Feb 16 2011

[Kristina]

One of my biggest personal challenges is doing a Masculine card or layout. I just seem to really struggle with them. I try to stay with darker more "guy" colors and I tend to keep things very angular. I see lots of layouts/cards out there for the guys that incorporate softer colors and even frills and flowers. I think they look really nice but I just have a hard time doing a softer masculine layout/card, I wish I didn't.

How do you handle Masculine projects?

[emoradesigns]

I agree that I see a lot of guy cards that have flowers and frills and I find it hard to think I would give that to a guy. I did give my hubby a simi-girly valentine card though! LOL I am not great with masculine either but I have done a couple of projects. When it comes to masculine projects I see to go simple with darker more masculine colors.

[♥Jan♥]

I go through physical pain to make a card - hours of just moving things around on my work table. (That somehow doesn't make it any cleaner either...) I don't think I spend more time on masculine cards though. I like the steampunk kind of look, and I have loads of metal trinkets, brads, eyelets, which makes it simple to find the right accessories. I also use lots of kraft, and have a lot of paper in brown tones. I did give my s/i/l a birthday card with a flower on it, but it was a Tim Holtz die, and I did it in browns - I thought it looked just fine. (Hope now I wasn't wrong!)

I made a Valentine card for Dom last week here for PCS - I put some phillips head screw brads on it, that turned it manly real quick !!

[imcrafty]

I love it, Jan! I struggle with manly cards too but somehow they're easy when it comes to making them for my hubby. My dad and my brother are a bit tougher for sure!! I usually go for browns with pops of color but need to get out of that rut for sure!

[Beth Moore]

I struggle with the masculine layouts even moreso than cards... but I have sometimes included flowers on the layouts of my grandsons and "think" I worked them in well... but I have to admit, it's easier to do girl stuff for me... although as the boys (my grandsons) get older, I'll have to MAKE myself better at putting together boy layouts.

[anitra]

What a great question. I'm in the same boat. I have a hard time with masculine cards too. I tend to use vintage masculine images along with more metal and twine accessories.

[angiatcokiepop]

I struggle with this too. Plus I have 2 daughters....no sons...so I never get a chance to design anything masculine.

[tracy]

Well my guy is definitely a manly man but he absolutely adored the flowery Valentine faux book that I made him so go figure. I don't make very many masculine cards and when I do they are really hard for me. I tend to go for darker colors and images like trees or something non-frilly.

[Trade Fish Designs]

I do mostly masculine as I have a 15 year old son. Between him and my husband most of my layouts are male-related. It is a constant struggle as the market of products are by far dominated by feminine-focused products. Maybe someone should come out with a line of products that is solely for boys/men. The company can be called "No Girls Allowed"...oooooohh,I like that idea...if only I had the spare time...

[liz]

I tend to do more grungy layouts for my hubby and bright pages for my son. I don't have any problems with putting flowers on masculine pages. I don't go overboard but a few here and there is nice.