Cards in Envy - Manly

Good morning!  It’s the first Monday of the month, which means it’s time for a new challenge at Cards in Envy!  This time we’re being challenged to make manly, masculine cards to be sent to the men in our lives.  Remember, though, that the main requirement for Cards in Envy challenges is that your card must fit in an A2 sized envelope and not have any lumpy, bumpy embellishments that could push it over the first class postage rate.

I’ve used the challenge to make another card for my Operation Write Home stash.  Occasionally I need a gentle reminder that some of our heroes stationed overseas may be women wanting to send cards home to their husbands or fiancés, or that sometimes the men want to send cards home to their dads, brothers, or any other important man in their lives.  So this challenge was a good nudge for me to create something suitable for a hero to send home to a man.

My husband has always loved trains, so I thought the vintage train image was a good start for my masculine card.  I looked through the OWH sketch library for a layout that would work with this image.  Sketch #46 fit the bill, and when I consulted my checklist of OWH sketches, I hadn’t used it before, so hooray, I can check it off now!  The designer paper has a kind of rustic look to it that I thought fit well with the theme.  I tried several different shades of blue and liked this one the best.  I decided to emboss the image with copper embossing powder.  I wanted to use the copper brads as an embellishment.  As far as brads go, these are pretty flat.  I originally considered making a row of them on the blue, above the image panel.  But I decided to add a sentiment to the card, and used the brads in the corners instead.  I also embossed the sentiment – which probably would have turned out better if it had been a larger font,  but I suppose it isn’t too bad.  Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting it to be legible in a photo.

Be sure to check out the Cards in Envy site for all the challenge details and to see what the rest of the design team has created!  Then create a manly card of your own and share it with us using the linky tool on the site.  You have until Sunday, September 15 to play along with us!

Supplies:
Stamps: All Aboard, Three Little Words (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Naturals Ivory, Midnight Muse, Spring Showers designer series paper (SU)
Ink: Champagne (Encore)
Other: copper brads, dimensionals (SU); copper embossing powder (Ranger)