Masculine projects are often considered to be challenging, so I force myself to make something at least once a week. I’ve certainly found that it has made designing them easier for me. Of course it doesn’t hurt to have great masculine appropriate products either. The new Classic Garage Suite from Stampin’ Up! is amazing and I love playing with it. Today I thought I’d use the suite to make a masculine gift tag.

Of course after I’d finished it I thought how great the tag would look on the front of a card. In fact I may make another one and do just that.

A LITTLE BIT OF INK

I started my tag with a piece of Thick Very Vanilla Card and a Gray Granite ink pad. Then I stamped the ‘oil spill’ image from the Geared Up Garage Stamp Set three times.

Next, on another scrap of Thick Very Vanilla Card, I stamped the ‘Best Dad’ sentiment using Bermuda Bay ink.

Then going over to the Big Shot and Magnetic Platform I prepared to cut out all the pieces I’d need for this masculine tag.

First I cut the sentiment with the ‘winged’ die from the coordinating Garage Gears Thinlits. Then I used the same die to cut a piece of Silver Foil Sheet. The winged die cuts a frame and I’ll use the leftover pieces from the die-cut for a future project.

Next I cut a piece of Smoky Slate Card using the large gears die.

Finally I cut out the ‘oil spill’ piece using the #C4 die from the Rectangle Stitched Framelits (counting from the smallest up).

TIP – I keep a record of all the products that I use for my projects so that I can recreate or adapt the designs. For this reason (and to help you) I number the similar shaped dies in each set starting from the smallest up. There are actually three ‘sets’ of dies in the Rectangle Stitched Framelits each with a different width to length ratio. You’ll find more about how I decided to label my Rectangle Stitched Framelits in my earlier blog post Hello Cupcake.

With everything cut, all I needed to do then was use a Sponge Dauber to add a little bit of Smoky Slate ink over the die-cut gears. This really helped to accentuate the lines that the die embossed into the card while cutting it.

ASSEMBLING THE MASCULINE GIFT TAG

Before I could assemble my masculine gift tag I had one more thing to do. So using the Detailed Trio Punch I added an oval hole at the top of the die-cut rectangle. Then I could thread a length of Black/Silver 1/4″ Metallic Ribbon through the hole and tie it in a simple knot.

Then I used small pieces of Stampin’ Dimensionals to attach the die-cut gears to the front of the tag base. I like to have the layers of my tags slightly extending past the edge of the tag base and the gears did that perfectly.

Next I took the silver ‘winged’ frame, turned it over and inserted the die-cut sentiment face down in the centre. In order to make sure that the pieces stayed together I added small pieces of sellotape to the back. With that done I used Stampin’ Dimensionals to fix the assembled sentiment on top of the gears. My masculine gift tag was completed in no time at all.

I really like how the gift tag turned out. I decided to add a pop of colour on the sentiment, but I could see this working well in more muted neutral colours too. In fact maybe that’s how I should make the greetings card version of this project. What do you think?

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Geared Up Garage Stamp Set and Garage Gears Thinlits as a bundle and saved 10% off the cost. You can buy these items separately and I’ve included both options in the product list below

It’s snowing again here in my little piece of Nova Scotia, so I’m off to my craft studio to play some more. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow to see my latest paper crafting creation.

Product List