotape again. Then I stamped the car onto a 4″ x 5-1/4″ layer of Very Vanilla Card in the centre near the top. Finally I glued the stamped layer inside the card base and my masculine birthday card was complete.

There are other ways to adapt stamps so you only get part of it. You could use Stampin’ Write Markers to add colour to just the sections you want. However this relies on the rest of the stamp being squeaky clean so you don’t end up with ghosting. Some people even cut their stamps to separate it into the parts they want! For me the sellotape method is the one I prefer.

Have you ever tried to stamp just part of an image or sentiment? Let me know your favourite method by leaving a comment below.

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS & SUITE COLLECTION – In my introduction I mentioned that I bought the entire He’s The Man Suite Collection. This comprises the He’s All That Stamp Set and coordinating All That Dies bundle. The bundle saves you 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. Plus the suite also includes the He’s The Man DSP and Rustic Metallic Adhesive-Backed Dots. There’s no discount on the DSP or embellishments, however if you want it all, using the ‘suite collection’ item number is designed to make ordering easier. I’ve included all the options below so you can explore these further if you wish.

You’ll find more about the sheets with the pop-out images in my earlier blog post Cheers for my sneak peek kick-off.