Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
I am having a tough time finding stamps and/or dies for making cards for men. I have some fishing things and a few animals but nothing that l haven't used over and over. Most things I see are whimsical and that's not what I want. Any ideas out there? Thanks, Jill
I understand that dilemma. I tend to use ones like SU Wetlands a lot as well as the Waterfront.
I also use cars-muscle cars, vintage cars as well as boats and motorcycles. Tools are another go-to for me as are ties.Franticstamper has a good selection of stamps stamps and papers of these things.
I agree with the trees/nature thing. Beeswax Stamps has some lovely leaves (I have this oak branch stamp: Oak Branch It’s a good size for a focal point, here’s a card I made with it recently if that helps you visualise what to expect: Summer oak by Angelnorth - at Splitcoaststampers). They have some naturalistic animals too, both domestic and more exotic, whatever takes your fancy! You may think of Power Poppy as a floral company but they have a gorgeous set of mushrooms that make great masculine cards: Wild Mushrooms Come to think of it, she has some things like a farmer’s market image with lots of veggies that could work for men’s cards, too.
Most of the men I make cards for don’t have obvious hobbies to base things around so things like nature images are good but I also find things like clocks, cogs or gears can be useful. There are loads out there so it just depends on what size/style you prefer.
I like cowboy/western themed stamps. Not all men I know are into fishing or cars, but they all enjoy western themed movies so I figured they would appreciate a western/cowboy themed card. I recently got this set from Hero Arts.
Making cards for men is difficult. Some sets I use are Stampin' Up's Nailed It and The Wilderness Awaits. It may be too whimsical for you, but I've had great reactions to Avery Elle's Tough Guy.
Stampscapes are a whole new ballgame for stamping. Kevin Nagawa is so talented. I would seriously do a google search also he has all his tutorials on You tube.
Have you ever looked at club scrap? they do not carry the same sets forever and they change them out because of that but, they have quite a few sets that appeal to guys in my life. movies, gears/sprockets, time, Celtic knots, national parks, gambling,
that link goes to what is currently for sale, and all their stamps come as neekid rubber sheets. so, you will have to cut them up and if you want cling foam on them you will need to add that too.
I have a few sets from Papertrey Ink that make great cards for the men in my life. King of the Grill (makes a fun burger with sentiments), Craft Brew (great beer glasses), and going to get Heart and Sole soon (it features the imprint of a hiking boot and also a tennis shoe). I like Lawn Fawn's Pizza My Heart for some of the young guys. Also, the Soda Pop set from My Favorite Things makes some fun cards for guys. I also use the tree ring stamp from Concord and 9th frequently for those nature inspired guy cards.
I think that Rooted in Nature and Winter Woods from SU would make great nature cards, too.
__________________ Louise Bergmann DuMontAuthor, Speaker, Serious About Her Coffee, Lover of all that is Chocolate...Worshiper of El Shaddai (The All Sufficient One)
Visible Images have some fantastic designs for guys. Not sure if I am allowed to link anything & I don't want to get in trouble - but if you do a Google search for visibleimage dot com and look in the Product Category of "Music Stamps", there are some great sets in there. My husband plays guitar in a band and loves music so these were a God-send when it came to making a card for him as I had been using the same ones over & over & was a little tired of them.
Check out their other categories too are there are some great ones in there. Even though they are based in the UK, their stamps/stencils are available in the USA and I recently bought some from a US store. Not sure if I am allowed to link to the store but feel free to PM me if you wish.
Just as an idea: making a galaxy background is really easy (LOTS of tutorials on You-Tube using various mediums) and they make for a great guy's card. And you can use so many different sentiments to go with that background to suit the occasion.
Taylored Expressions has a great set called "All the Fixings" stamp and die combo which has tools and matching sentiments so is great for a handyman. Also their "Paw-some" stamp and die set I have used heaps for masculine cards of my dog-loving extended family.
Altenew has lots of geometric stamps which are very suitable for masculine cards. My Favorite Things has some fantastic background stamps that are great for guys. I made one recently where I stamped a small diamond type of background with Versmark Watermark ink & heat embossed it using white embossing powder and then coloured over it with green and blue watercolours. I then diecut a Happy Birthday sentiment in navy blue & diecut a couple of very small stars in matching colours and added them around the background . It was quick and easy but looked really effective & my brother loved it.
Along with shazsilverwolf, I love using Stampscapes stamps for masculine cards.
__________________ My Blog---My Gallery---My PinterestI'm a Punchkateer! (Prez) FOREVERDirty Dozen Alumni2014 CAS Spring DT--- Inspiration Challenge Co- Hostess 12/02/17-12/28/19 Watercolor Wednesday Design Team Hebrews 13:2Brenda
I tend to use sentiments against a variety of backgrounds (ink blended, watercolored, alcohol inked, gelli plated, etc.), or against background dies. IOW, cards that are geometric or graphic, not with a theme.
(Actually color schemes on my cards for men and women are often the same, with the exception of men’s color themes not including soft pastels.)
I’ve also used a dog or cat(s). My husband golfs, so that theme was used once. As others mentioned, leaves and trees work well.
Another relative is a writer and a typewriter stamp was used. I fussy cut it and propped up the “paper” in the machine with fun foam, and added a typed sentiment from an old IBM Selectric, but a sentiment using a typewriter font printed from a computer works.
I've also used die cut "gears" and robots for guy cards for my boys (in their 30's and 40's).
__________________ Louise Bergmann DuMontAuthor, Speaker, Serious About Her Coffee, Lover of all that is Chocolate...Worshiper of El Shaddai (The All Sufficient One)
I have some guys who love sailing, so SU’s Swirly Bird and Simon Says Stamp Lifesaver have been great for them. Gina K has some great scenescapes as well that felt a little less intimidating than buying all the individual bits from Stampscapes (though I aspire to those someday!). I also like Honeybee Stamps Lil Pickup, and The Ton has a gorgeous layered golf course with fun sayings I’ve used for both men and women.
There is a challenge in blogland for masculine cards called The Male Room. I often look at it, both the Design Team cards and the entries, to get ideas for masculine cards.
__________________ Susan
My SCS gallery is here should you care to look! Or please visit my blog, Cardmaker's Garret.
Frantic Stamper has a lot of products you might find helpful. You can shop by theme (Products by Theme), and there are plenty of "male" items in the father's day, military, nature, nautical, sports and travel categories. If you do a search there on "BBQ," you'll find plenty of things that might apply. Use some other search terms and I suspect you can come up with quite a lot.
__________________ Diana B
-We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all. ~John Hughes
What about a bit of origami? Some quick folding of text-weight paper can create this adorable shirt for a card. Could be casual (Hawaiian shirt anyone?) or more formal if dad dresses up for work. You can Google the technique or find it on one of our older blog posts here: New Formulas for Dungarees Papers - Club Scrap
If you like stamps with a bit of humor, try Art Impressions. There is a cute set for hunters, if you're wanting one like that, called: Ole Buck- 5043. I saw someone using it here on SCS & HAD TO HAVE IT! IT IS SO CUTE! ;)
I love making manly cards! Stampin up's Occasions catalog has a few great sets, some with framelets. Geared up Garage has a tool box, oil can and car and the framelet set has a wonderful 'steampunky' set of gears. There's also a fishing set called Best Catch from which made fabulous 3 cards as well as plain ones. And then the one I thought I Didn't want called Let it Ride but bought because someone wanted "horsey" cards - that's turned out to be the most fun to make - I got started and couldn't stop.
<su div="" <sub></sub><sup></sup><sub></sub><sup></sup>
I love using animals or trees. Sunny studio stamps has a new Seasonal Trees!!! Love it!!! I have made some amazing guy cards using it!!! Also, I find using background stamps as the main part and adding words works really well!
I haven’t read every comment so hope I’m not duplicating.
Gears with a steampunk theme, trucks (there are some great dies out there) with stuff in the back based on the persons interests, light houses or ocean landscapes, animals especially large ones like big cats or bears, retro or vintage images like gentlemen’s advertising or sciency stuff (see Tim Holtz). Firetrucks, cars, dogs, bikes, cameras, space, geodes, stars, sports, moustaches and anything related to the field in which they work.
I often make cards with lots of layers, interactive or shaker cards with just patterned paper and a sentiment. You can use confetti or tiny die cuts rather than sequins if they seem too girlie for the recipient. There are some fantastic paper packs out there for men. Technique backgrounds like watercolour or alcohol inks with a simple sentiment work too. Texture is always a good way to go: embossing folders, burlap, metal embellies etc. You don’t always have to have an image.
I agree with all of you, making cards for men is a challenge. While stamps are a great way to make cards. Of late I have started using geometrical stencils with inks and embossing paste to make cards. There are whole lot of companies that make amazing stencils. You can do so much with stencils as well. All you need to do is add sentiment!!
Stencil ideas
*ink blending
* embossing paste
*watercoloring
* heat embossing
*ink spritzing
*dry embossing
And I know for sure there are many more ideas out there!!
Ah yes...the perennial issue about cards for men. I think it will be a challenge forever.
Susan beat me to it about the Male Room. Great place to get ideas as they are dedicated to male themes.
I like funny for men-if you can make a funny about something like their age, or ugly ties or being a computer geek or whatever...if they like action heros or sci fi stuff...you can wing it and make it look hyper light speed-some of the sun ray stencils are good for that or just take a ruler and draw broken lines on both sides of a center and rotate it.
I checked (or at least thought I did) SCS yesterday or maybe Sunday and didn't see any of these responses. Thank you to everyone for all your great ideas. I just went through a couple and can't wait to see the rest. I feel a spending spree coming on this evening! Thank you again. Jill
I have some SU dsp that I like to use for masculine cards. Stripes and plaids are very gender neutral; the colors might take you one way or another.
As others have mentioned, nature stamps are a fabulous option. Unity Stamps has a lot of options with cars, pets, etc. I also have a fun retired SU set with a city skyline (Everyday Hero) which I have used for family and friends who live in the big city. In fact, a friend of mine
is being sworn in tonight as our new Mayor, so I plan on using it for a card for him...I better get going on that. ;)
Love the various new sites listed here. My budget can't handle it all, but a girl can dream, right?
__________________ Kim in Illinois, Dirty Dozen Alum, QFTD#207, FS798, VSN Moderator "Famous Last Words" Spring Virtual Stamp Night, April 19 & 20
You might also take a look at Divinity Designs LLC (formerly Our Daily Bread designs). They have a huge selection of guy stamps, papers, and dies. This month's release has masculine stamps, dies, and two paper pads. Also on their website is Artistic Outpost which has vintage sets....also masculine. Otherwise, Stampin Up is a go-to. If you are looking for ideas, go to the home page here at SCS, click on "New Additions to Galleries" then type in the word "masculine" in the search bar on the left. Any projects uploaded with masculine as a keyword will show up.
I am having a tough time finding stamps and/or dies for making cards for men. I have some fishing things and a few animals but nothing that l haven't used over and over. Most things I see are whimsical and that's not what I want. Any ideas out there? Thanks, Jill
Don't limit yourself to sports. Try masculine elements like faux leather, faux metal, plaid designs, etc. I made a faux denim pocket and put a pull out tag in the pocket that contained a sentiment. One of the guys favorite cards I make are silver embossed elements that look like metal. I make at least a dozen masculine cards for the guys at work every year. They really look forward to receiving them. I've even taken brown paper, spritzed it with water and wadded it up. When you unwad it, it looks like leather. You can also use Kraftex (paper and cloth material) to make elements for your cards. I've even embossed it and distressed it. It looks like leather. I put different pattern (masculine) paper strips with dovetail ends in different sizes arranged on a card with a cut out sentiment like "Happy Fathers Day" raised up on pop dots. There other stamps you can use like barbeque items, camping, nature (trees, animals, etc) or cars and motorcycles. Even if your guy doesn't do those things, it's still masculine. Even washi tape background is cool. I think we all try to over think masculine cards. Keep it simple. Guys usually don't like too much stuff on their cards. My husband loved the anniversary card I gave him recently that was a pop out card. He loves surprises and so does my grown son who got a pop out card for his birthday. I hope this helps you.
If you like masculine stamps with scripture we have one that comes to mind called A Godly Man. There's a die to go with it, too. You can find more Stamp Simply stamps in our Masculine Category.
Angella, yes, Sweet & Sassy has lovely stamps, but I was referring to my stamps, Stamp Simply Clear Stamps. The stamp I added and the link is for Stamp Simply. We do a lot of Christian based, scripture stamps.
stamps/dies for men's cards
